What Is “Immersive”? And Why Does The Way We Use the Term Matter?
Long past its buzzword era, “immersive” is here to stay (GUEST POST)
What is “immersive” and why is it so compelling a word? Why is every event calling itself “immersive” these days to sell tickets? How can an enthusiast find what they’re actually looking for? And why do so many things which label themselves as “fully immersive” unfortunately turn out to disappoint audience members?
Let’s start simple: with a definition, one that is deliberately broad but still useful for our purposes.
From the No Proscenium glossary, revised for 2024:
Immersive — that which meaningfully puts the audience on the same level as the primary action in a story/environment, usually physically and/or narratively.
For example: the audience is part of the world in an immersive piece, even if it is mainly as a physical obstacle.
Next, let’s rephrase this broad definition in order to ask a few questions and unpack what this definition means:
- Within a specific work, where is the primary action occurring?
- Is the audience on the same level as that primary action?
- How is the audience part of the world, either physically, narratively, or both?
- Given affirmative responses to first three questions, we can then ask: is the relationship between the audience and the primary action meaningful? How meaningful and why?
For example, in a traditionally staged play, the primary action happens, well, on a stage. The audience is not on the same level as that primary action. In this case, there is a physical divide between the primary action and the audience. The audience is (typically) not a part of the world and is (typically) not acknowledged by the story or cast.
And while the play itself may be deeply compelling or capture your full attention for a few hours or move you to tears, that’s not exactly what we’re after here. We are evaluating the relationship between the audience and the primary action in anything labeled or marketed as “immersive,” in terms of immersive as a creative practice.
(Sidebar: we are also drawing a distinction between work that is non-traditionally staged and “fully” immersive work. For example, more and more companies are creating works which are: staged as theatre in the round (where the audience is seated in a circle around the action); staged as theatre in the “surround” (with action happening all around the audience); using non-conventional venues; using cabaret staging; creating works with monologues that directly address the audience; having actors make entrances in and out of aisles; and/or putting performers on balconies or tabletops or platforms in and around the audience.)
While these projects may be worthy in and of themselves, and use elements from the immersive toolkit, they’re not really scratching at the right “itch” for audience members looking for their new favorite immersive experience. In many of these, the audience remains at a distance from the primary action — be it via a physical distance, a narrative distance, an emotional distance, or some combination of all three. But a fan of, say, Sleep No More or The Under Presents or The Willows, craves more: the sense of closeness to the action, and a sense of integration within the action, and potentially even a sense of contributing to that action.
When the audience is on the same level as the primary action in an immersive work, then we as enthusiasts and critics and creators can start to interrogate that relationship between the two as being foundational to the essence of the work itself. We can also acknowledge that this audience-action relationship fundamentally changes the dynamics of audience expectations, power, risk, safety, control, emotional impact, and more. This change is neither inherently good nor bad, just different from the status quo.
Consequently, the audience-action relationship needs to be considered from a project’s very inception and throughout its development (which makes retrofitting existing non-immersive works a challenge). Because this relationship is foundational to an immersive work, it follows that any particular immersive project can not be fully realized until the audience is present. This aspect of immersive work distinguishes it from many other forms of artistic expression. Without an audience, an immersive experience will remain incomplete because that relationship to the audience is so crucial to its being “immersive” in the first place. And a longer development and workshop/playtesting period can also allow for a deeper consideration of the diversity of the audience experience in an immersive work (see: Bottom of the Ocean, Lennox Mutual).
We will also note that this definition of “immersive” is both technology-agnostic and format-agnostic, being flexible enough to be applied to a wide variety of work. Our definition can include but is not limited to: alternate reality games; AR/MR/VR; audio-based experiences; dance-based experiences; escape rooms; experiential museums; games; haunted houses; installation art and performance; theatre (both in-person and remote); themed entertainment; and more.
Additionally, this definition encompasses experiences which are light on story or not story-based (such as Whisperlodge, some soundwalks, The Telelibrary, or teamLab’s projects) as well as those where the audience cannot change a plot or story’s resolution (such as The Nest, House of Eternal Return, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, Sleep No More, Vader Immortal, or 360 VR films). That is to say: the audience’s ability to change a plot (presuming there even is one) can be part of an immersive work but should not be considered a prerequisite.
Quoting from the No Proscenium glossary yet again:
Immersive is a quality of a given piece of work, which can be pursued across different mediums including but not limited to theatre, games, music, visual art, dance, and even cinema. A given immersive experience often mixes multiple mediums to create the total effect of the work, and immersive design calls upon creators to consider both the intended effects and unintended consequences of their plans. (Scholars are encouraged to compare to the concept of “gesamtkunstwerk.”)
And if we hold all of the above to be true, then a wealth of additional questions arise.
Within any given immersive experience, as an audience member, I may then subsequently ask:
- who I am in relation to the characters or world or story
- why I’m here in the first place
- who are the other audience members who are here with me (if any)
- what I am supposed to be doing here
- how can I engage more deeply (if I want to)
- how I can take a step back (if and when I want to)
- and if I consider my relationship to the primary action to be meaningful (and how meaningful, and meaningful in what ways)
Different immersive experiences may have more satisfactory answers to these inquiries than others, landing them all at separate (but valid points) on the immersive spectrum. (See also: the magic circle; casting the audience; alibis for interaction; and the notions of presence, agency, and embodiment)
But none of the questions above matter without first examining the relationship between the audience and the action: this relationship which connects a multitude of projects and formats; this relationship which is at the heart of what makes immersive tick, and this relationship which compels so many people to both create new works in the space and champion it to others as the future of art & entertainment.
Kathryn Yu is the Executive Editor Emeritus of No Proscenium and co-founder of The Immersive Experience Institute. She is a designer & developer based in Los Angeles bridging the worlds of UX, AR, VR, games, and immersive theatre. Her thesis game, Penrose Station, a sci-fi VR mystery about an abandoned deep sea research station, won the New Media Writing Prize Student Award. She is currently working as a gameplay designer on an unannounced VR title.
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