Theoretical Study of Immersion in Object-oriented Ontology and Posthumanism

The article is devoted to a critical examination of the theoretical approaches of object-oriented ontology, posthumanism and vitalism to the phenomenon of immersion. Contemporary culture is shown to use immersion (multisensory experience of a receptive agent in a perceived environment) to build cognitive, communicative and aesthetic processes. The purpose of the article is a comparative critical examination of the attitudes of a number of theoretical approaches of the XXI, based on the criticism of anthropocentrism, in relation to immersivity as the dominant cognitive style. The task of such a consideration is to search for similarities and differences in relation to the properties and principles of immersivity as a kind of body-oriented approach to a person's contact with the world. In addition, a search was carried out for the basic characteristics of immersion as one of the central practices of contemporary culture. Particular attention is paid to the new ecological environmental paradigm, which denotes a turn from an anthropocentric model of culture to a posthumanistic perspective, which includes a new character of human integration into the world based on an environmental approach that takes into account the parity of various acting forces in a new post-anthropological perspective. In addition to object-oriented and post-anthropological concepts, the article touches upon the problems of new animism and materialism, emphasizes the importance of the activity of the environment, which determines the parameters of attunement of a person, understood as a cognitive agent, and the surrounding world. As a result, the article shows the similarity of theoretical attitudes regarding the concept of immersion of immaterialism by G. Harman, the theory of hyperobjects by T. Morton, agent-based realism by K. Barad, posthumanism by D. Haraway and the new vitalism by J. Bennett. The article demonstrates that object-oriented ontology, posthumanism and new materialism of the vitalist type bring new positions in the understanding of the phenomenon of immersion. What they have in common is an emphasis on environmental multisensory experience, its performative and affective nature, the idea of non-articulation of the environment, and a rejection of the paradigm of human exclusivity. The main conclusion of the article: in relation to epistemological attitudes, bodily practices and artistic processes, we can talk about the formation in contemporary culture of a specific “immersive style” based on a multisensory environmental approach to perception.

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