ABSTRACT
Virtual reality has a long history. At the heart of virtual reality is the concept of fusion. In 1849, the composer Richard Wagner published an essay, ‘Outline of the Artwork of the Future’, which set out a vision for a synthesis of the arts in which music, poetry and dance co-existed in a single work. Building on Wagner’s concept, in 1924 Moholy-Nagy envisaged a ‘Theater of Totality’, which is:
A kind of stage activity which will no longer permit the masses to be silent spectators, which will not only excite them inwardly but will let them take hold and participate – actually allow them to fuse with the action on the stage at the peak of cathartic ecstasy.
