Publication: Virtual Reality and Reading Cities: GPS-based Applications as a New Form of Literary Tourism
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2019
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Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
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Abstract
Drawing upon Westphal’s idea of the city conceived as a “mega-Book”, recent
studies in the field of Digital Humanities have shown an interest in translating real
itineraries into fictional ones, as well as in introducing imaginary spaces and characters
to our geospace. Since this interrelation between the real and fictional has become a
blurred one, new layers of meaning have been attributed to the geographical places and
their potential economic benefit when used in relation to tourist attractions. The process
of this hyper-realization, a technologically and culturally mediated experience that takes
reality to its limits, is nowadays impacting the most actual practices of cultural tourism
in Italy and beyond. Introduced by the intersection between fiction and reality and put
into practice by means of geospatial technologies, the use of advanced “interactive maps”
and GPS-based applications as means of orientation is constantly changing the concept
of literary pilgrimages and “jet-setting” tourism. The aim of this presentation is to reflect
on the intersection between actual concepts such as “reading spaces” as defined by
Westphal and Baudrillard’s “hyper-reality” that do not only endow the idea of traveling
with a different, modified character, but also tend to merge real spaces, fictional places
and virtual maps, and, thus, modify the concept of “reality” itself.
Description
Comunicación presentada en el Congreso Internacional Interdisciplinar "La ciudad: imágenes e imaginarios" celebrado en la Facultad de Humanidades, Comunicación y Documentación, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid del 12 al 15 marzo de 2018.
Keywords
Virtual Reality, Literary and Cultural Tourism, Spatial Studies, Geocriticism
Bibliographic citation
Congreso Internacional Interdisciplinar: La ciudad: imágenes e imaginarios. (2018, Getafe). Ana Mejón, Farshad Zahedi, David Conte Imbert (eds.). Getafe: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 2019, pp. 495-502