IMMERSION, ENGAGEMENT, AND PRESENCE
Alison McMahan
Video games have moved away from the 2D isometric graphics to 3D first person view, allowing viewers to actively engage themselves in the scenarios as an escape from reality.
Video game have been evolving, adapting 3D visuals, especially those in time-based narrative forms so that players could get more engaged in the narrative. According to scholars photo- and audiorealism is not necessary for total immersion in the virtual environment. Although the massive screen, surround sound system could be fulfilled with VR, immersion is not fully dependent on physical aspect technology but the correspondence between viewer's expectation and the environmental conventions, their action must not be trivial to the surroundings and it has to be consistent. "Presence" is closely related to the term "immersion", which refers to viewers being transported to the media user's environment. Psychological immersion is equally important for a total immersion, emotions such as fear and phobia could increase the sense of realism of the virtual world. Simulation, Interaction, Artificiality, Immersion, Telepresence, Full-Body Immersion, and Networked Communications are all essential elements that define virtual reality.
Marie-Laure Ryan - “we experience what is made of information as being material”
This paper uncovers various aspects of immersion in the virtual world, not just games as it applies to all forms of virtual art, including augmented and virtual reality. Psychological and emotional emotional immersion is often neglected in many writings about immersion in virtual art yet it is arguably the main factor that deceives the viewers' senses, creating a sense of realism.
McMahan, A. (2003) ‘Immersion, Engagement, and Presence: A Method for Analyzing 3-D Video Games’, The Video Game, Theory Reader Mark J.P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, editors. New York, NY, US: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, April 11 [Online]. Available at: https://alisonmcmahan.com/
sites/default/files/pdfs/papers/ch3-McMahanrev.pdf (Accessed: 12 November 2018).
IMMERSION REVISITED: A REVIEW OF EXISTING DEFINITIONS OF IMMERSION AND THEIR RELATION TO DIFFERENT THEORIES OF PRESENCE
Niels Christian Nilsson, Rolf Nordahl and Stefania Serafin
This paper studies the definitions of immersion within the study of video games, virtual reality and literary fiction.
Immersion could be categorized as a property of a technological system or subjective experiences.
According to Witmer and Singer (1998), experiential immersion could be influences by the following factors: (a) the extent to which the user is isolated from the external physical environment, (b) the sense of self-inclusion within the mediated environment, and (c) egocentric motion perception and the ability to interact naturally with the environment. Mental imagery and narratives create the illusion of being "there", the sense of presence in the virtual environment. Emotional and intellectual stimuli are significant in enhancing immersion. System immersion on the other hand refers to the principal factor determining if presence is experienced, while narrative and challenged based immersion are determined by the experience of intensity and attention in the virtual realm. The varying perspectives of immersion is beneficial for future works working with the conceptualization of presence and immersion.
The paper reviews different perspectives on the term immersion and presence, including theories and studies conducted by scholars, compare and contrasting existing and newer ideas on assessing system immersion and subjective experience.
Nilsson, N. C., Nordahl, R. and Serafin, S. (2016) ‘IMMERSION REVISITED: A REVIEW OF EXISTING DEFINITIONS OF IMMERSION AND THEIR RELATION TO DIFFERENT THEORIES OF PRESENCE’, Human Technology, Volume 12(2), 108 134, November [Online]. Available at: https://jyx.jyu.fi/bit
stream/handle/123456789/52083/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201611174652.pdf?sequence=1 (Accessed: 24 November 2018).
SPATIAL IMMERSION VERSUS EMOTIONAL IMMERSION, WHICH IS MORE IMMERSIVE?
Chenyan Zhang, Andrew Perkis, Sebastian Arndt
The study conducted measured two different forms of immersion, namely "spatial immersion" and "emotional immersion"
Immersion is a phenomenon that involves perception, attention and emotion which could be categorized as spatial and emotional immersion.Spatial immersion indicates immersion stimulated by the spacial qualities of the virtual environment which creates illusory experiences. On the other hand, emotional immersion refers to immersion when viewers become emotionally absorbed by the narrative content, while it does not create the impression of being "physically present", viewers are able to emotionally empathize with the narrative content, thus being psychologically engaged in said works. The authors decided to measure spatial and emotional immersion which have only been conceptually discussed through surveys and proved their hypothesis that emotional immersion is more immersive than spatial immersion. Through the study, it is also found that there are correlation to certain variables such as [a] gender, females tend to prefer emotional immersion while the results for male participants are quite dispersed; [b] time, despite the randomization of content, participants often prefer the second option, which could suggest time is needed for inducing immersion; [c] finally, the participants' background and demographics could influence their immersive tendencies. Although it is known that correlation does not imply causation, these findings by the researchers should not be ruled out and could be further studied in future research.
The study carried out by these three researchers Norwegian University of Science and Technology provides an insight on different methods in evaluating presence and immersion. Emotional immersion is often neglected by many studies, as they often focus on the spatial immersion caused by sensory disorientation. It would be interesting to further study the psychological experience and what qualities triggers spatial or emotional immersion. It would be beneficial for the expression of art in the future if we gain a better understanding on how to better engage viewers in art.
Zhang, C., Perkis, A and Arndt, S. (2017) ‘Spatial Immersion versus Emotional Immersion, Which is More Immersive?’, Presented at the Conference: 9th International Conference on Quality of
Multimedia Experience, Erfurt, June [Online]. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
317357598_Spatial_Immersion_versus_Emotional_Immersion_Which_is_More_Immersive (Accessed: 24 November 2018).
NOT JUST SEEING, BUT ALSO FEELING ART: MID-AIR HAPTIC EXPERIENCES INTEGRATED IN A MULTISENSORY ART EXHIBITION
Chi Thanh Vi, Damien Ablart, Elia Gatti, Carlos Velasco, Marianna Obrist
This paper is a case study on research and design insights gained throughout an interdisciplinary collaboration on a six-week multisensory display – Tate Sensorium.
Museums have always tried to integrate novel ways of stimulating human senses to enhance the art experience. Through this case study, researchers aimed to identify methods in designing art experiences, taking into consideration the sense of vision, sound, touch, smell and taste with haptic technology. They hypothesized that the structures of the Tate Sensorium, Circle pattern and the Line pattern would enhance the visitors experiences. Artworks for the Tate Sensorium were carefully selected, and the sensory design are then customized accordingly with sensory augmentation of sound and movement. Three circular and line patterns was used for the haptic stimulations, namely Tate, Circle and Line to study its relation to visual liking, multisensory experience liking and arousal. The results of the study conducted with qualitative and quantitative data suggested that while the Circle pattern had the highest valence ratings and the Line pattern had the highest arousal rating, some feedback imply that the structure are too choreographed and restricts individual exploration through the space. This case study is advantages for future design of multisensory immersive and interactive museum.
This paper studies the structure of the display of art and methods to increase the immersive experience of art through additional sensory stimuli. Although the content may be more technical, it suggested suitable forms of immersion depending on each artworks and explored new experimental method of inducing emotional experience of visitors in viewing art. It is important to view the topic of immersion from different perspectives, conceptually, quantitatively and understanding the physical technical structures.
Vi, C.H., Ablart, D., Gatti, E., Velasco, C. and Obrist, M. (2017) ‘Not just seeing, but also feeling art: Mid-air haptic experiences integrated in a multisensory art exhibition’, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies; Volume 108, December 2017, Pages 1-14, June 24 [Online]. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1071581917300988 (Accessed: 25 November 2018).
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