Immersive Design

I have been working in Europe for 2 weeks, and got a chance to add some vacation at the back end, so I went to Paris to visit a friend and see some new interesting exhibits.  My friend recommended I go to Atelier Des Lumieres (https://www.atelier-lumieres.com/en/home) which recently opened and defines its mission as “art, music, immersive, experience”. When I saw those words projected on the wall, I knew I had come to the perfect place for a IS&LT grad student fascinated in designing learning games.

The facility is a former massive iron foundry built in the early 1800’s. Its multi-level floor space has been newly re-configured for immersive digital arts experiences.  This show had several film projections.  The first was based on Van Gogh’s various paintings, from his early work in the country, to early portraits and family scenes, to his nature paintings of sunflowers and lilies to Starry Night and scenes in Paris, and his own self-portraits. What the directors did was take elements of these paintings, and separate some of them, such as the background from the foreground, and then reveal and move them all in tune to perfectly selected music.  The stars in Starry Night enlarged and spun, swirling into magical animation.  These images were projected onto the high walls and extended across the floors, so that the viewers were literally immersed and covered in the art projection.  The views on each wall varied, and the self-portraits were manipulated so they appeared to turn three-dimensionally, with Van Gogh’s eyes staring at you no matter where you were.  The fields of blue lilies would wash up from the floor, and scenes would flow across the walls and down across the floors. In all these projections, the foundry was pitch black except for what was projected on the walls and floors.

Dreamed Japan is a magical immersion into Japanese paintings that come alive across the walls and floors of the foundry.  One sequence is based on the famous painting The Great Wave of Kangawa which shows the waves appearing and moving across the walls, and come crashing onto the floor. Again, parts of the massive wave in the painting were moving separately from another so you felt caught in the power and motion of the water.  Conversely, the directors enhanced the beauty of a delicate cherry tree as you watched it gingerly lose its petals in an unseen breeze, and the petals drifted across the foundry walls, and over you.  

I noted the audience ranged from ages 4 and up, and when these film projections were running, there was complete silence and engagement. Everyone was in the flow as they were completely immersed visually, auditorily and even physically covered in the art, therefore becoming part of the art.  To me, this is an example of the type of immersion that game designers wish for their players.  Designers could take a cue here to put detail and quality in the design of the game landscape, environment and tools to make them detailed and rich, and to think of different ways they can appear, and be used. Also, designers must carefully select not just sound effects, but emotive music that captures the themes and action of the storyline and enhances the player’s emotions, and therefore engagement.  Lastly, by embedding and weaving the learning elements within well-chosen game mechanics, just as the elements of Van Gogh’s paintings blended and moved among each other, illuminating their relationship between each other, then the player can more engagingly become immersed in the learning environment.

And a bonus…while being covered in stars from Van Gogh’s Starry Night, I got a breakthrough on how to implement some elements from the experience into a learning game I am designing.

Dreamed Japan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF6R09vpBMo

Van Gogh Exhibit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIc_533Uf54

Review of Atelier des Lumieres: https://bonjourparis.com/art/the-atelier-des-lumieres-makes-a-splash-in-paris/