More or Less Immersive

Let’s perform a thought experiment. Imagine sitting in the back row of a conventional theatre or cinema watching a play or film. Here’s a question with an obvious answer: would anybody call this an “Immersive” show? No. 

What if you walk to the middle of the theatre? Still no and still obvious. But what if you move to the front row? Suddenly, it isn’t so clear.

Lots of people love sitting in the front row because they feel like they’re more “in” the action. In other words, they feel more immersed in the show. In this case, we mean Immersive as an intensifier, an effect of proximity which amps up the story, overwhelms our senses, raises the stakes and heightens the whole experience such that we lose ourselves completely in the story, like we’re floating. 

What if you get closer still and hop on the apron or front lip of the stage? Is this more Immersive? Yes, it is. Are you at the limit? No. You can go further.

Now imagine you’ve plucked up your courage and are standing in the middle of the stage under the same lights as the actors as they swirl around you. More immersive? You bet. All the way? Actually, yes, you’re there. 

Somewhere between the middle of the auditorium and the middle of the stage you graduated from Immersive to immersed. And where did you tick over from more Immersive to completely immersed? Once you stepped “into” the story or, to use story-teller jargon, once you stepped into the same frame as the story itself. 

Here’s what our little thought experiment has led us to observe. “Immersive”, as an emerging artform with poorly understood properties, has an interesting feature that isn’t shared by other artforms, like theatre, film or literature: it has an effect that functions by degree. It’s an effect that is recognizably “Immersive” in both partial and complete form and one can feel the Immersive Effect even if one isn’t totally immersed. Not as strongly, but it’s there.

Put another way, even if you’re only in water up to your knees, the Immersive Effect can still make you float, just not very high. But if you want to feel its full effect, you need to boldly step out of the darkened auditorium and onto the stage.

You need to enter the frame.

Funny, that…