Abstract: Current trends in audiovisual contents look at customising the user experience by adapting media to consumers’ choices and preferences. Immersive media art has absorbed some of the elements of ‘engagement’, but it does not seem to have reached the level of individualisation of experience that digital games have achieved. To define the difference between open-world games and immersive performing art, an analysis of immersive artworks is performed based on Calleja’s Player Involvement Model. As a result, the concept of open-world art is proposed to connect open-world game features and immersive art, to build a novel artistic construction that creates actual personal experiences for participants.
Keywords: Open-World Games, Immersive Art, Videogames, Media Art, Performing Arts.
Arte de mundo abierto: en busca de la personalización de experiencias artísticas en los límites entre los videojuegos y el arte multimedia
Resumen:Las tendencias actuales en los contenidos audiovisuales están mirando hacia la personalización de la experiencia del usuario adaptando los medios a las elecciones y preferencias de los consumidores. El arte inmersivo en medios digitales ha absorbido algunos de los elementos y el espíritu del ‘engagement’, pero no parece haber alcanzado el nivel de individualización de la experiencia que han logrado los videojuegos digitales. Para definir la diferencia entre los juegos de mundo abierto y el arte escénico inmersivo, se realiza un análisis de obras inmersivas basado en el ‘Player Involvement Model’ de Calleja. Como resultado, se propone el concepto de arte de mundo abierto para conectar las características de los juegos de mundo abierto con el arte inmersivo y para desplegar una nueva construcción artística que genere experiencias personales auténticas para los participantes.
Palabras clave: Videojuegos de mundo abierto, Arte inmersivo, Videojuegos, Arte audiovisual, Artes escénicas.
How to quote: Manuel (2025). Open-World Art: searching for customisation of artistic experiences in the boundaries between videogames and media art. Cuadernos de Información y Comunicación30 (2025): 139–152.
1. Contextualisation
Immersion in virtual worlds has been supported by technology since
the invention of the stereo- scope in 19th century. The
current development of interactive Virtual Reality (VR) technology has
renewed the discussion about immersion. The concept is an object
interdisciplinary study, encompassing the fields of several disciplines,
including audiovisual communication, psychology, and arts. As an
interdisciplinary reconciliation, Murray proposes that immersion “is a
metaphorical term derived from physical experience of being submerged in
water. […] the sensation of being surrounded by a whole reality, as
different as water is to air, which takes our attention, our whole
perceptual apparatus” (Murray, 2017: 99). This definition brings a
psychological view of the concept, explaining that immersion is a state
produced by the mental involvement that needs an activity to be
performed (Lombard et al., 2009). Arriving to that state can be achieved
by three reasons: sensation of being surrounded, absorption produced by
a narrative, and absorption as a result of the performance of an
activity (Agrawal & Bech, 2023: 322).
Immersive phenomena depend on subjective perception, although a
subject might not be conscious of its immersive experience (de
Vasconcelos, 2021: 1). The point of view of artistic immersion deepens
into the idea of causing a bidirectional communicative process between
artwork and viewer, a perceptual relationship based on principles of
space and body (Liu et al., 2022). Immersive media art builds a specific
space, a multisensory stimulus in which our body gets fitted into an
ecosystem, that is assembled from our inability to distinct between
knowable experiences of illusion and reality (Maturana, 2008). This
illusion of immersive events is considered as a self-perceptual
construct similar to Merleau-Ponty’s reversibility: the own subject can
identify it- self in a virtual world as it does in real world (de
Vasconcelos, 2021; Merleau-Ponty, 1968; Smith, 2005). This concept
emerged in a context where conceptual art was already a well-established
reality in Western artistic creation, at a time when Kaprow was
exploring new scenarios and experiences for viewers through the
happening. As a result, immersive involvement is possible due to the
cognitive adaptability of the viewer, who constructs an entirely new
environment through subjective perception –a new Lebenswelt
(Husserl, 1936; Trentini, 2015)– created by the illusion generated by
user’s cognitive structures (Jaume Pérez, 2021).
Thus, immersive art entails the need to see oneself in the new world
and to understand one’s situation in a virtual society, just as in the
real one, where the notions of time, present and future are transformed.
The way we perceive others, ourselves, and naturally everything we think
is possible in the future, becomes an exercise of imagination –which has
always characterized creativity, by the way– in these works that build
environments and spaces inhabited in an original way and fictions based
on a human consciousness freer of spatiotemporal parameters. In this
sense, they would be anticipation stories (Despret, 2021) or speculative
fictions (Haraway, 2019), on which Caplliure (2023) reflects. Immersive
art represents a change in our perception and the experiential
capacities of the human being, transforming the concept of point of
view, narration, gaze, and even interface and others related to senses
or feelings such as empathy (Martínez-Cano & Roselló-Tormo, 2021)
which opens these works to political potentialities.
