In a former post, we discovered the motivation behind making audiovisual digital experiences. In this article, we are going to focus on entertainment experiences and learn what defines them.
There are two dimensions that make up an experience: interactivity and presence. Those two are often linked, but they can also exist on their own. They can also vary in intensity and most of the time rely on multiple variants of 3D technology, although they can also be made physically.
Interactivity
Interactivity refers to the level of control and active participation from a viewer that becomes a user or even a player. A video game is an example of a 3D experience alone where the audience has control without presence as it remains a “flat” rectangle screen.
Immersion
Presence is related to the feeling of being in an environment or of the presence of objects near us. Presence can occurs without control, such as a ride in a theme park or a 4D cinema experience.
Presence, as its name suggests is about the automatic feeling of seeing something that seems as real as reality itself. It is itself is driven by two visual factors: surround and depth presence.
Surrounding
Like for home sound systems, surround is about encircling the field of view of a person. A 360 video viewed through a VR headset is the perfect example of a surrounding factor alone, where you feel inside a place. Imagine the following 360 videos below, but seen in a virtual reality headset that displays automatically the correct viewpoint when moving your head (otherwise on a screen like here is just another example of interactivity).
Presence
As its name suggests, presence makes you feel as if an object or person was present right in front of you. Augmented and mixed reality through headsets and glasses typically rely on the presence factor rather than surrounding the field of view. A 3D movie is another great example of presence without surround. 3D at the cinema is achieved thanks to displaying two slightly different perspectives for each eye, enable a (static) parallax. The viewer feels the depth in front of them but they are not surrounded by the digital objects.
Immersion summary
Visual immersion can therefore be achieved through surrounding a person’s field of view or by presenting depth and presence in front of them. If it is important to make the distinction between the two of them, they can, and often do, co-exist together, such as 360 3D videos viewed in a VR headset or some 4D rides at theme parks. Such a combination results in a very powerful multi-sensory feeling of immersion.
Replicating Reality
Immersion is different from control/interactivity from the audience. Enabling strong participation with an agency from the audience is different from making a world look merely present, real, and tangible. So why are those often confused? Because they both get closer to real life, and real life is, in essence, complete and always giving both control and immersion to the people inhabiting reality. This si just how reality is.
Combining interactivity and presence
Virtual Reality games in headsest are the ultimate experiences that give interactivity and immersion together relying on 3D virtual worlds.
But 3D technology isn’t always necessary to achieve such experiences. An escape room would be a great example of an experience that makes the audience actively participate, as well as putting them into a real immersive environment. And all is done without using any 3D tech. Some participative immersive theater pieces are another example.
Conclusion
There are multiple building blocks we can use to make an art experience for an audience. Some will aim for sole interactivity in order to involve the audience. Others will aim for sole immersion and laid-back entertainment. Some will aim for simultaneous interactivity and immersion, replicating the experience of reality.
In the next article, you will learn how to choose among all those ingredients to conceptualize an actual art experience.
Pingback: Why vivid and immersive digital experiences? - BenPerrin