Some thoughts, questions, and notes-to-self after participating in Immersive Arts UK’s symposium ‘The Big Thing’ in Llandudno…

At the beginning of September, I attended (as an Immersive Arts ‘Explore’ awardee) Immersive Arts UK’s conference/symposium/showcase/gathering ‘The Big Thing’. The first day began with a Unity workshop. I’m already quite familiar with Unity, and having spent the guts of my 2025 residency at DAS Belfast learning, no, mastering, no, coming to terms with, yes, Blender, also helped. However, I found the practical, to-the-point, hands-on, step-by-step approach of tutor Klaire Tanner (www.creutech.com), who led the 3-hour workshop, really helpful and inspiring. Her method was something along the lines of: create an object, choose materials and textures, light it, place it in an environment, animate it. So yeah, a great intro to the 3-day event.

Did I say the event was in Llandudno? I’ve never really been to a British Victorian seaside town before. What I saw there had somehow already existed in my imagination; a composite of references like Brighton Rock (the book and the film); Quadrophenia; a pier in Sopot, Poland; a shiver-inducing ghost story short film starring John Hurt called Whistle and I’ll Come to You; childhood memories of Bray Co. Dublin, itself in many ways an Irish simulacrum of the original: the ‘amusements’, the stony beach, sticks of rock, the headland; even Morrissey’s Every Day is Like Sunday came to mind. That last reference, however, does Llandudno a huge disservice (as does possibly connecting anything with the man these days) as the town is in not in any way ‘the coastal town that they forgot to close down’ but instead thriving. Yes, there was a pier, seagulls, fish-and-chips, a big wheel, and a Punch & Judy puppet show, but there were also young DJs, trendy coffee shops, and loads of local Welsh talent both attending and leading talks and workshops.

This account is already staring to feel bloated, so I’ll reduce the rest to a series of bullet points:

Reflections, realisations and questions:

• The conference felt really inclusive and diverse, more so than any other event I have attended. This was across the board: from attendees, to presenters, to those showcasing work; and was also apparent in the cultural, racial, age, gender, sexual orientation and disability mix of the participants. Let me add, if not already obvious, that I felt this was a brilliant thing. I found myself wondering if this was due to: (a) me simply being in a lager and more ethnically diverse country; (b) the careful attention paid by the organisers to ensure this was the case; or (c) something intrinsic to immersive art itself, in the sense that virtual, immersive environments can perhaps more easily lend themselves to the creation of virtual safe and diverse spaces (I know I need to do more thinking on this; this last point also ignores socio-economic factors and access). Overall, I reckon it was a combination of (a), (b) and (c), with more weight on (b) the organisers – all the way through the three days, for example, there was audio describing, captions, and bi-lingual texts.

Even the bullet points are becoming bloated; let me try again:

• Immersive arts showcase: I enjoyed some works in the lower funding categories as much as those in higher funding bands. Two caveats: (i) my views are entirely subjective – some works simply resonated with me more than others, and that was regardless of the amount of funding received; and (ii) in some cases, only a small part of a larger work was available to experience, or it was a work in progress. 
• Immersive is not only VR and MR and AR. Immersive can also be sound, it can also utilise interfaces that are not headsets, it can involve little to no technology at all. I learned this from she showcases and the performances. 
• Is immersive a genre? How to engage with it critically? Should awareness of the complexity involved in creating immersive works be considered when critically appraising immersive pieces? Or should we judge them on what we experience alone? Studying history of art has enhanced my enjoyment of the ‘old masters’, so I sit somewhere in the middle of these questions.

To do: 

• Subscribe to Kent Bye’s ‘Voices of VR’ podcast and read more about his ‘elemental design framework’.
• Check out Mel Slater’s ‘plausibility illusion’ – I cannot remember what this note was about!
• Look at Venice Immersive – read up on what was shown and what won awards. Have to admit that I did not know this event existed before Wales…
• Stay in touch with the lovely people I met.
• Check out Quinns Smith’s YouTube channels. Quinns spoke a lot about LARPs (Live Action Role Play games), and silos within immersive arts, which he considers part of a wider field that he summed up as ‘play’. Experiencing his lecture felt a bit like being given out to. For example, on multiple occasions, he took quick polls of the audience, e.g. ‘how many people have heard of X?’ to which his responses included ‘only 3!?’ or ‘no one!?’ However, even if I would rather sacrifice a finger or toe than attend a 3-day LARP in a château in Belgium, his polling served to emphasise the point he was making about silos within play, i.e. from video games to playground games, play-by-post, escape rooms, card games, doll houses, immersive arts, board games, tabletop RPGs, dice games, interactive theatre, alternate reality games, sports, wargaming, drinking games, parlour games, cheese rolling, folk games, and indigenous games. He also exposed the deeply exploitative and careless tactics employed by Roblox, of which I had no idea, and became visibly emotional when doing so. So yes, my to-do note stands: check out Quinns Smith’s YouTube channels.

That is probably enough for now! Here are some photos (btw I saw seal pups on Little Orme but my photos weren’t good enough):