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Towards Immersography: Considerations for an Integrated Understanding of Immersive Narrative Experiences

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Screenwriting for Virtual Reality

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Screenwriting ((PSIS))

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Abstract

The concept of immersion has come to dominate the extended reality (XR) industries, leading to a renewed interest in the concept's relevance in society. The chapter investigates the evolution of the concept and proposes a model for the analysis of the ideation stage of immersive narrative experiences, as this stage precedes screenwriting in the production workflow of an immersive experience. The concept of immersography is proposed as a way to bridge the gap between colliding epistemologies, and between theory and practice, in the field of immersive narrative experiences. This term emphasizes the narrative connotation of immersion in relation to all-encompassing virtual or in-real-life environments that share three main components: spatial experience of the narrative universe, full-body interaction with the storyworld and its elements, and the capability to generate multiple narrative journeys through interactive narrative structures.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The degrees of freedom (DoF) refer to the number of ways an object can move in 3D space. They can be three or six. Pitch, yaw, and roll are the rotational movements around the x, y, and z axes. The remaining three represent translational motion along those axes: forward or backward, left or right, and up or down.

  2. 2.

    https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-the-metaverse/.

  3. 3.

    In opposition of “text”: “text implies the act of interpretation, and thus implies the presence of an interpreter. […] A work, on the other hand, is that which has been authored; it is material, tangible […] It is the static container of the authored contents, while the text is the ever-flowing plurality of interpretive potentialities” (Jennings 2016).

  4. 4.

    https://www.oculus.com/story-studio/films/henry/.

  5. 5.

    https://www.baobabstudios.com/invasion.

  6. 6.

    https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/3432432656819712/

  7. 7.

    https://www.starwars.com/interactive/virtual-reality/vader-immortal-episode-I.

  8. 8.

    https://www.oculus.com/blog/vr-for-good-we-live-here-puts-A-face-on-homelessness/.

  9. 9.

    An interesting critique around the encircling interiority of immersion and its incarcerating consequences is presented by Wil Schrimshaw in Exit Immersion (2016), in the context of sound studies.

  10. 10.

    The implied interactor refers to Chatman’s (1980) interpretation of Wayne Booth’s “implied reader and implied author” concepts in The Rhetoric of Fiction (1983).

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  1. Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia

    María Cecilia Reyes

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  1. María Cecilia Reyes
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Correspondence to María Cecilia Reyes .

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  1. The University of South Australia, Adelaide, WA, Australia

    Kath Dooley

  2. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Alex Munt

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Reyes, M.C. (2024). Towards Immersography: Considerations for an Integrated Understanding of Immersive Narrative Experiences. In: Dooley, K., Munt, A. (eds) Screenwriting for Virtual Reality . Palgrave Studies in Screenwriting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54100-1_5

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