Exploring Immersion with Ed Rodley

Subscribe to the Cohere Podcast: Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music | Spotify Podcasts

As digital experiences become more ubiquitous, we need a more nuanced understanding of immersion.

On this episode of the Cohere podcast, Bill Johnston and Dr. Lauren Vargas chat with cultural professional Ed Rodley about innovative experience design. Ed shares how his experience as a museum technologist has prepared him to explore and challenge the concept of ‘immersion’.

This season, we are identifying the critical mindsets, skill sets, and toolsets community professionals need to hone for the next iteration of the Internet. Ed introduces the concepts of the ‘magic circle’ and ‘story worlds’ to illustrate ‘immersion’ is not a one-size-fits-all experience.  

Key Quotes:

“In terms of digital experiences in community building, agency is the next step in the engagement ladder that starts with immersion ... The transition from agency to absorption is really just an expression of people being able to use their agency productively.”

— Ed Rodley

Purposeful Immersion
“Oftentimes people will bail on an experience. And that, that is one of the challenging things about talking about immersion, because as an end, it's not much of an end. Like, what is the payoff? Which is also a lot of the commentary that you see happening, particularly with a lot of these commercial ‘immersive experiences.’ They do the immersive part. Great. But then there's nothing to follow it up.”

Inhabiting a Storyworld
“The difference about thinking about a storyworld that you want people to inhabit is a pretty big stretch from people who are used to starting with something very concrete, like a collection of objects and expanding it out. What you're really talking about is building a web of relationships between people and in that case, the objects really aren't even that important, except to the extent that they connect people to each other.”

The Concept of the Magic Circle
“So the power of the magic circle as a concept is pretty amazing because if you know them, you can get people to do almost anything if you are able to give them the assurance that they understand what the rules are.”

Resources from this episode:

Find Ed online:

• The Experience Alchemists

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/erodley/

• https://twitter.com/erodley

• Blog: Thinking About Museums

• https://extension.harvard.edu/faculty/edward-rodley/

General resources mentioned in this episode:

• Defining “Engagement”

• Unpacking Our Understanding of Immersion

• Opportunities for Collaboration: Building Storyworlds

• Playing with the Past Part Two: Magic Circles and Interaction Labs 

• VR Storytelling – The Harrowing Immigrant Experience at LACMA

Books / articles mentioned in this episode:

• ‘Museum technology keynote - words from ICOM 2022 Prague’ by Seb Chan

• ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell’ by Susanna Clarke

• ‘Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture’ by Johan Huizinga

• ‘Hamlet on the Holodeck, Updated Edition: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace’ by Janet H. Murray

• ‘Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals’ by Katie Salen Tekinbas and Eric Zimmerman

1. ‘Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation’ by Mark J.P. Wolf