Representing imaginary spaces : fantasy, fiction, and virtuality

Abstract

In this chapter, we investigate the experience of imaginary spaces, understood as spaces that are imagined—but not believed—to exist. More precisely, we explore what a spatial experience could entail when the experienced space is only imagined or represented to exist. For this purpose, we analyze and compare the experiences of spaces that are evoked in personal fantasy, spaces that are represented in works of fiction, and spaces that are presented through interactive, digital media. The focus of this chapter will be on the latter: imaginary spaces that can be experienced through digital media such as video games. Virtual representations of space do not only mandate their users to imagine certain spaces, but also their own involvement within these spaces. As such, they give rise to fictional, spatial practices: ones that users themselves undertake, but only imaginatively so. Other than spaces entertained in fantasy or represented in fiction, virtual space representations thus permit habitation and a personal relationship with the represented space, which becomes a lived world for its users.