Immersive principles were born from psychological theories like
Czikszentmihalyi’s ‘Flow Theory’, allowing the definition of immersion
to be held up by audience engagement caused by its involvement in
activities (Li & Huang, 2023). This theory focuses on interaction,
presenting a conceptual perspective of immersion connected to immersive
model of videogames. From this theorical proposal, the term of cognitive
absorption arises, defined as “a state of deep involvement with
software” (Agrawal & Karahanna, 2000: 665). Cognitive absorption
brings up the redefinition of some topics like user’s experience or
user’s confidence from a social and psychological point of view
(Balakrishnan & Dwivedi, 2021). Open-world games are the most
representative examples of this principles. They build up optimal
interfaces to achieve cognitive absorption due to user’s autonomy, wide
virtual environments, and a large variety of challenges and tasks that
lead users to engage find out a whole fun experience (Zhao et al.,
2024). While Csikszentmihalyi (2008) sets a theorical fundamental for
immersion, 60s digital art represents the artistic background for
current immersive art. The interest of dadaist artists in their
contemporary technology developments opened a door for visual arts to
assimilate the newest advances, then and now (Marí-Altozano &
Sedeño-Valdellós, 2024). With regard to technology, the deep research in
human-machine interaction began with Brian Shackel’s article ‘Ergonomics
for a computer’ in 1959. Interactivity was assimilated by art within the
next decades, especially since ‘Algorithm Art’ exhibition in 1968 and
further with Rokeby’s art installations (Rokeby, 2010).
1.1. Video games
Immersion is often used as a synonym for engagement, though they are
not exactly the same. According to Czikszentmihalyi’s theory, immersion
may require interaction to fully absorb the user into the content or
game. However, true immersion appears to evoke something deeper in the
user than mere attraction to an activity. Some researchers and studies
distinguish this difference by emphasizing the presence of a new
fictional world –a new reality that fully encompasses the user’s visual
and auditory perception through VR and metaverses (Hernández, 2006; Li
& Huang, 2023).
Although interactivity is not synonymous with immersion, the rise and
consolidation of video games in the modern audiovisual market have
significantly transformed how consumers interact with, engage with, and
understand content. Video games rely on audiovisual texts that require
an interactive narrative to transform the player into either a spectator
or the main character of the story (Martín-Prada, 2022: 182), achieving
different levels of presence within the game. Immersion and presence
largely depend on game technology. In this regard, Alison McMahan (2003)
developed a framework categorizing video games based on the type of
immersion they offer. She distinguishes between flat video games and
isometric systems, explaining that the former primarily refers to 2D
games, while the latter encompasses 3D games or environments that allow
players to change their point of view.
The concept of immersion has been increasingly integrated into
digital games over the past decade. Meta and Sony have fully invested in
VR, developing their own VR devices –the Meta Quest series and
PlayStation VR. These VR games primarily expand on traditional digital
game formats, particularly FPS (First-Person Shooter) and RPGs. In this
field, certain video games have provided a viable and profitable avenue
for developers, as seen with Half-Life: Alyx by Valve
Corporation. These VR games grant players a limited degree of autonomy
to move around. However, their geographical scale and the level of
freedom they offer are not substantial enough to classify them as true
VR open-world games.
1.2. Open-World Games
Open-world games create unique and personal playful experiences, as
opposed to lineal and structured ‘gameplay’ of other formats like
role-playing games RPGs (Alexander & Martens, 2017), which build a
universe of options for the player: “With a large world and many
options, players often feel lost and unsure of where to go” (Sullivan et
al., 2012). This feeling of loss is, nevertheless, part of the process
that open-world proposes, due to the use of large worlds in ‘gameplays’.
Thus, players focus on exploration and discovery rather than on lineal
narratives predefined by the digital game (Szymanezyk et al., 2011).
Open-world games are based on the idea that players “do what they
want when they want” (Hughes & Cairns, 2021: 3), at least as far as
current technology allows, through various strategies. As a result,
open-world games achieve a personalisation of the user’s interaction
with the game, which is consciously experienced by players: “Indeed,
even finding two players that have played through the exact same content
would be challenging” (Hughes & Cairns, 2021: 3). Thus, each player
has a unique experience, something that does not happen in the rest of
videogames formats.
