Communication of results

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Coming conference presentation at "Questioning immersion", University of Bergen, 2-3 June 2022

"Refiguring Empathy and Immersion in Narrative VR: Empirical Insights"by Astrid Ensslin and Maud Ceuterick
 

Abstract:
In this combined presentation, we report on the findings of a cognitive, empirical audience research project using Randall Okita’s biographical The Book of Distance (2020). Ensslin will focus on how participants experienced and discursively constructed different nuances of cognitive, affective, associative and commissive empathy in relation to individual characters on the one hand and personal and situated factors on the other. Ceuterick will, in turn, examine aspects of spatiotemporal positioning and immersion, in particular regarding audiences' perception of the spaces of experience in VR, and will build on the idea of VR as creating "transitional spaces". In our discussion, we will explore how our qualitative study confirms and refines the findings from existing empirical research on immersion, spectatorship and empathy in VR.

Prospective publication: CFP in progress

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Edited volume on the crossovers between cinema and virtual reality with the provisional title From Cinema to Virtual Reality and Back, and co-editor Kata Szita.