This book offers a wide-ranging examination of acts of 'virtual
embodiment' in performance/gaming/applied contexts that abstract an
immersant's sense of physical selfhood by instating a virtual body,
body-part or computer-generated avatar. Emergent 'immersive' practices
in an increasingly expanding and cross-disciplinary field are coinciding
with a wealth of new scientific knowledge in body-ownership and
self-attribution. A growing understanding of the way a body constructs
its sense of selfhood is intersecting with the historically persistent
desire to make an onto-relational link between the body that 'knows' an
experience and bodies that cannot know without occupying their unique
point of view. The author argues that the desire to empathize with
another's ineffable bodily experiences is finding new expression in
contexts of particular urgency. For example, patients wishing to
communicate their complex physical experiences to their extended
networks of support in healthcare, or communities placing policymakers
'inside' vulnerable, marginalized or disenfranchised virtual bodies in
an attempt to prompt personal change. This book is intended for
students, academics and practitioner-researchers studying or working in
the related fields of immersive theatre/art-making, arts-science and VR
in applied performance practices.