The open-world format builds a ‘magic circle’, a non-real place in
which the player undergoes a fictional experience that can be similar or
not to real interactions, environments, or events (Juul, 2005).
Accordingly, this genre crafts a narrative that integrates not only
enjoyable and interactive features, but also geographic structures,
making exploration and discovery crucial aspects of the consumer’s
experience. (Fraile-Jurado, 2023). Consequently, the geographic
component causes an immersion: users get submerged in a fictional world,
a virtual reality.
From this idea of immersion, Calleja develops the ‘Player Involvement
Model’, earlier termed the Digital Game Experience Model, structured on
six axes of involvements: affective, spatial,
ludic, kinesthetic, narrative and shared (Calleja,
2007, 2011). Besides, this model is structured around two tiers of
involvement: ‘micro’ and ‘macro’. Micro-involvement in gaming refers to
the “moment-by-moment engagement with gameplay” (Calleja, 2011: 40).
This includes the immediate actions, decisions, and interactions that
players make during their gaming experiences. Essentially, it focuses on
the small-scale, in-game activities that contribute to the overall
gaming experience. For example, when a player reacts quickly to an
opponent’s move in a FPS game or makes real-time decisions during a
racing game, these actions represent micro-involvement. In contrast,
macro-involvement refers to the long-term, off-line engagement with
videogames (Calleja, 2011: 39). It includes broader aspects such as
motivations, sustained interest, and overall commitment to gaming beyond
individual play sessions. Macro-involvement considers the player’s
relationship with games over time, including factors like game
preferences, social interactions related to gaming, and the player’s
identity as a gamer (Iacovides et al., 2014). This model emerged as a
result of the evolution of digital games during the last decade of the
20th century. Since then, the study of video games has spread throughout
the field of social communication research from the beginning of the
21st century.
1.3. The
metaverse as a new communicative strategy
The rise of AI and Virtual Reality is introducing new ways of
understanding both interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. In
these contexts, VR art appears to function as a form of speculative
narrative, expanding the boundaries of what is possible in visual and
performing arts –much like cyborgs did decades ago (Haraway, 1999). As a
concept, speculative narrative has been widely explored through in
relation to science fiction, according to Haraway’s perspectives.
Fabrizio Terranova proposes a more concise definition of it:
A type of narration that enables one to unfold new worlds through
arousing an appetite for what’s possible (what could or could have taken
place). It is not just about understanding a totally new creation, the
remarkable difference is that it is about placing lures susceptible of
bringing forth today possibilities that were already in situations.
Enlarging the spectrum, the relationship to History, to stories,
inventing sensitive ways re-unfolding in order to re-play and see what
we sidelined, a whole series of possibilities that are still active
today, to transform things. Enlarging the spectrum, including forms of
science fiction (…). Multiplying types of approaches and possible
narrative models. Creating characters, myths, inventing new situations
to intensify this world1.
These new cosmologies represent not only an ideal or utopian fiction
but a complete universe with its own physics, environments, and rules
–commonly known as the metaverse. The metaverse is “an envisioned future
Internet enabling immersive and real-time experiences of virtual
reflection for the physical world” (Khalid et al., 2023: 26). It opens
new possibilities for interpersonal relation- ships through potential
semantic communication, though user security must play a crucial role
(Khalid et al., 2023).
In this regard, the cosmological features of metaverse represent the
main characteristic of virtual worlds: an entire environment separated
from the real world, with its own physics and behaviour, conceived as a
parallel reality. The virtual world –also known as virtual environments–
is spotted at the top of virtuality, at the maximum expression of VR.
Consequently, the Reality- Virtuality Continuum places every type of VR
according to the level of connection between reality and metaverse (fig.
1). On this point, the term virtuality is meant is to be a term that
refers to a partial or complete immersion in a “synthetic world, which
may or may not mimic the properties of a real-world environment, either
existing or fictional” (Milgram et al., 1995, p. 283). Thus, virtuality
can be explored as a fully virtual environment or “with some amount of
‘reality” (Milgram et al., 1995, p. 285)(Figure 1).
Figure 1. Reality-Virtuality Continuum (Chen, 2023, p.
22)
1.4. A direct
influence: The Museographic experiences
It is evident that Virtual Reality has introduced new perspectives
and considerations in the fields of art and communication, destabilizing
traditional boundaries and foundations in both domains. It has also
transformed the way artistic products and performances are consumed. In
this regard, museums have found a new environment –a digital universe–
to showcase their collections and promote visual arts to new target
audiences. VR museums are now a readily accessible reality. For
instance, the video game platform Steam offers users a free VR museum
experience through The VR Museum of Fine Art, developed by Finn
Sinclair. This application presents a large virtual space where users
can move freely and admire paintings and sculptures, much like in an
open-world game. However, it lacks a structured narrative or objectives
guiding the user’s journey.
