VIRTUAL (REALITY) LANDSCAPES. From Panorama to Immersive Digital Places

This article explores the concept of virtual landscapes as immersive digital representations, tracingthe evolution of landscape depictions from traditional framed panoramas and stereoscopic devicesto contemporary Virtual Reality (VR) environments. It emphasises the shift from static visualrepresentations to interactive and multi-sensory experiences. The philosophical implications offraming and immersiveness are examined, highlighting how VR dissolves traditional boundariesbetween viewer and image, transforming landscapes into dynamic, participatory spaces wheretechnological immersion meets aesthetic appreciation and operativity. Case studies includeULTRA’s L’inganno dei sensi, which presents a VR adaptation of the Mesdag Panorama; DanielSteegmann Mangrané’s Phantom, a digital recreation of the endangered Brazilian Mata Atlánticarainforest; and Patricia Liras’ Remember This Place, which documents displaced Bedouincommunities through immersive storytelling. These examples reveal how VR reshapes the role oflandscape as a cultural medium.