Experiential Challenges of and Opportunities for Applying Immersive Technologies with Storytelling

This paper discusses boundaries of immersive technologies applied for storytelling by exploring the experiential differences between sensory/technological and mental/narrative immersions as distinct cognitive states. While storytelling, as a reproduction of narratives, can be immersive in itself, the way immersive technologies are afforded by users can be better described in terms of the sense of presence. Understanding differences between immersions is necessary because sensory and mental immersions can contradict each other as they rely on different sides of cognition to gain experiences. Their differentiation can help to better incorporate storytelling with immersive technologies or virtual simulations, as well as to study its effects (e.g., in terms of empathy) and factors that contribute to it.