Virtualism.

Raven has posted the idea that the type of art some of us do (those that aren't busy making poor reproductions of RL) could or should be called Virtualism.

This idea has been generally warmly greeted by most as a good idea, various blogs and associated comments seeing it as a pretty good name.

I like that it is concise and unpretentious.

A name can help to group a number of disparate efforts into a 'movement', which is what I see Virtualist Art as being.

I have long hated the term Immersive because... there is no Non-Immersive art, i.e. all art wants to draw the viewer/listener into the piece and involve them emotionally.... there are no non-immersive sims in VW's...so .....why call something immersive?

Virtualism, however, would obviously imply an art form rather than a method of reproducing RL in digital form, in a world where bits/bytes replace atoms.

It has certainly provoked some discussion and is symptomatic of the 'coming of age' process of any movement or culture that it becomes self aware and calls itself by a name. The success or failure of a name is the degree to which it sticks, i.e. how many of us will say, now...I am a Virtualist.

:))