Immersion Nation Podcast

How does it all come together? How does one take a multitude of moving parts; actors, and scripts, and settings, varying degrees of audience agency and assemble them into emotionally evocative experiences?  If you are the creator, the producer, the director, the writer venturing into unknown territories; the prospect of working in a medium where you are intentionally giving the audience an opportu...

“The art of immersive isn’t about the art of engagement, it isn’t about holding people’s attention... It’s about attachment. It’s about forging a connection.” -Noah You can consume or you can create. Usually, it’s one or the other. Whether you’re considering a movie, music, or a book.. You can choose what you consume, for the most part, but you can’t alter the thing while in the midst of a storyli...

What is immersive entertainment? Oh my word, does anybody know?? When someone asks you what you did Saturday night, what is the 2 second explanation? I went to see this movie, I went to dinner at x place, I went to this concert. These work because everyone knows what the movie, dinner, the concert experience is. The experience is the medium, the method of communication. You don’t have to work to c...

Now this is where things change. One small group of people, one small room, one unexpectedly vulnerable interaction at a time. And it’s not easy. It’s hard to just be present, let alone open up to strangers. And this is where Siobhan comes in. Someone who can take something serious, and turn it into laughter. Someone who can take something that is so hard to explain, a performance in a bathroom? A...

We often think of people as so individual, so removed from their context. As individuals.   But try as we might, we are.. the constantly shifting point that sits at the intersection of our internal identity and our external environment.   And if you think about the curve of human history, this fact has been the point * pause* of thousands of years of frustration. It’s a little bit of an adversaria...

The word ‘soundscape’ seems to get lobbed around haphazardly, kind of like a half deflated football picked up out of a sense of obligation around the Thanksgiving season. However, the idea of a ‘soundscape’ seems to have a bit more vigor when applied more literally to an immersive experience. Especially when the lens -or maybe more appropriately, the voicing- of an immersive experience, the origin...

This is a season of the surreal. On some certain,  inexplicable terms we find ourselves drawn to the ethereal, the supernatural, the unknown, and the misunderstood. At the intersection of all these things lies The Cutting Room Floor. The Cutting Room Floor is not a traditional haunt, no. This show lends a seasonally appropriate levity and exaggeration to the topics of regret and possession. There...

On the date of this recording, 170 years ago, Edgar Allan Poe died. It is disputed exactly how Poe died, and why. But there is a theory... Now, if you were to find yourself in manhattan 50 years ago, you might also find a group of young adults, gathered in a basement with Poe’s words eager on their lips, and a singular determination to uncover the story behind the poets death. Would you join them?...

A door has opened with the rise of immersive experience. Immersive experience can be fun, and wondrous, mind bending, but it can also aid incredible empathy in a way that very few other things can.  The privilege of escape is an escape room and an experience that uses this fact to address the real world problems of privilege and social inequity. Risa Puno, is a new york based artist that, in colla...

Why is play important? What is the value of play?  Well, today’s episode of the immersion Nation Podcast is a little bit different. This is the first in a series of mini episodes that we’re going to be releasing periodically in place of our normal interviews.  We’ve been asking guests of the Immersion Nation podcast why play matters. There are certain concepts that are intrinsic, not just to the i...

On May 18th, 2019, Ikantkoan Games founder Jessica Creane took the TED stage , under unusual circumstances, to give a talk about chaos theory. She explained that as a game designer, she takes complex systems and turns them into “playful interactive experiences”  Today, Jessica joins the show to talk about leaning into chaos in daily life, learning how to harness it, and of course how one turns a h...

On a humid August night in williamsburg brooklyn, Melinda Lauw, cofounder of the genre creating asmr experience, Whisperlodge , took the stage at new york immersive night. Melinda explained that she thought of immersive experience as a kind of wellness practice. At that moment I was sitting in the back of the room, utterly fascinated. Today melinda discusses this concept, the transformation econom...

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, sitting just off the bank of the mississippi river is The 13th Gate. A repeatedly nationally acclaimed haunted house and escape room. The founder and owner -an understated multi-medium master- Dwayne Sanburn joins the podcast to discuss the experience that has repeatedly set the bar for each of his respective categories. Opening on September 27th this year, The 13 Gate i...

