8 The Myth of Total VR: The Metaverse

Bazin's myth of total cinema was the idea that cinema aspired to be "a total and complete representation of reality … the reconstruction of a perfect illusion of the outside world in sound, color, and relief" (2004, 19). We are arguing that in effect the corresponding myths of total AR and VR each represent variations or remediations of Bazin's myth for cinema. For AR, the myth of the mirror world envisions the complete digital reconstruction of our lived world. For VR, the myth envisions the perfect 3-D illusion of a world that may or may not resemble the one we live in.