Experiencing Immersive Media: AR, VR and Mixed Reality
Overview
Experiencing Immersive Media introduces students to core concepts and debates around cutting-edge and immersive media technologies, including Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality, and Motion and Volumetric Capture. Students experience these technologies first-hand, and also consider the role of algorithms and artificial intelligence in contemporary media art and creative industries. This unit supports students to reflect on the potential of immersive media to reframe and re-appropriate places and experiences that hold cultural significance for local, marginalised, and postcolonial communities. Students will also be equipped with knowledge and critical tools to understand the role of emerging and immersive technologies in both entertainment and creative/GLAM industries (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums). Students will develop their own immersive experience design proposal aligned with industry expectations..
Requisites
01-June-2025
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Describe the historical and contemporary development of immersive technologies from technocultural and industry perspectives
- Identify characteristics of immersive technologies from hands on interaction and experience, and articulate how they relate to audiovisual media, architecture, and interactive entertainment
- Critically reflect on the emancipatory potential of immersive technologies for marginalised individuals and communities, as well as for activism
- Discuss the role that emerging technology plays in the configuration of current and future immersive media experiences and aesthetics
- Research, conceptualise and plan strategies for immersive media projects in the entertainment and GLAM industries
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-campus Class |
2.00 | 9 weeks | 18 |
| On-campus Practical 1 |
2.00 | 7 weeks | 14 |
| On-campus Practical 2 |
2.00 | 3 weeks | 6 |
| Online Lecture (asynchronous) |
1.00 | 3 weeks | 3 |
| Specified Activities Various |
7.80 | 12 weeks | 85 |
| Unspecified Activities Independent Learning |
2.00 | 12 weeks | 24 |
| TOTAL | 150 |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Analysis | Individual | 20% | 1,2,3 |
| Design Proposal and Concept | Individual/Group | 50% | 2,4,5 |
| Final Knowledge Essay | Individual | 30% | 1,2,4 |
Content
- A brief history of immersive technologies, including digital heritage and emulation
- Defining the virtual, the real and the actual
- The mediation of space and place through immersive technologies
- Embodiment and disembodiment through immersive technologies
- Research-led immersive media design
- Hands-on experience using immersive technologies
- Immersive media and immersive technologies in museum and gallery settings
- The political economy of immersive media
- Artificial intelligence in contemporary media art and creative industries
- Designing immersive experiences
- The future of immersive entertainment
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.