Immersive media practices in the classroom: models of the teaching research nexus in an Australian context

ABSTRACT

In recent years, a new wave of virtual reality (VR) and immersive media forms have gained popularity with both viewers and creators around the globe. This article presents the argument that the emerging nature of this current wave of practices makes this a site of particular importance for research by both academics and students. We explore the nature of the teaching-research nexus around immersivemedia practices by reporting on six case studies from three Australian Universities. Academic experience is varied and complex, with avariety of Inquiry-based learning approaches in place at undergraduate and postgraduate level, spanning the areas of writing, production,post-production and spectatorship. A study of these aspects allows students to seek knowledge and new understandings of media forms, an experience that we believe is vital for the development of higher-order skills. By exploring this area, we pose the question: How canimmersive media researchers use Inquiry-based learning to conceptually engage students with emerging formats through course workdesign? Furthermore, we seek to examine how Inquiry-based learning in the context of immersive media connects to the more widely used Problem-Based Learning models that have traditionally been employed in media practice courses.

KEYWORDS:

• Immersive media
• inquiry-based learning
• VR
• media practice
• screen production

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Dr. Kath Dooley is a filmmaker and academic in the Discipline of Theatre, Screen and Immersive Media at Curtin University, Western Australia. She completed a creative Ph.D. exploring the screenwriting approaches and production methodology of contemporary French directors, with a specific focus on portrayals of the body. Kath has written a number of short and feature-length screenplays, and has directed several award-winning short films and music videos that have screened at events such the Edinburgh International Film Festival and South Australian Living Artists' festival. Her research interests include screen production methodology for traditional and immersive media, screenwriting and screen education. She co-edited The Palgrave Handbook of Screen Production published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2019.

Dr. Stuart Bender is a researcher and creative practitioner with expertise in the aesthetics and affective impact of media representations of violence, trauma, aggression. He has practical experience working with a variety of film and digital media technologies, including film, video-production, post-production, and visual effects. Currently his production work focuses on Virtual Reality production and post-production.

Dr. Gregory Ferris works across a variety of media environments, including interactive media, installation, virtual reality and traditional moving image. He was Cinematographic Designer and Post Production Supervisor of the installation project Eavesdrop, the world's first panoramic, interactive, multi-linear narrative film. He was editor, compositor and cinematographer on the pioneering ARC-funded project Conversations, the world's first 360-degree, virtual reality stereoscopic, narrative interactive. He has exhibited at the Art Gallery of NSW, The National Gallery of Victoria, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image the Australian Centre for Photography and Asterix Gallery, San Francisco. His virtual reality animation ‘Ónly at the air, only at each other', premiered at the 2017 Sydney Film Festival, before touring internationally. His live-action VR drama 'Sympathetic threads' (funded by Create NSW) premiered at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival (2018) before screening internationally. His most recent work, ‘The Falls', was the only immersive work included in the 2019 Sydney Film Festival. He graduated with a PhD from the College of Fine Arts, Sydney, Australia, in 2013, with his thesis entitled ‘Every time I leave the room: image, time and metadata in off-screen space’, and is represented in Australia by Kronenberg Wright Artist Projects.

Dr. Bettina Frankham is a practice led researcher in digital media. She has a background of industry experience that spans multiple forms of media including television, radio and web production. As a moving image practitioner she makes creative works that cross into territories of documentary, art and poetry. Her projects have screened at international media arts festivals including Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival, Stuttgart Filmwinter Festival for Expanded Media, Berlin Asia-Pacific Film Festival, the Artivist Film Festival California and Flickerfest International Short Film Festival Australia. Her research interests include art and documentary intersections, expanded documentary practice and the impact of digital culture on creative media production. She is currently exploring the role of aesthetic experience in knowledge creation and is developing an open, poetic approach to media projects that address issues of social concern. Bettina teaches in digital media arts and production in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UTS.

Dr. Alex Munt is a screenwriter/director and media-arts academic in the School Communication at UTS in Media Arts and Production. He works across feature film, artist moving image, photography and immersive media. He has a background in architecture and design. Alex's screen work has been screened and distributed in Australia and internationally including at South By Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) and the Sydney Film Festival. Alex has advised Screen Australia on Microbudget film methodology and holds expertise in the production and supervision (higher degree research) of long-form creative practice screen media projects.

Dr. Max Schleser (B.A. Hons, M.A., Ph.D.) is Senior Lecturer in Film and Television and Researcher in the Centre for Transformative Technologies (CTMT) at Swinburne University of Technology (Melbourne, Australia), Adobe Education Leader, Founder of the Mobile Innovation Network & Association (www.mina.pro) and Screening Director of the International Mobile Innovation Screening & Festival. Max's research expertise are Immersive Media and Creative Arts 4.0 with a focus on Cinematic VR and interactive filmmaking. His research explores Screen Production, Emerging Media and Smartphone Filmmaking for community engagement, creative transformation and transmedia storytelling. Max's experimental films, moving-image arts and cinematic VR projects are screened at film festivals and exhibited in galleries and museums (www.schleser.nz). His community engaged documentaries are broadcasted on TV and online (https://www.behance.net/maxschleser). Max co-edited the books Mobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones and Mobile Story Making in an Age of Smartphones, published with Palgrave MacMillan, and edited journals for Ubiquity, the Journal of Pervasive Media and the Journal of Creative Technologies. He conceptualised and conducted digital storytelling workshops for a number of city councils in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. His industry consultancy includes projects for Adobe, BBC, Nokia, Frontier Strategy and Open Lab, among other agencies and production companies.

Notes

1 An overview of the students’ work is presented on the Adobe Spark page https://spark.adobe.com/page/KYhoWFkp6zhJZ/.

2 The UTS model of learning can be accessed at https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/learning-and-teaching/uts-model-learning/what-students-learn.