Raised in the theater scene since I was 8 years old, I revere immersive entertainment experiences that pull me into an alternate world and invite my imagination to dance in the rhythm of the orchestrated environment. 

Having retired from the theater, my diegesis-loving self actively seeks out these experiences that allow me to momentarily live and be in a different environment from my daily life.  Specifically, immersive entertainment experiences that purposefully designed a different realm in a physical space; my motion sickness has not allowed me to immerse in a virtual reality space without quickly feeling dizzy.  Examples of such experiences include teamLab Planets TOKYO, Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart, Phantom Peak’s Open-World Adventure, and Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World. 

Especially as I grow older, I find my appreciation for such experiences growing proportionately to the stresses of reality as they serve as a temporal pause on my hectic routine and serve a timely and much-needed dose of dopamine.

Often in these experiences, I find myself embodying the perfect participant that the designer had hoped for – one who has convinced herself that she is truly one with the realm; that is until a fellow participant’s phone notification jingle interrupts my figment of imagination, or uninvited thoughts about whether I had locked my door before leaving the house that morning jerks me back to reality.   

Something similar happened to me this Fall on the Soarin’ Over California ride at Disney World, Florida.  Imagine – you are soaring through the skies of California, you smell the scent of mountain wood, you feel the light breeze lightly lifting the ends of your hair, you hear the majestic surround sound, and then, you see some legs dangling down from above and within your view of the California beauty before you. 

1.  Human

As mentioned, our almost-obstreperous brain has a mind of its own and our past experiences would organically influence our perspective on future happenings.  I believe that a fully immersive experience can be achieved if any of these two conditions are met:

  a.        The experience is designed with our past experiences in full consideration.  

Having a deep understanding of how one perceives the world can allow for an intricate curation of an immersive experience for the individual.  By considering the elements that inadvertently tug on our knowledge and thoughts, a fully immersive experience can be created by designing against negative triggers and building on positive triggers.  These would also determine the physical space and spatial elements in the experience.  For example, if an individual has an aggressive reaction to tomatoes due to a near-death incident, the experience will exclude the existence of tomatoes in the realm as it would likely jolt the individual back to thinking about his reality.  On the flip side, if an individual has a positive memory of learning how to tie ropes, the experience might include a subtle interaction related to rope tying.  This would be in line with the Flow state theory where one can enter the Flow state in the experience by being absorbed in a passion activity that gears the mind.

While it is not entirely impossible to design such an intricate curation, it is naturally not practiced in the industry due to cost, production, and resource constraints and such a design would not be universally appreciated which is not financially realistic to organizations.

  b.       Neurologists have cracked the code on how to trick the mind to the level of The Matrix.  

If – or when – we can fully understand how we are neurologically wired, I believe that it will be possible to create a simulation that can temporarily trick our minds into being in another realm, such as the world of Harry Potter.  Like The Matrix, we will be able to enter and exit the realm as we decide to whilst living in the hyper-realism of the created realm – minus the evil agenda part of the movie, of course.

2.  Physical Space

Unlike my almost impractical suggestions (in the present state) in the section above, I do believe that there are methods that we can enact in a physical space to advance toward creating a fully immersive experience.  A useful guide to reference when designing experiences is the 5E Experience Design model which was first invented by Larry Keeley in 1994 and later developed further by various organizations to meet changing design needs.  The model is a handy guideline for designing the entirety of an experience from considering its physical design to the spatial elements, and can be adopted in designing events, services, or other forms of experiences. 

Much like how this model has been tweaked to accommodate various design needs, I propose a revision of the existing 5E model to achieve a fully immersive entertainment experience.  However, this revision should not be seen as a replacement of Keeley’s 5E model, but instead be considered as a complement to the model when designing immersive experiences.

The EREISE framework – Entice, Regulate, Enter, Immerse, Soak, and Exit – is designed to address the intricacies of immersive entertainment experiences, particularly due to how distractible we humans are and the complex nature of an immersive experience which in its essence, is an attempt to temporarily convince the participant of the realism of an alternate world and distract him from reality.  To ease into such a mind-boggling situation, it takes time and space for participants to acclimate to the experience, and to depart from such an experience can be disorientating and would require time and space to transition back to reality.  Hence, I created the EREISE Framework to account for these intricacies that can assist designers in advancing toward creating a fully immersive experience.

If you are interested to read more about the EREISE Framework, you can check it out here!

3.  Spatial Elements 

All of that said about the EREISE framework, how should we design for the spatial elements within the space?  Is there a guideline? 

Well, I believe that spatial elements should be intentionally designed in the context of the physical space and it should be either dependent on the Human (mentioned previously) or the specific experience of the realm.  For instance, if the experience is A Day in Mars, I would expect red rocks everywhere.  As a strong advocate for purposeful design, I believe that technology, props, and artwork should not be placed in a physical space simply for the sake of it, but to serve the intentional purpose of immersing the participant into the realm. 

So... it is technically impossible in today's world.   

But this is How I Envision Full Immersion to be Achieved in 2100.

I know you are probably still thinking about what I said about The Matrix – what? No, how? Wait, what? 

These are fair thoughts, let me paint a picture in your head; it is not as dystopic as you might have imagined it to look (I hope).

In this device, advanced technology can access and probe your memories to learn about your past experiences.  Through analyzing that data, the technology can curate an environment and activity that you can interact with and this would instinctively guide you into the Flow state in an entertainment immersive experience.  The neurotechnology that may be utilized in this machine is already in the works today to “probe the brain for information and figure out what’s in their memory or their thought patterns”. (Hamzelou, 2023) While these technologies are currently being used in various manners such as monitoring children’s attention spans or testing if criminals are lying, such technologies can also be applied to creating a fully immersive entertainment experience.  If immersive experiences do tap into such technologies in the future, there should be a seamless method for participants to leave the alternate realm when desired, just as individuals in the Flow state can snap out of it as and when.

I had half a mind to draw something similar to The Matrix, but this is not meant to be a dystopic idea nor does this speculation seek to encourage the purpose of those pods.

Although my drawing may still seem dystopian-like, I simply speculate this possibility to be a way that we can fool our brains into thinking that we are in an alternate realm.  Naturally, I foresee other ways that full immersion can occur in the future without these mind games.  With the advancement of technology, the creation of a hyper-realistic experience without probing into our brains would not be far from reality.  While technology such as virtual reality has been rapidly advancing since its formal introduction in 1987 by Jaron Lanier, such technologies have room for improvement before being able to provide a seamless experience to the user. (Virtual Reality Society, 2020) As someone who suffers from motion sickness, I genuinely look forward to the day I can experience a comfortable blend of tactility and visuals without needing to wear a Virtual Reality headset.

All in all, I do believe that immersive experiences exist in today’s world, but it is extremely difficult to achieve full immersion where our state of concentration lasts throughout the entirety of the experience.  However, with technology rapidly advancing and our understanding of how we are neurologically wired increases, we inch towards being able to create a wholly immersive experience one day; and hopefully then my doses of dopamine can last longer than 10 seconds in these experiences. 

The curse in any form of experience is that despite the planned effect of the immersion, participants can receive it differently due to their colored perceptions, degree of distractibility, and other unique qualities.  Similarly, this article is written from my perspective and opinions formed over the years of visiting theme parks and exploring unique exhibitions and experiences that the world has to offer.  

Thank you for reading till the end, if you did.  I love speaking about immersive experiences as much as I do listening about them so feel free to reach out for a coffee chat about the topic.