Realiteetti

Realiteetti is a term used in contemporary philosophy and media theory to denote a condition in which the boundaries between the real world and mediated representations become porous. The term, drawing on the Finnish word for reality, has been employed by scholars and artists to analyze how digital technologies, social media, and immersive environments shape experiences of space, time, and identity.

Origins and usage of the concept are diffuse rather than tied to a single author. It emerged in late 1990s Nordic critical discourse and has since appeared across discussions of virtual reality, augmented reality, and postdigital art. Realiteetti is intended as a framework for examining how audiences co-create realities through interactions with screens, algorithms, and institutions, rather than as a fixed theory with a single linear lineage.

Core ideas associated with Realiteetti emphasize relationality and process. It argues that “reality” is performed and negotiated in practice, not simply observed. The concept highlights how hardware, software, physical environments, and social practices together produce perceived reality, often generating hybrid spaces where digital and physical layers interlock.

In practice, Realiteetti has informed artistic installations, cinematic narratives, and scholarly analysis. In art and film, it guides works that foreground perceptual contingency and the co-construction of meaning. In academia, it supports studies of media ecologies, platform-mediated culture, and urban digital life, offering a lens to examine how technologies reorganize everyday experience.

Reception of the term is mixed. Proponents credit its explanatory power for postdigital culture, while critics warn that its breadth can dilute focus on concrete political and material questions.