Immediate Mediality: The Notion of Immersivity beyond Transparency and Illusion

This paper aims to critically analyse of some recurring motifs within the immersivity debate. This paper’s underlying thesis is that immersivity is often reduced to a form of transparency or aesthetic illusion. One reason for this confusion is a particular ocularcentric bias, which privileges sight over the other senses and does not allow for the specific features of immersive experience. This paper is divided into two parts: the first part is a commentary on some literary references that are often used in the debate to describe immersive experience. The analysis of these references shows that immersivity is already confused with a form of illusion or transparency. The second part is a critical discussion of some theories of immersivity. In the conclusion, a possible theoretical alternative is proposed, which understands immersivity as a form of ‘immediate mediality’.