Vicarious Reality - Another Form of VR

Vicarious Reality – Another Form of VR

tony
January 28, 2024
Bird Photography / birds / New Zealand / news / opinion / Subantarctic / travel / Wildlife

Supplies for the expedition to the Antipodes

It sometimes seems that our modern world is riddled with acronyms. At best they are a useful shorthand and at worst throughly confusing. Some are discipline specific and don’t translate well to other usage. In the medical world PR didn’t mean Public Relations when I was at Medical School. Some things evolve with time and medically, PR has become DRE so is less confusing I suppose. I’ll leave you to Google if it doesn’t make sense!

As close as you can get to being on the Antipodes without actually being there

So what about VR. In the Nikon world it means Vibration Reduction which is great but is just another term for IS (Image Stabilisation) which can be OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation in the lens) or IBIS (In Body Image Stabilisation).

VR is also an acronym for Virtual Reality. I’m not a huge fan of Virtual Reality. I grew up with real reality and quite like parts of it. Virtual reality is interesting but I’m not too interested in created virtual spaces. Having said that I have had some really cool experiences with a virtual reality headset and 360 degree footage shot underwater. It was a very good representation of the feeling of scuba diving and I can see the value in this for people who otherwise would not be able to explore that part of our real world.

The inspiration for this blog post has been my recent experiences with Vicarious Reality. One of my favourite parts of our world are New Zealand’s Subantarctic Islands. Wild windswept worlds of tussock, megaherbs and albatrosses amongst other birds. I have been lucky to visit the area twice and love the wild beauty. Looking through my images from these visits triggers fond memories and feelings of being there. A large panorama of Campbell Island on our living room wall transports me back whenever I look at it.

These images take me right back to being in the NZ Subantarctic. I can feel the wind and hear the birds.

So what does that have to do with Vicarious Reality?

Portrait of a young Antipodean Albatross

By now you will have realised that Edin is currently working on the Antipodes Islands so is in a place I would love to be. Normally this would have me feeling delighted and excited for her but feeling quite envious and impatiently waiting to see her, hear her stories and see her images when she returns.

Not uncommon on the subantarctics – moisture in every direction

The difference though is that they have a Starlink connection to the internet despite the remote location. As a result we can be in regular contact via txt, email and even video call. I am getting txts with photos and short videos that make me feel that I am right there with her and sharing a video call with her sitting in tussock is almost like sitting there next to her. We have been in the same situation in reality a number of times before so this Vicarious Reality takes very little imagination. It is the next best thing to being there!