What Does Immersive Mean?

‘Immersive’ is everywhere, but what do we really mean when we use the word?

It’s a phrase gathering momentum: in funding calls, strategy papers, public commissions, and tech showcases. But in practice, it can mean many things to many people.

For us, it’s a field I’ve worked in for over 20 years, beginning with installations and film, later expanding into digital, animation and real-time formats. Around seven years ago, we founded SUUM Studio, where immersive design has become our core practice.

Technology plays a part. So does emotion, intention, and craft. But more than anything, we believe it’s about the audience, who the work is for and why, how it makes them feel, what it asks of them, and how it involves them.

With our Creative Scotland-funded research project The Immersive Lens, we took a pause from making immersive work to explore how others define and develop it. Across Manchester and the wider UK, we met with producers, technologists, curators, artists, and strategists to explore immersive creativity and sustainability.

Gathering practitioner perspectives

To understand how immersive work is being defined and developed in practice, we met with a cross-section of practitioners from across disciplines and scales. Each conversation followed a shared framework, exploring not only creative definitions but also questions of sustainability, technology, and participation.

Practitioners were asked to reflect on their journeys into immersive work, how they balance artistic and commercial aims, and how they involve audiences and communities in their process.

When asked the central question: what does immersive mean to you?
Their responses revealed not only different approaches, but also a collective ethos grounded in presence, empathy, and collaboration.

Supermassive UK Depot Mayfield Immersive Entertainment Experience Event July 2025 © SUUM studio

SUUM inside Triangulate at Supermassive UK Depot Mayfield Immersive Entertainment Experience Event July 2025 Image © SUUM studio

What does immersive mean to you?

“Immersive, to me, is about presence. Not just visual fidelity or flashy tech, it’s about how much of yourself is pulled into the experience.”

— Jed Ashforth, Immersive Experience Specialist, Realised Realities

“One of the threads is world-building, creating layered stories where the physical and virtual blend… to go beyond what’s humanly possible, to shift perspectives, or even create new ones.”

— Myra Appannah, Co-Director, Brightblack

“We see immersive not just as spatial, but as participatory… Immersive should be co-created with its audience.”

— Simon Wilkinson, Co-Director, Brightblack

“Immersive, for me, is about changing perception, creating environments that help people feel something differently, or see the world from another perspective.”

— Steph Clarke, Freelance Digital Producer, Steph Clarke

“For Supermassive, immersive refers to experiences that are multi-sensory and different from traditional art or entertainment forms. Our goal is to put the audience within it rather than as observing it, the art happens in the moment through collaboration between audience and creators.”

— Louis Schamroth-Green, Creative Director, Supermassive UK

“Immersive isn’t a medium, it’s a mindset. It’s about building systems that allow audiences to explore, feel, and impact the work.”

— Sam Hunt, Chief Creative Officer, AIX Live

“It’s when sound, visuals, narrative, everything is working together to pull you deeper into an idea or feeling. It’s active, not passive.”

— Anny Deery, Producer, Inner Ear UK

“Immersive work should make you feel ‘I want to be in a world, I want to be wandering around some environment that’s so wowy I’m going to think about it forever.’”

— Mark Ashmore, Future Artists

“It’s something that encompasses you as a participant, that engages several senses. You’re in a world the artist has created. It doesn’t have to involve technology; a promenade play could be immersive if it engages you more than if you’re just a spectator.”

— Isabelle Croissant, Artist Development Producer, HOME Manchester

“Immersive design is about presence, creating something so engaging that your sense of time or place shifts… it becomes feeling.”

— Charles Turtle, Technical Director, SUUM Studio

“Immersive is something that takes you from objective to active ... you enter a concept and become part of it as an experience.”

— Pauline McCloy-Turtle, Creative Director, SUUM Studio

Taken together, these insights form more than a collection of perspectives; they reveal a movement in practice. Immersive work is shifting from technological novelty to a way of thinking about connection, between artist and audience, between disciplines, and between digital and physical space. As the field matures, defining what immersive means becomes less about categorising outputs and more about clarifying intentions.

