Module: MCO6106-20 Immersive Media

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Matthew Freeman

Module Tutor Contact Details: m.freeman@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

This module will focus on harnessing immersive media technologies such as virtual and augmented reality as emerging forms of media communication, marketing, and inclusive audience development. The immersive industry is growing at a fast pace, with over a billion augmented reality users and 200 million virtual reality users worldwide. And in a communications setting, research tells us that audiences and consumers are far more likely to respond to advertising and promotional messages that make use of immersive technologies as part of their marketing strategy. At the same time, the likes of VR and AR have proven to offer more inclusive ways of engaging media audiences.

This module provides an understanding of the emerging role of immersive media technologies in and across the contemporary creative and cultural industries, based on the latest research and cutting-edge R&D emerging from the university’s multi-million pound innovation projects: South West Creative Technology Network, Bristol+Bath Creative R+D, and MyWorld. The module equips students to create augmented reality content, utilising open-source digital tools. Students will gain an added insight into the behaviours of immersive and creative technology audiences, learning innovative and research-informed strategies for communicating new ideas through new kinds of media.

The module partners with Immersive Promotion Design, the university’s in-house immersive marketing consultancy that supports VR and AR creatives to better communicate with their audience about the magic of immersive media.

2. Outline syllabus: 

The following topics will be considered:

• Module introduction: Defining immersive media

• Key concepts: Embodiment, presence & liminality

• VR: Film, documentary & games industries

• AR: Marketing, consumer & fashion industries

• Characterising immersive storytelling

• Understanding immersive audiences

• Imagining VR/AR for social good

• Marketing immersive technology experiences 

• Developing an immersive marketing strategy

• Building and designing AR content, using SparkAR

3. Teaching and learning activities: 

Lectures will introduce students to the latest developments in immersive media technologies across sectors of entertainment media, including film, documentary and games, as well as broader uses across consumer and fashion industries. The module enables students to define, characterise and conceptualise virtual and augmented reality technology experiences as distinct cultural forms in and of themselves, drawing on research from the fields of performance studies, theatre and art to make sense of the immersive media as forms of embodiment, presence and liminality. The module benefits from the latest research and R&D emerging from the university’s major multi-million pound projects: The South West Creative Technology Network, Bristol+Bath R+D, and MyWorld, all of which serve to push forward the uses of immersive and creative technologies in and across the region’s creative industries.

Students will pitch ideas for a small AR-led trail, which serves as an educational and/or entertainment immersive experience, using the power of immersive technology to engage an audience and communicate messages in new ways. Students will then work in groups on selected projects, collaborating together to produce a Press Pack (50%) for the experience, consisting of marketing and PR materials, as well as building a small Augmented Reality Trail (50%), learning AR design skills using SparkAR before running the trail across a university campus or elsewhere.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description:  Press Pack (2500 words equivalent)

• % Weighting: 50

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: CW

• Description:  Augmented Reality Trail (2500 words equivalent)

• % Weighting: 50