Consciousness, Action and Designed Virtual Space: linking information technology, the mind and human creativity

The interplay between consciousness, reasoning, creativity and action is reconsidered in the light of what is now possible with Virtual Reality (VR) technology. I suggest that there are three domains for the design of VR interaction: VR as pure bodily experience, VR as one or more embodiments of abstract knowledge, and VR as a link between the bodily and the abstract in the human participant. Including the third domain allows VRs to be designed with the express purpose of supporting cognition and creativity through virtual spatial action and experience. Creative VR environments can open up areas of the unconscious previously available only spasmodically; in dreams, in myths, and in other moments of insight. Such environments thus make conscious that which was formerly mostly unconscious. On the other hand, VR environments also make unconscious that which was conscious the abstract reasoning activities that are replaced by concrete action in virtual spaces. VR thus shifts and broadens the focus of consciousness, and makes conscious capacity available for more creative insights into whatever interests us.