Against Immersion

This essay considers the distinctions between contemplation and participation as ways of relating to works of art. It compares Susan Sontag’s position—which favours contemplation—with arguments in favour of immersion from twentieth-century participatory artists including Allan Kaprow and Lygia Clark, as well as twenty-first-century producers of immersive technologies. It explores how both Sontag and proponents of immersive participation justify their positions with regard to antiquity, making the case for ways of apprehending art in the now that they see as supported by a vague classical past. In spite of their distinctions, the two positions ultimately converge, this essay argues, where absence opens up inside of immersion.