Eleventh International Conference on The Image

Abstract

In the Immersive Laboratory University of Malta (ILUM), as well as in the Visual Narratives Laboratory (VNLAB) of Lodz Filmschool, researchers, artists, film-makers investigate and create different kinds of immersion. Researchers from Malta and Poland will get in contact with partnering laboratories, the ICST’s ‘Immersive Lab’ (IL) at the Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland (ZHdK), the VR labs (VL) at Politecnico di Torino (VR@POLITO) and LINKS Foundation (Visual LAB) in Italy, and the Spatial Media Research Group (SMRG) at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and this will allow researchers from ILUM and VNLAB to gain insights with state-of-the-art immersive experience (IX). The IX culture connects with new audiences experiencing multimedia content at high speed. VR headsets provide an individual simulation of total immersion by delivering high-resolution audiovisual experiences. In isolation, any reference to the physical space is transposed to the online space, body, space and time awareness decreases as there isn’t any contact with any external and environmental factors. In contrast, the production of IX in a physical audiovisual environment connects us with the social experience and its collective expansion through technology. The event becomes of a shared IX with multichannel video and surround sound composition. In these venues (ILUM, VNLAB, IL, VR@POLITO, Visual LAB), we see an experience without the need for VR eyewear or headphones.