Immersivism: The Art of the Internet

[Marchy]

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KGPaints and I met through the VRChat rave scene after bumping into each other on social media. I was on a bit of a deep dive on the concept of the "metaverse" and immersion in digital spaces while working on a few passion projects, and we started talking more about the collision between our interests in immersive spaces. Lots of late night discussions and thought trains lead to KGPaints coining the term and concept of Immsersivism.

When we first started talking, I was a bit jaded at the current discourse around "immersion" particularly at the peak of full body tracking taking off and VR companies selling ideas that weren't fully formed just yet. VRChat, to me, wasn't always that immersive. Something about strapping a bunch of heavy devices all over your body while tethered to a 600w graphics card while praying someone didn't cheese their avatar rating to drop your frames to single digits didn't do it for me as much as other platforms. I lamented often that I've been in isometric browser-based worlds that felt more immersive to me than VR ever did. This led me to the idea that..

The Metaverse is Just the Internet

"Virtual Spaces" are unique in a lot of ways. We usually think of standard platforms, like VRChat or Second Life - but the metaverse is bigger than that. This forum, for example, is also a virtual space. Chat rooms, video calls, and websites are incorporated into the "digital plane" that exists outside of the physical world - even outside of time and space with asynchronous interactions. The only difference in most cases is the level of detail. This plays heavily into my view of Immersivism as well.

Every interaction with technology that helps us connect to someone else can serve as inspiration for works that reflect the genre of Immersivism.

To learn more about the Immersivism movement, visit their website at https://www.immersivism.com or join or Discord!