26 Mar New Research Section in Immerse!
In this issue of Immerse, we launch Immerse’s new research section! It will feature academic and artistic research on immersive media. We’ll include case studies from our new research collaboration with the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA) (see this issue for the first one by ODL fellow Shirin Anlen about her project, “I’ve Always Been Jealous of Other People’s Families” ), posts from and about our soon-to-be-published co-creation study, Collective Wisdom, and research from other universities studying immersive media such as University of Bristol and UCLA.
In this issue, we also launch Immerse’s editor, Jessica Clark’s inaugural column: Interface Everywhere. Each month she’ll be exploring the implications of storytelling at the cusp of the physical and the digital and offer her own take on not just uses but abuses of emerging platforms.
And producer Ingrid Kopp continues her own column, Beacon, with a look at thinking through practice, really extreme immersion, VR podcasting and more.
You can view the entire issue here, but keep reading for a closer look into our feature piece.
“Creating shared experiences that imagine pathways towards a preferred future”—that’s what Julia Scott-Stevenson argues it’s good for in Immerse’s feature piece, a “Manifesto for Immersive Experiences.” She draws from interviews with practitioners and a review of several projects to offer five directives: Stage an encounter, be wild, move from being to doing, embody the future, and care.
Sanctuaries of Silence
Julia writes, “Some creators use the technology to visit someone or something lost or past (see, for instance, Vestige VR, or historical pieces such as Immersive Histories: Dam Busters). Others use the technology to venture inside another’s mind (Manic VR). Some explore future worlds (Biidaaban: First Light), or visit remote places that demonstrate the impacts of the anthropocene (Sanctuaries of Silence). Many future narratives, though, across multiple screen media forms, tend to be dystopian in flavour. Instead, I’m interested in what might be termed “preferred” futures — what is a future we want to get to? What is the world we want to make?”
Feel free to head to the Immerse website to read the other articles featured in our newest issue, including “Doing Inclusion, Making a Strong VR Film” by ODL researcher Sam Mendez, “The Body in the Machine” by ODL researcher Josefina Buschmann, and “Field Notes” by ODL Director Sarah Wolozin.