Stories are trust. They create understanding and shared meaning. Stories are the fabric of culture so it is befitting that Billy Angel has carved his path through the world with his stories.  From the Netherlands, to the UK, to the co-founding of Story Works in the United States.  In this conversation Billy tells the stories of...  How he came to create an immersive tour across 60 schools by neces...

Identity is a complex topic under the best of circumstances. We are often defined by the invisible scripts we learned so long ago we forget we’re even reciting lines. The Severance Theory casts you in the role of someone contending with DID. Dissociative Identity Disorder, commonly known as multiple personality disorder.  DID is tricky to portray through narrative. Especially so in the context of...

Imagine if human touch were a felony. What would that world look like? Ben Cox of Trailblazer Productions is exploring this question in his productions of TOUCH & TOUCH: INCARNATION. Ben joins the Immersion Nation Podcast for an adventure through dystopian futures, cultural change, and the presently evolving idea of human connection.  Ben has used this dystopian backdrop to raise the question,...

 Any who have truly lost themselves in an immersive experience have glimpsed the potential of immersion as a whole. Caroline Murphy -co-founder of Incantrix production- discusses this potential, and the cause behind the air of wonder and openness that often follows audiences out the doors, after an immersive production.  Caroline seems to have a particular propensity for looking at immersive desig...

Windy City Playhouse has so much coming up, we pulled this clip out of the conversation in Episode 13 to try out a new format.  If you have not heard Ep. 13, you can check that out here: And, of course, you can DM Immersion Nation on Instagram if you have any thoughts, questions, comments, or just want to say hi. 

Amy Rubenstein is in many ways the metaphorical tip of the spear within the burgeoning world of immersive theater in Chicago. As the artistic director of Windy City Playhouse, Amy explains the path to  creating a bracingly lifelike visage of 1960’s Georgia in their recent show, Southern Gothic.  If immersive theater can be thought of as practical magic, the show Southern Gothic, can be thought of...

      Any One Thing , can be thought of as similar to the futuristic Netflix series, ‘Black Mirror’ (excluding episode 1, for any who stopped there). Subtracting a heavy portion of darkness, ‘ Any One Thing ’ (or A1T) explores the edge of what could be possible with technology, today, or in the very near future.        A1T, Co-founder, Justin Fyles joins Immersion Nation to discuss everything from...

It’s rare that you find an actor in an escape room. It’s even more rare to discover that the actor doesn’t detract from you an experience, but helps create it. Cameron and Haley, are masters of this very thing. Madame Daphne guides you through a seance in attempt to contact the ghost of Harry Houdini. While many escape rooms worship at the altar of the clock, Strange Bird laughs in the face of con...

“I’m absolutely convinced that the best way to learn is through play” Fable Studios has created a piece of Immersive storytelling that is pushing the boundaries of both technology and immersion as a creative medium; Wolves In the walls. A Virtual Reality story based on the book, Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaimen and Dave McKean. In this experience you are cast as the imaginary best friend of Lucy...

Palace games has been deemed the best escape room in the country. Based in the immersive tech capital, San Francisco they push to blur the lines between reality and fiction in their brilliantly engineered rooms. Adding to the environment, they are actually built into the San Fran palace of fine arts.  We are joined by Allie Jorde, Operations Director, and Elizabeth ‘ElizaBot’ Sonder, Production ma...

For 7 years Artistic Directors  Genevieve Gearhart, Julianne Just, and Matthew Bamberg-Johnson of the Speakeasy society have shown LA’s immersive community the evolution of an artform. With more experience than most working in the LA area, they have a unique understanding of the word ‘play’ and why it’s so important to their work. The Speakeasy Society is responsible for works like: The Kansas Col...

Description: An immersive experience based on memory and scent. Christoff Visscher has learned how to harness the link between nostalgia and our sense of smell to create emotionally resonant stories, worlds, and perspective. Through Cantrip Candles and Tales By Candlelight , he is exploring the way a candle can represent a place, rather than just a thing.  Perspective is invaluable but tricky to g...