57230 Immersive Media

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

Description

In this subject students explore concepts of immersion in relation to historical, contemporary and emergent trends and technologies in creative media practices and industries. Students undertake practice-oriented learning and project-based work to engage critically with historical precedents for spatialised media. They examine the cultural, poetic, ethical and political aspects of contemporary immersive media works. Students work across a range of technologies and media to develop and create prototypes that focus on exploratory approaches to immersive audio-visual forms: from installations to interactive works, to stereoscopic imaging, augmented reality, 360-degree media, virtual reality and cinematic virtual reality. Students utilise media production equipment and post-production pathways to develop and prototype immersive media projects with the potential to be produced within related subjects of the degree.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject engages with the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs), which are tailored to the Graduate Attributes set for all graduates of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences:

• Remain current in media industry practice (1.1)
• Reflect critically on trends in emerging media (1.2)
• Maintain collaborative media networks (1.3)
• Analyse, develop or produce creative media projects for a range of platforms and experiences (2.3)

Teaching and learning strategies

This subject applies concepts, media design histories and innovative workflow models to develop three projects that engage with concepts and technologies in immersive media. Students develop their knowledge, technical skills and understanding through intensive modules that include in-class interactive lectures, demonstrations, hands-on production exercises, and workshops. Students receive formative feedback on the assessment tasks as a module activity. The emphasis of the teaching and learning is a mix of practice-led exercises, self-directed research and as an evolving response to immersive media forms.

Content (topics)

Ideas and techniques covered in the subject include the theory, concepts, and principles of immersion. Immersive media refers to media that attempt to emulate the physical world through the means of photographic, time based media or computer simulation, thereby creating a sense of immersion. It covers stereoscopy, 360 video, augmented, mixed and virtual realities, alongside other simulation technologies, for instance haptic. This subject introduces students to ideas and practices related to immersion and interaction, alongside organisational best practice related to developing such media.

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Stereoscopy - an introduction to immersion

Assessment task 2: 360 Video for drama or documentary

Assessment task 3: Augmented and Virtual Immersion

Minimum requirements

Attendance at all modules is essential in this subject because important information is only available through the essential workshopping and interchange of ideas with other students and the tutor. An attendance roll will be taken at each class. Students must attend a minimum equivalent of 80% of their contact hours. Students who fail to meet this attendance requirement will be refused the marking of their final assessment (see Rule 3.8).

In this subject assessment tasks are cumulative so that each task builds understanding and/or skills, informed by formative feedback. Consequently, all components of all assessments must be completed; students who do not submit all assessments will not pass the subject.

Required texts

No required references.

References

Bailenson, J., 2018. Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do, 1 edition. ed. W. W. Norton & Company, New York.

Banchoff, T., Drysdale, E., Huhtamo, E., Sutton, G., 2018. 3D: Double Vision. Prestel, Los Angeles, CA?: Munich?; New York.

Bucher, J., 2017. Storytelling for Virtual Reality: Methods and Principles for Crafting Immersive Narratives, 1 edition. ed. Routledge, New York and London.

Csathy, P.D., 2017. Media 2.0(17): An Insider’s Guide to Today’s World of Digital Media & Where It’s Going. BookBaby.

Elsaesser, T., 2016. Film History as Media Archaeology: Tracking Digital Cinema. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam.

Gallasch, K., 2003. In Repertoire: A Guide to Australian New Media Art. Australia Council for the Arts.

Gitelman, L., 2008. Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. London.

Grau, O., 2004. Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion. MIT Press.

Huhtamo, E., 2013. Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles, 1st edition. ed. The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts.

Huhtamo, E. (Ed.), 2011. Media Archaeology, First edition. ed. University of California Press, Berkeley, Calif.

Johnson, P., Pettit, D., 2012. Machinima: The Art and Practice of Virtual Filmmaking. McFarland & Company, Jefferson, N.C.

Kluitenberg, E., Zielinski, S., Sterling, B., Huhtamo, E., Carels, E., Beloff, Z., Druckery, T., Akomfrah, J., 2007. The Book of Imaginary Media: Excavating the Dream of the Ultimate Communication Medium, Pap/DVD. ed. NAi Publishers.

Murray, J.H., 1998. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. The MIT Press.

Oettermann, S., 1997. The Panorama: History of a Mass Medium. Zone Books.

Parikka, J., 2015. A Geology of Media, 1 edition. ed. Univ Of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis?; London.

Parikka, J., 2012. What is Media Archaeology?, 1 edition. ed. Polity, Cambridge.

Reutemann, J., 2016. Image Embodiment: New Perspectives of the Sensory Turn. pp. 161–181.

Rheingold, H., 1992. Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - and How It Promises to Transform Society. Simon & Schuster, New York.

Shaw, J., 1997. Jeffrey Shaw: A Users Manual, First Edition edition. ed. Cantz, Ostfildern.

Shaw, J., Weibel, P., 2003. Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary After Film, illustrated edition. ed. The MIT Press.

Sherman, W.R., Craig, A.B., 2018. Understanding Virtual Reality: Interface, Application, and Design, 2 edition. ed. Morgan Kaufmann, Cambridge, MA.

Stansberry, D., 1997. Labyrinths: The Art of Interactive Writing and Design, Content Development for New Media, 1st ed. Course Technology.

Zielinski, S., 2006. Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means, illustrated edition. ed. The MIT Press.