Professor Lisa Messeri’s Book In the Land of the Unreal receives honorable mention for the Fleck Prize

The Society for the Social Studies of Science has awarded Lisa Messeri’s second book, which was published last spring, the annual Fleck Prize which recognizes outstanding books in Science and Technology Studies (STS).

The citation reads: “Lisa Messeri’s In the Land of the Unreal provides a vital account of virtual reality and social fragmentation. Drawing on immersive fieldwork among progressively inclined designers in the Los Angeles VR community, the book offers a novel analysis of technologies that promise to “repair reality” and promote empathy through the fantasy of virtual embodiment. With astutely observed examples and evocative concepts including “special affect” and “technological terroir,” In the Land of the Unreal is a timely intervention into discourses of truth, fractured publics, and what it means to design technology “for good.” Messeri’s elegant and lucid prose is accessible to an interdisciplinary audience without diluting complexity. While the empirical focus is more localized and culturally embedded than some of the more planetary works under review, In the Land of the Unreal powerfully extends the field into the realm of immersive media and speculative futures. It reminds us that science and technology are not only infrastructures and policies but also stories we tell and experiences we try to feel.”