Book excerpt: A special quality about the medium of virtual reality is its immersive nature, allowing users to disengage from the physical world around them in order to fully interact with a digital environment. An Artistic Approach to Virtual Reality traces the lineage of artist/technologists who have worked with virtual reality in its infancy to the interactive virtual work of contemporary artists such as Laurie Anderson. Interlaced within a survey of artists whose works fit in the boundary of the interactive virtual medium, this book teases out what qualifies as interactive virtual artworks. The authors discuss the theories behind basic mechanics required to enter the virtual reality space and investigate theories around visual and embodied conceptual space. Key Features: · Explores theoretical and practical aspects of using virtual reality for artistic practice. · Includes examples and discussion of virtual reality artworks from award-winning artists. · Discusses topics relevant to virtual reality that are pertinent and persist throughout hardware and software changes. · Provides historical and contemporary discussion of virtual reality artistic works.