Theorising and Designing Immersive Environments Enchanting Spaces

This edited volume discusses the topic of immersion, approaching it from the perspective of various media and stakeholders: experiencers and creators. While the concept of immersion has gained widespread currency in the last decades beyond video games, its critical theory has not reached the same momentum, meaning that there is no unified way of using the term. This causes many misunderstandings and stands as an obstacle to successful expectation management processes, especially in the entertainment industry. This book presents a nuanced platform of discussion to answer the question of how immersion can manifest itself in different media, and how creators are embracing the current trends within the experience economy.

Chapter 1. Introduction (Ágnes Karolina Bakk).- Chapter 2. Phenonarratology and Cinematic Virtual Reality: A Phenomenological and Analytical Approach to Embodied Viewing and the Changing Sensory Scope (Kata Szita).- Chapter 3. New Possibilities for User Involvement in VR Documentaries (Florian Mundhenke).- Chapter 4. Whispers: The Participant Is Present (Jacek Naglowski).- Chapter 5. VR Adaptations: Faithfulness and Interaction: Interview with Mika Johnson (Ágnes Karolina Bakk).- Chapter 6. Beyond Virtual Scenography (Rebekka Sofie Bohse Meyer).- Chapter 7. Sleepwalking: Trajectories in Mixed-Reality Performances (Ágnes Karolina Bakk).- Chapter 8. Magic and Its Media: Interview with Gustav Kuhn (Ágnes Karolina Bakk).- Chapter 9. Modalities of Escaping: The Intermedial Transformations of the Escape Room Format (Ágnes Karolina Bakk).- Chapter 10. Immersive Exhibitions and Game Design as a Tool for Storytelling in Museums? (Fredrik Trella).- Chapter 11. Narrative Puzzle in a Post-industrial City (Maria Mandea).- Chapter 12. Presence is the Lingua Franca: Interview with Chris Salter (Ágnes Karolina Bakk).- Chapter 13. An Overview of On/Offboarding Best Practices Utilised in the Entertainment Sector for the Improvement of XR Location-Based Experiences (James Simpson).- Chapter 14. The Brightest Heaven of Invention: Theatre as Laboratory for Interactive Storytelling with Immersive Technology (Rebecca Rouse).- Chapter 15. re:Sounding Worlds: Configuring Space and Mixing Embodiments in Interactive Digital Audio Narratives (Lissa Holloway-Attaway).

Ágnes Karolina Bakk, PhD, Ágnes Karolina Bakk, PhD, leads the Immersion and Interaction hub at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Hungary. She researches immersive storytelling and magic science, leads projects on Metaverse relationships and VR psychological restoration, and founded the Zip-Scene conference. She teaches, speaks internationally, designs narratives for games, and co-curates the Vektor VR event.

Péter Kristóf Makai is an Assistant Professor at Kazimierz Wielki University, Poland. Péter recently finished his Crafoord Postdoctoral Fellowship at Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden. He has published work on Tolkien, games and worldbuilding. He is the Encyclopedia Chair of COST Action 18230, Interactive Narrative Design for Complexity Representations.