Immersive experiences: What? Why? How?
‘Immersion’ and ‘immersive’ are popping up everywhere these days: immersive theatre, immersive technology, immersive games, immersive experience, even immersive dining. Science centres and museums have not evaded this trend and many offer immersive activities too. ‘Immersive’ in relation to games, performances and works of art is defined as an experience “that seems to surround the player or viewer so they feel totally involved” (Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries). What does this broad definition mean to us and why are we so drawn to it? How can we make best use of immersion in our work?
Featuring immersive theatre and tech experiences, real-live games and escape rooms, as well as different perspectives from our presenters, the session will try to better define immersion, investigate how it is making its way into our practices and decide where it is heading.
Facilitator
Lecturer in Science Education
University of Southampton
Session speakers
NaturErlebnisPark Science Education Center
NaturErlebnisPark has been a partner on the Immersive Newsroom project which created an immersive theatre/video experience on the topic of misinformation and fake news. Andrea and Silvia will present the project and evaluation data gathered from participants.
NaturErlebnisPark - Science Education Center
NaturErlebnisPark has been a partner on the Immersive Newsroom project which created an immersive theatre/video experience on the topic of misinformation and fake news. Andrea and Silvia will present the project and evaluation data gathered from participants.
Lecturer in Innovative Education for Conservation
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU)
We developed an immersive experience in the form of an escape room game to instil environmentally consciousness in participants. The activity enabled players to learn in the affective domain: that animals have lives and emotions. I will share my experience the design, building and running of the activity as well data of its reception with audiences.
Director HKD (Design studio UK)
Kate will talk about "Saturated Play" which creates of overarching narratives which arc over a place or event with the aim to turn all visitors into participants. This has resulted in some town-wide immersive experiences.
Senior Audience Researcher
Desiree from the Natural History Museum, London and Beth from the Science Museum Group are working on a R&D project called Audiences of the Future which aims to develop two twin immersive experiences in the Museums using mixed-reality devices. They will talk about visitor expectations and motivations when talking about new immersive tech experiences in museums.
Audience Research and Evaluation Manager
Desiree from the Natural History Museum, London and Beth from the Science Museum Group are working on a R&D project called Audiences of the Future which aims to develop two twin immersive experiences in the Museums using mixed-reality devices. They will talk about visitor expectations and motivations when talking about new immersive tech experiences in museums.
astrimage FILM has been a partner on the Immersive Newsroom project which created an immersive theatre/video experience on the topic of misinformation and fake news. Astrid will present insights on immersion from the perspectives of the filmmaker.
