Breaking through the Screen-Window metaphor: Suspended disbelief in Mixed-Reality Media at Hatsune Miku’s Hologram Concerts

Abstract

This thesis revolves around methods to bring the virtual and actual together in one shared space. It opposes the screen-window metaphor prevalent in traditional thinking about screen media. The screen-window metaphor, popularized by Anne Friedberg, states that the screen functions as a barrier between virtual and non-virtual environments: Audiences located in the non-virtual environment can look at a screened virtual environment, but cannot be placed inside it. Friedberg also states that the screen forms an ontological cut between the actual ‘here’ and the virtual ‘there’. Mixed-Reality media have found more and more place within our contemporary media landscape through technological developments. This category includes many types of media that do not adhere to the screen-window metaphor. Hologram concerts are taken as example of introducing virtual elements into a non-virtual space. This thesis explores how the audiovisual design of hologram concerts merges virtual and actual space. In order to do so, suspended disbelief is addressed and broken apart into two relevant concepts: Presence (reduced awareness of mediation) and liveness (interpreting a performance as created in the moment). Markers for both concepts are listed and then compared to an extensive analysis of Hatsune Miku’s hologram concerts.