Frameless Experiences. For a Multidisciplinary Approach to Immersive Media

The development of perceptual and narrative environments enabled by immersive digital technologies – such as videomapping and extended realities (virtual, augmented and mixed) associated with increasingly high-performance artificial intelligence systems – has long been the basis for new media experiences in various fields: from entertainment (cinema, video games, theme parks, live events, etc.) to education and training; from cultural and scientific dissemination (documentaries, exhibitions, etc.) to experimentation in the visual and performing arts. These environments go beyond and transfigure the traditional 'framed' vision of classical art works and media screens, moving towards a synesthetic, participatory and total user experience, characterised by immediacy and presence: real environments that can be explored by users, according to the different degrees of interactivity envisaged, which can both enable the user to "immerse" himself in another world (although in a continuum with the perceptual dimensions of physical reality) and allow the digital contents to "emerge" within the physical space, integrating it with new meanings and new narratives. In the public debate, however, the diffusion of such technologies is often associated with both forms of 'hype' and 'moral panic', both animated by technocentric perspectives. Instead, there is a need to offer solid knowledge and reflection around the concept and experience of immersivity, reconstructing the roots and the cultural, social and economic paradigms that are driving the development of these new media and environments, in order to also fully grasp their potential for communication and other applications or, conversely, their limitations. This reflection can be promoted starting from the adoption of a multidisciplinary and systemic approach, able to put into historical perspective the recent technological development of the digital media immersivity paradigm.