Concepts
Hyper Immersivity or HI represents a significant evolution in the pursuit of deeper engagement between audiences, art, and technology. To fully grasp its potential and challenges, it is imperative to contextualise it within a broader historical, theoretical, and critical landscape.
The human fascination with creating immersive environments stretches far beyond the digital age. Nineteenth-century panoramic paintings, with their vast, 360-degree vistas, aimed to transport viewers to distant lands or historical battles (Oettermann, 1997). These early experiments illustrate a desire not merely to depict reality but to place the viewer within it in some way. Cinema has sought to enhance immersion through 3D technologies, surround sound, and even attempts to incorporate smell. While commercially limited, these efforts reveal an ongoing quest to enhance the sensory and emotional impact of mediated experiences (Zielinski, 2006).
The rise of interactive technologies has marked a pivotal shift. Artists like Myron Krueger pioneered responsive environments, laying the groundwork for participants to directly influence the work (Krueger, 1991). In parallel, immersive theatre practices began blurring the lines between performer and spectator, foreshadowing the more profound participant agency that characterises HI (White, 2013).
Media studies and performance theories offer valuable tools for analysing the unique ways HI shape participant experience:
· Presence, Embodiment, and Agency: Slater's concepts of ‘place illusion’ (the sensation of being in a virtual space) and ‘plausibility illusion’ (the believability of events within the experience) become particularly relevant in multisensory HI that engage the whole body (Slater, 2009). Theoretical perspectives on embodiment, such as those of Merleau-Ponty, can help elucidate how HI might alter the participant's sense of self and their relationship to the physical world (Merleau-Ponty, 2012).
· Interactivity and Narrative Transformation: Theories of digital narrative by authors like Janet Murray help illuminate how participant agency reshapes storytelling (Murray, 1997). HI moves beyond the branching pathways found in some interactive media towards emergent forms of narrative shaped in real-time by participant choices and actions. Brenda Laurel's writings on computers as theatre shed light on the performative and dramatic potential inherent within HI (Laurel, 1993).
The complex and powerful role of technology in HI has sparked critical debates and considerations:
· Authorship and Relational Aesthetics: The profound level of participant influence in HI challenges traditional notions of the artist as sole creator. Bourriaud's concept of ‘relational aesthetics’, where the artwork is the social encounter it generates, offers a relevant framework for examining HI, where co-creation with the audience becomes central (Bourriaud, 2002).
· Simulation and Hyperreality: Baudrillard's theories on simulacra and the blurring of the real and the simulated are highly applicable to HI, particularly those that seamlessly blend virtual and physical environments. Discussions about whether such experiences contribute to a culture of hyperreality raise important questions about the changing nature of our mediated world (Baudrillard, 1994).
· Technological Determinism vs. Artistic Intention: Some scholars caution against allowing the pursuit of technological spectacle to overshadow artistic depth and meaning in HI. Critical analysis that prioritises the work's conceptual intentions and its social, cultural, or emotional impact is essential as HI becomes more and more sophisticated (Couldry & Mejias, 2019)
Understanding the interplay of presence, agency, hybridity, and the transformative power of technology clarifies both the potential and the ethical complexities inherent in this emerging art form. This foundation allows for deeper analysis of specific forms of HI, their cultural significance, and the challenges and opportunities they present for redefining the very nature of artistic experience in the 21st century.