Aesthetics of immersion in interactive immersive environments: a phenomenological case study of light strings

This dissertation examines the aesthetics of immersive experience in Light Strings, an interactive immersive environment. One of prominent aspects of Interactive Art is the notion of immersion. The concept of immersion is generally defined as a viewer “forgetting” the real world outside of the virtual environment and by a sense of being in a make-believe world generated by computational hardware and software. Immersion has been explored in various disciplines (Literature, Game, Architecture, Aesthetics, etc.), but many Virtual Reality (VR) scientists and artists have actively examined the concept by focusing on creating new immersive environments that push the boundaries of new technology. This approach is often aimed at countering the disembodying tendency of virtual reality concerns. As an interactive artist and researcher, I conceive of immersion as any experience where integrated bodily, conscious, and pre-conscious states thoroughly intertwine with the world. Moreover immersion is where mind, body and environment interweave and communicate with each other inside of technically-mediated, spatially enclosed, and sensuously-interactive computational environments. Light Strings was created based on my previous art practice and research into immersion as a way to study participants’ experiences with the artwork and how meanings are co-created by artists and participants. This research exemplifies ‘Research through Art’ applied in the context of immersion for interactive art. In the participant study of Light Strings, participants were encouraged to describe the felt experiences of the installation through phenomenologically oriented research methods. This allowed the gathering of different data about participant experience, focusing on various qualities of immersion and how they were constructed and assimilated over time. As a result, an experiential model of the participants’ experiences was developed by exploring bodily, spatial, and contextual consciousness with temporal considerations. Through this research, I bring insight into the aesthetics of immersive experience in interactive immersive environments where the ideas of materiality and embodiment are at the forefront.