[Air-L] CFP "Immersive Storytelling", Special Issue, Convergence

[Sarah Martindale]

**CFP* "IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING", SPECIAL ISSUE, CONVERGENCE: THE
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH INTO NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES*

We invite submissions for a special issue of *Convergence: The
International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies*
<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/con> on the topic of *Immersive
Storytelling*.

Storytelling is central to the immersive entertainment industry in all its
astonishing variety: Alternative Reality Games (ARGs); escape rooms;
experiential art; immersive audio; Live Action Role Play (LARP); live
experiences incorporating Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR);
scare and other themed attractions; immersive interactive theatre;
transmedia and virtual experiences. The industry underpins an international
marketplace that encompasses everything from Dreamscape Immersive’s
location-based VR attractions, to Museum of Ice Cream’s multi-sensory
installations, to Punch Drunk’s immersive theatre shows; examples spread
across the USA, Singapore, Dubai and China. The global pandemic has
accelerated the pace of R&D as the power of creative minds has focused on
connecting with dispersed audiences in their own homes and locales using
technologies like streaming and mobile device applications. With this come
the challenges of retaining qualities of liveness and collective experience
when people can’t physically travel or congregate in large numbers.

At this time of experimentation, adaptation and recovery we can reflect on
the current reality of the ‘experience economy’ conceived by Pine and
Gilmore in 1998, given that immersion is a contested term and the diverse
forms listed above all have complex histories. The goal is to bring
together perspectives from the global research community across multiple
disciplines which have a stake in developing, studying and critically
interrogating immersive storytelling.

The Editors welcome contributions on any topic related to immersive
storytelling, such as:

·         *Definitional debates and histories.* This could include
taxonomies, historical background, disciplinary perspectives and
comparative analyses of existing works.

·         *Collaboration and partnership models. *This could include
examples of production practice, digitally enabled forms (including
algorithmic/automated generation) and authoring processes (including
co-creation).

·         *Platforms, tools, techniques. *This could include content
creation tools, underpinning technologies/techniques, prototype systems,
conceptual designs and strategies to scaffold user interaction.

·         *Aesthetics and new modes of experience. *This could include
emergent/hybrid creative methodologies, economic value, business model
innovation, the contexts of consumption, industries of research and
criticism, investment priorities (e.g. the UK’s £72 million Creative
Industries Sector Deal); and the impact of these on cultural policy,
professional skills and creative sector employment, especially in light of
threats to arts funding

·         *Critical approaches to immersive storytelling. *This could
include modes of participation (agency, liveness, presence and collective
experience) and strategies of support (funding and pricing models).

·         *Researching immersion and immersive experiences. *This could
include research histories, approaches to user testing and audience
research, and intersectional methodologies for analysing creative practice.

·         *Sites, contexts and cultures of immersive storytelling
production. *This could include issues of representation, social justice,
public attitudes, the digital divide, global variations in technology
access and usage, and the ethics of using personal data (including
unintended consequences).

We are open to a range of approaches in exploring this topic, which is
broadly conceptualised, and particularly welcome submissions that
address *immersive
storytelling practice, audiences and research in the global south*.

To submit: Please send a *500-word* abstract and a 100-word bio per author
to the guest editors at *sarah.martindale at nottingham.ac.uk*
<sarah.martindale at nottingham.ac.uk> and *jonathan.hook at york.ac.uk*
<jonathan.hook at york.ac.uk> by *15 February 2022*

Authors of accepted abstracts will be contacted in mid-*March *and invited
to submit full contributions by *15 June 2022*

Guest Editors:* Sarah Martindale* (*University of Nottingham*
<https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/>, UK) and *Jonathan Hook* (*University of
York* <https://www.york.ac.uk/>, UK)

Deadline for Abstract Submissions: *15 February 2022*

Deadline for Full Papers: *15 June 2022*

Expected date of publication: *May 2023*