[ecrea] CFP Special Issue: E-Politics of Immersion – Immersive Storytelling in Digital Ecosystems

REMINDER: CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue: E-Politics of Immersion – Immersive Storytelling in 
Digital Ecosystems

SUBMISSION DUE DATE: 15 January 2017

PUBLICATION: International Journal of E-Politics


OBJECTIVE OF THE THEMED ISSUE:

This special issue invites submissions on the E-Politics of Immersion 
with a particular interest in Immersive Storytelling in Digital 
Ecosystems. With Facebook's $2 billion acquisition of start-up company 
Oculus and its virtual reality (VR) head mounted headset-technology 
Rift, the intricate dynamics between media platforms and how they affect 
the mechanics of everyday life are about to change drastically. 
Facebook's investment in VR is part of a strategy to expand its digital 
ecosystem to full sensory technology and fully engage users through 
immersive content strategies in a mediated environment. In the age of 
massive media consumption and the digital performance of the self, of 
binge watching, selfies and transmedia narratives, immersion becomes a 
defining element for the understanding of our times. Emerging, 
interactive content strategies, in which both authors and audiences 
contribute meaning, embodiment, and emotions reframe immersive 
storytelling as a site for the production of new, alternative, and 
inclusive content ideas, where old identities and new social formations 
are contested and ‘worked out’. But what does it mean to be fully 
immersed within a narrative? Immersive storytelling has much to do with 
a feeling of presence, the ‘make-believe’ of being involved, engaged and 
attached to a mediated narrative as a psychological and physiological 
sensation. While immersion in VR technology offers the opportunity to be 
surrounded by and move and act within representional spaces, it can be 
seen as the culmination of a long history in the creation of immersive 
environments. Immersive storytelling can be found in many traditional 
approaches in cinematic, theatrical, and literary research, but 
especially interactive and transmedia storytelling, 360° videos on 
YouTube, VR based theme parks, VR animated content, drama series, and VR 
games design pose questions how immersive mediated narratives can and 
should be, in which way they influence our media consumption, and how 
they relate to immersion as a sociocultural phenomenon and the powers, 
strategies, and dynamics of digital ecosystems. We invite papers that 
explore highly innovative ideas and/or paradigm shifts in conventional 
theory and practice of immersion and immersive storytelling. The 
International Journal of E-Politics is interdisciplinary so we welcome 
any disciplinary, theoretical or methodological approach, insights on 
usage scenarios and applications, and aspects of narrative technologies 
from a large range of fields and disciplines related to immersion and 
immersive storytelling, including computational narrative, narratology, 
media studies and media production, drama and performance studies, game 
studies and games design, semiotics, interactive arts, cognitive 
science, human-computer interaction and transmedia studies. We also 
encourage original contributions that explore the issues at any level 
i.e. individual or social, national or transnational.

SUGGESTED TOPICS:

We are interested in topics that include (but are not limited to) the 
following:

* Theories and aesthetics of immersive storytelling e.g. spatial, 
narrative, social, lucid dimensions, etc.

* Poetics of Immersion e.g. immersive storytelling in digital games, 
film and television, literature, non-fiction and documentaries, social 
media platforms, journalism, as tools for learning and teaching, in 
roleplays, theatre and improvisation, live installations, museums, etc.

* Immersive Narratologies e.g. immersive storytelling in relation to 
traditional dramaturgies, interactive, multimedia, transmedia 
storytelling, etc.

* Role of user/audience in immersive storytelling e.g. audience research 
approaches, augmented and virtual reality, fandom, health concerns, etc.

* Role of author/designer in immersive storytelling e.g. script writing, 
format development, media production (360° cameras, editing software), etc.

* Methods/frameworks for testing story development and user experiences 
(case studies, post-mortems and best practice)

* Immersion and immersive storytelling as sociocultural phenomena e.g. 
Pokémon Go, Snapchat, binge watching, fandom, social media, etc.

* Immersion and immersive storytelling on digital ecosystems e.g. 
Facebook’s strategy for VR, Netflix, VR ‘console war’ (Oculus, Sony, 
HTC), etc.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

Researchers from any field of enquiry that deal with immersion and 
immersive storytelling are invited to submit papers for this themed issue.
All submissions are due by January 15, 2017.

All queries to
Christian Stiegler (christian.stiegler /at/ brunel.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(christian.stiegler /at/ brunel.ac.uk)>

Full papers to be submitted electronically,
http://www.igi-global.com/submission/manuscripts/







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