Expanding Reality I

Written in a lively and accessible style, Expanded Reality I: Makers and Dreamers of Early VR tells the remarkable story of virtual reality's origins and formative decades. Combining compelling storytelling with rigorous scholarship, the book will appeal to media scholars, practitioners, students, and anyone curious about the histories of technology, art, and digital culture.

Structured as a multi-threaded narrative, Expanded Reality I introduces a colorful international cast of scientists, engineers, artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who defined the field. Lavishly illustrated and drawing on extensive archival research—including never-before-seen materials—and in-depth interviews with VR pioneers, the book brings both familiar and overlooked stories to life.

The narrative traces VR from its earliest beginnings to the eve of its emergence into wider public consciousness in the second decade of the twenty-first century, exploring pioneering research labs, companies, artists, early applications, and the international networks that shaped its development. By looking beyond a single technological lineage, the book reveals a richer, more global history of how virtual reality came to be.

As VR becomes increasingly embedded in contemporary culture, Expanded Reality I offers a timely account of the ambitions, breakthroughs, and dreams that brought it into existence. It is both a definitive history of early VR and the first part of a larger story, which continues in Expanded Reality II: The Rebirth and Destiny of VR.