Transformational Experiences. The Role of Immersive Arts and Media in Individual and Societal Change

Edited by Federica Cavaletti and Katrin Heimann

Extended Deadline for full articles: February 15th, 2024

Characters / word count: 24.000-30.000 characters (spaces included), or 3.500-5.000 words.

If motivated by the nature of the research, word count for manuscripts destined to this issue may be extended to a maximum of 10.000 words.

 

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We live in times of humanitarian and environmental crises. The effects of climate change add to the economic, physical, and mental suffering caused by social discrimination (e.g. gender, class, and race inequalities), while ultimately not only affecting those lowest in the power structure. These crises are unlikely to be resolved with technology alone – as post-work society and similar frameworks encourage to think. Rather, a better future for all relies on systemic changes with unknown consequences for each of our individual lives and society as a whole.

Such uncertainty and related fear of loss can create reactions of fragility, additionally contributing to the problems at hand: rather than building new teams across old borders, sharing resources to create new solutions to old problems, we tend to isolate and cling to what we know and have.

Encounters with and creation of arts have been suggested as a potential remedy, offering safe spaces that allow for staying with the trouble (Haraway 2016) rather than running from it, that facilitate creative imaginations of a different future rather than manifesting the past. Spaces of transformational learning. Spaces of care. Spaces of change.

In this issue of AN-ICON. Studies in Environmental Images, we welcome any contributions investigating the role of the arts and media in these processes, focussing on immersive experiences in particular. That is, we are concentrating on art forms and media products that envelop and surround the users, including – but not limited to – virtual reality.

In fact, though much has been written on the transformative potential of art and aesthetic experience (Barrett 2010; Kokkos 2010) as well as artistic creation (Blackburn 2020; Hoggan, Simpson, Stuckey 2009; Lawrence 2005) and finally art and science collaborations (Gabrys, Yusoff 2012) in the field of transformational pedagogy, the transformational impact of immersive media and arts specifically is still in need of dedicated exploration.

One may think first of all about presence, in its various conceptualizations (e.g. Lombard et al. 2015; Schubert et al. 2001) and in its components of place illusion and plausibility illusion (Slater et al. 2022). But medium-specific interactivity, multisensoriality, avatarization, and embodiment (Seinfeld et al. 2021; Kilteni et al. 2015; Spanlang et al. 2014; Biocca 2002) deserve primary attention as well.

This issue is open to any methodological approach and specifically invites interdisciplinary collaborations. We strongly encourage contributions blending theoretical reflection (inspired to aesthetics, critical theory, or other relevant frameworks), empirical research (quantitative as well as qualitative and experiential), and action research. We consider experimentation and observation as practices of interventive power rather than neutral forms of documentation and thus particularly welcome contributions that reflect on and problematize the relation between what is studied and the methodologies involved.

Contributions might relate to the following topics:

- What are valuable current examples of immersive experiences addressing humanitarian and environmental crises? What are their strengths and limitations in initiating individual and societal change?

- What is the context sensitivity and thus the role of facilitation/curating/disseminating practices in transformational processes involving immersive arts and media?

- What is the medium-specific contribution of immersive arts and media, compared to previous or contemporary forms of expression?

- What are the precise connections between presence/interactivity/multisensoriality/ avatarization/embodiment, and individual and societal change?

- How can the transformational impact of immersive arts and media be assessed? What methodologies are best suited to do so?

- What is the relationship between transformational experiences as they are described in theory, and the way they are subjectively lived in practice?

- How can empirical research complement theoretical understanding, and vice versa, when it comes to the specific issues at stake? How can interdisciplinary collaborations be structured in this specific field?

 

References

Barrett, T., “Aesthetics, Conversations, and Social Change,” in T. Costantino, B. White, eds., Essays on Aesthetic Education for the 21st Century (Leiden: Brill, 2010), https://doi.org/10.1163/9789460911224_010

Biocca, F., “The Evolution of Interactive Media: Toward ‘Being There’ in Nonlinear Narrative Worlds,” in M.C. Green, et al., eds., Narrative impact. Social and Cognitive Foundations (Mahwah-London: Psychology Press, 2002): 97-130.

Blackburn Miller, J., “Transformative Learning and the Arts: A Literature Review,” Journal of Transformative Education 18, no. 4 (2020): 338–355, https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344620932877

Hoggan, C., Simpson, S., Stuckey, H., Creative Expression in Transformative Learning: Tools and Techniques for Educators of Adults (Malabar: Krieger Publishing Company, 2009).

Gabrys, J., Yusoff, K., “Arts, Sciences and Climate Change: Practices and Politics at the Threshold,” Science as Culture 21, no. 1 (2012): 1-24, https://doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2010.550139

Haraway, D., Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Durham-London: Duke University Press, 2016).

Kilteni, K., et al., “Over My Fake Body: Body Ownership Illusions for Studying the Multisensory Basis of Own-Body Perception,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 9 (2015): 141, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00141

Kokkos, A., “Transformative Learning Through Aesthetic Experience: Towards a Comprehensive Method,” Journal of Transformative Education 8, no. 3 (2010): 155-177, https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344610397663

Lawrence, R. L., “Knowledge Construction as Contested Terrain: Adult Learning through Artistic Expression,”, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 107 (2005): 3-11, https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.184

Lombard, M., Jones, M.T., “Defining Presence”, in M. Lombard, et al., eds., Immersed in Media. Telepresence Theory, Measurement & Technology (Cham: Springer, 2015): 13-34.

Schubert, T., et al., “The Experience of Presence: Factor Analytic Insights,” Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments 10, no. 3 (2001): 266-281, https://doi.org/10.1162/105474601300343603

Seinfeld, S., et al., “User Representations in Human-Computer Interaction,” Human-Computer Interaction 36, no. 5-6 (2021): 400-438, https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2020.1724790

Slater, M., et al., “A Separate Reality: An Update on Place Illusion and Plausibility in Virtual Reality,” Frontiers in Virtual Reality 3 (2022): 81, https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2022.914392

Spanlang, B., et al., “How to Build an Embodiment Lab: Achieving Body Representation Illusions in Virtual Reality,” Frontiers in Robotics and AI 1 (2014): 9, https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2014.00009