TIME AND MEMORY IN VIRTUAL REALITY NARRATIVES: AN ANALYSIS OF THE WORK "THE LINE"
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5433/1678-2054.2025vol45n1p140Keywords:
immersion, memory, virtual reality, The LineAbstract
This article examines the use of Virtual Reality (VR) systems to construct narratives that evoke the sensation of being transported to the past. Taking Ricardo Laganaro's award-winning VR short film, The Line, as a case study, the analysis identifies the principal elements that facilitate immersion within VR environments. The study further explores how concepts of time and memory are mobilized as strategies to create immersive experiences that situate users in alternative temporalities. The theoretical framework integrates perspectives from Halbwachs and Candau on memory, Gérard Genette's theory of narrative temporality, and contemporary scholarship on interactive fiction, immersion, and VR. The findings indicate that the immersive quality of VR narratives emerges from a synthesis of established semiotic resources-derived from literature, visual arts, and cinema-and the unique technological affordances of VR, such as three-dimensionality, panoramic vision, and interactivity. This convergence enables VR to generate compelling experiences of temporal displacement and presence.
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