At SUUM Studio, we see this shift reflected in our own practice. Immersion is not defined by format or by the volume of technology involved, but by the quality of connection a work enables. It is a design philosophy that asks us to consider how environments behave, how images and sound operate together, and how audiences step from observing into feeling.

Our work moves between physical and digital space, treating both as active materials for shaping perception. Across the sector, this perspective is becoming increasingly important. As immersive media evolves, its value will depend on how well it supports participation, deepens understanding and creates experiences that people can inhabit rather than simply witness.

Beyond Van Gogh, SEC, August 2024 Image © SUUM studio

Why Defining Immersive Matters

What emerged from these conversations wasn’t a single definition, but a shared recognition that immersive practice is not defined by technology, but by depth of engagement.

Whether through VR, sound, projection, or participatory design, what matters is how the work draws people in, not just around them, but into a meaningful relationship with the idea, story, or environment. As outlined by Immersive Arts UK, immersive art “uses technology to actively involve the audience, engaging multiple senses, bridging the gaps between physical and digital spaces, connecting people to each other and to their environment.”

Recent international projects add to this understanding. The AI Hokusai Report 2025 describes its virtual world as “a vessel for timeless exploration where past and future converge,” positioning immersion as cultural connection rather than pure spectacle. Similarly, initiatives such as Power to the Pixel have long shown that immersive and cross-media storytelling succeed when technology serves human narrative, not the other way round.

At the same time, critical voices remind us of the risk of immersion without engagement. As noted by The Art Newspaper, “much of immersive art encourages passivity—it happens to us rather than compels our own involvement.” Defining immersive therefore matters because it asks artists, producers, and technologists to return to purpose: what does the work do to the audience, and what does the audience do to the work?

For SUUM Studio, these questions ring true. We work at the intersection of art, technology, and storytelling, but the common thread is always transformation. The best immersive work lingers. It changes how you feel, or how you see the world.

As immersive media becomes a cultural buzzword, now is the time to anchor it in practice, people, and purpose. The risk of reducing it to novelty tech or hype is real, but so is the opportunity to shape it into something lasting, not just eye-catching, but meaningful.

Next up Blog 2: Who is immersive work really for?

Because defining immersive is only the beginning. What matters is who gets to make it, who gets to experience it, and how we build more inclusive futures, questions we’ll explore in our next post.

Coming Soon

This is the first in a new blog and vlog series sharing insights from The Immersive Lens, a Creative Scotland-funded research project by SUUM Studio.

Subscribe to SUUM NEWS or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok for more on The Immersive Lens blog series, to receive details on new drops, behind-the-scenes, and future collabs.

About The Immersive Lens

This blog is part of The Immersive Lens, a Creative Scotland–supported research project by SUUM Studio. With funding from the National Lottery through Creative Scotland’s Go See Share programme, we travelled to Manchester to explore how immersive creatives across the UK are sustaining their work, creatively, financially, and emotionally.

Over the course of the project, we engaged with more than 20 practitioners working at the intersection of immersive arts, technology, design, and storytelling. We visited exhibitions, attended public and industry events, and held in-depth interviews with artists, technologists, curators, producers, and strategists shaping the future of immersive practice.

What we heard, and what we saw, is shaping this blog and vlog series. Each post will share insights, provocations, and reflections drawn from our field research, in the hope that they’ll support others navigating this evolving landscape.

The Immersive Lens was supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.

Image credits:

Header image - Sculpture by Supermassive UK Depot Mayfield, Manchester 2025

Image 1 - SUUM inside Triangulate at Supermassive UK Depot Mayfield Immersive Entertainment Experience Event July 2025
Image 2 - Beyond Van Gogh, SEC, August 2024
Image 3 - Those Who Hold Up The Sky, Brightblack and Fusion Factory, Artist Talk, Aviva Studios, March 2025

Footer image - Beyond Van Gogh, SEC, August 2024

All images © SUUM studio unless otherwise stated