Documentary and Art Photographer Elena Beregatnova is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Within the Virtual Reality’. To see Elena’s body of work, click on any image.

Today the world has been changing much faster than before. And some technologies being actively developed will modify our life beyond recognition. It’s not sufficient for us today to be only in the ordinary reality. With the help of special glasses people are able to travel, to play many roles, to be a hero without changing the physical space. On this background virtual and augmented realities are becoming integral part of modern life. Due to development of the state-of-the-art informational technologies we can imagine our nearest future right now!

According to scientists the virtual reality represents immersive and interactive imitation of realistic and imaginary mediums, some kind of illusory world human being dive into. This world is created by simulation framework forming sensory stimulus and perceiving motor responses from human in the real time. In this case the opportunity to manage the scripts is considered as the main difference between the virtual and the ordinary realities. The different scenarios and opinions will be easy available for visual presentation and for exchanging.

Today the aspiration of getting emotional feelings is transferring from the real world into the virtual one. The combination of the real and virtual worlds creates the brand new space in form, technologies and communications where people will prefer to interact with each other. It offers great unlimited opportunities for getting cognitive and psychological experience with independence from social and material status of the individual.

The growing request for new communication environment stimulates the evolution of the virtual and augmented reality technologies turning them into increasingly necessary part of life. Progressively this space becomes more and more independent in comparison with the real social interaction and strive to change it. In the future it will possibly lead to erasing the borders between virtual and ordinary worlds. Even though all the social, economic and ecological problems are becoming pros for diving deeper and deeper into virtual world does the human being exchange his habitual world to virtual one? This question is still open.