The Experience Shift
All change
Our experience of the world is changing. What does this mean for the business of immersive experiences?
The Experience Shift is an open source collaborative research project responding to this conundrum. It’s an invitation to explore the potential for immersive experiences and shape their evolution. With a focus on humanity and the experience of being human, the initiative will probe the purpose and process of immersive design experiences in 2021 and beyond.
Research lead Sophie Shaw explains, “In the face of fast and significant upheaval, one thing we can do is wear our beliefs and values explicitly, find others who want to see the same kind of change as we do and try to create a kind of gravitational momentum together. This is about collaboration over competition.”
The Context
Immersive experiences constitute a valuable and growing area of Marketing. Late in 2019, Agency EA detailed the speed at and extent to which marketing budgets were shifting in this direction and in February this year, Forbes predicted experiential marketing would reach maturity and become centre stage in 2020.
Experiences have flourished within the cultural landscape - from promenade theatre to secret cinema to increasingly immersive museum exhibitions - to the extent that the UK government had identified creative experiences as an area for investment to support economic growth post-Brexit, especially as consumers became wary of continuously acquiring more ‘things’.
The Ask
And now, in Autumn 2020, a global pandemic and the prospect of deep and lasting recession is affecting every aspect of our lives. Which raises the question, what is the opportunity of immersive experiences given their power to deliver tremendous value via education, entertainment and escapism. This research is a call to those who commission and create such experiences to share responsibility and creativity in evolving the medium. And to do so as thoughtfully and intentionally as possible, reflecting the changing needs of audiences, collaborators and clients.
Who’s behind this
The Experience Shift is initiated by Sophie Shaw, a narrative designer and founder of House of Cultural Curiosity (HoCC), who is developing the research framework to meet multiple needs:
As a small business owner who wants to best anticipate audience needs
As a creative who wants to build new networks based on shared values, diverse practices and perspectives
As a citizen who is herself navigating shifting desires, aspirations and expectations around how we communicate, connect, inform and inspire one another
“By opening up the process and sharing key findings with all contributors, I intend to fuel the conversation and build a mutually beneficial network of people who want to get involved in visioning the future. Like many creative small business owners, I know that my business needs to adapt to survive, and I see this is an opportunity to find those colleagues, collaborators and clients who share a commitment to shaping a better future.”
How to get involved
The Experience Shift is open to people working in experience design and those working in adjacent or related fields who are interested in how we can bring our skill sets together to achieve great things. A Google doc listing related skills and disciplines can be found here. The aim is to combine people with relevant experience and ensure diverse and inclusive perspectives that reflect both the individuals and communities immersive experiences are designed for, and who they are commissioned by, whether cultural institutions or commercial brands.
Join the conversation, share your view and hear what others think.
The process involves a combination of one-to-one conversations and group discussions using Zoom and Slack. Priority research themes:
Social distancing as a creative constraint: explore enabling high quality connection while keeping everyone safe
Flexing boundaries: exploring new ground that transcends the selfie moment to create deeper, richer immersive experiences that expand the audiences perceptions
Rethinking the design process: new approaches to sharing concepts, from briefing to pitching, and building operational project teams
When it’s happening
Research will be live November - December 2020.
Get in touch
Want to get involved? Contact Sophie.
Email: tes@hocc.uk
Tel: 0771 213 7760