Similarly, Meta has developed a museographic metaverse in VR
Museum: Art Through Time for its HMD devices. However, these VR
experiences compile famous artworks from different periods within a
fictional space rather than replicating a real museum or gallery. The
Smithsonian American Art Museum has also embraced VR technology to
promote its collection. Through the VR application Smithsonian
American Art Museum: Beyond the Walls, users can explore a virtual
representation of the museum’s east wing and additional fictional
environments. This initiative highlights the potential of VR to promote
and popularize museums as part of a new advertising strategy driven by
the metaverse and immersive experiences. These museographic environments
blend mixed and virtual realities, offering an innovative ecosystem for
engaging with visual arts (Martí Testón, 2018).
1.5.
The use of AI as a tool to create immersive experiences
Furthermore, contemporary art metaverses are integrating new
AI-driven techniques and developments that are transforming the design
and customization of communication strategies. The introduction of Large
Language Models into artistic creation introduces new perspectives and
creative processes that were not traditionally considered. In this
context, the platform Theatre of Tomorrow is experimenting with
the use of ChatGPT to replace real actors in VR theater, utilizing a
pre-trained generative AI that responds to users based on predefined
instructions (Wu, 2022). This type of perspective is changing and
overpassing traditional interpersonal communications to be substituted
by an AI-human communication, integrating AI in artistic creation in a
technological perspective, in a posthumanist perspective (Xu et al.,
2024).
Moreover, the design of metaverses receives a considerable support
from AI, especially for programmers and video game designers. The market
of 3D modelling has suffered from the proliferation of generative AIs
that allow the designers to obtain models from an image or a text, such
as Meshy AI, Promethean or Polycam. These applications are facilitating
the work of this designers and allowing non-expertise designers to
manage VR projects and the construction of metaverses with a
significative quality of design. This generative AI for 3D models
represents the logical evolution of the Generative Adversial Networks
(GAN) that are currently consolidated for images generation, a new habit
in art creation that has led to the birth of a new style called ‘GAN
Art’. Beyond 3D modeling, AI-driven technology is increasingly being
used to generate videos and 360º images, further simplifying the work of
VR designers. Some tools, such as RICOH360 Tours and Toolify AI, are
available to consumers and programmers via their websites. The company
REM Experience has explored this type of generative AI in the
Painting project, which converts some of the most important
paintings in art history into 360º videos and 3D worlds (Agrup Lab,
2013). In this context, we will now identify the hypothesis underlying
the concept of open-world art and outline a methodology for applying the
term to some of the most important VR artworks of recent years.
2. Hypothesis
Immersion in open-world games lets players have a unique and personal
experience, not only from a narrative and entertainment perspective, but
also fundamentally sensory; the player deepens into a state of ‘flow’
which is perceptually distinct from that of other viewers, even though
the audiovisual content –the open-world– in which they are submerged is
the same. Current immersive performing artworks create spatial
metaverses that brings visitors to a virtual world, situating their
bodies as immersed objects, each of them becoming the centre of the
experience. However, individualisation relies on the personal perception
of the experience; the sensory aspect is shared by all participants,
maintaining a general subjectivity in line with Kant’s aesthetic.
Therefore, openworld concept emerges as a real possibility to build
personal narratives based on distinct sensory and cognitive experiences.
Open-world art offers a potential for actual personal involvements, not
only in perceptual terms but also sensory, providing different
viewpoints of the same audiovisual content due to the user’s autonomy.
This constitutes ‘open-world art’, as an evolution of Wagner’s total
art: from Gesamtkunstwerk to a Gesamtkunstwelt,
raising the art to the consideration of world, a reality of total
art.
2.1. Objectives
To define potential possibilities of open-world art and its
development, the following objectives are proposed:
– Identify open-world games features in current immersive audiovisual
artworks.
– Analyse some of the most important immersive artworks to define
creative patterns and models connected to open-world concept.
– Formulate a potential evolutionary pathway from immersive works
resembling open-world virtuality to a prototype of open-world art.
2.2. Methodology
To achieve these objectives, we analyse immersive visual and
performing artworks using Calleja’s ‘Player Involvement Model’ (Calleja,
2011). This analysis helps us identify features shared between
open-world games and immersive artistic creations. From the
identification of the axes of micro-involvement, we signal connections
between audiovisual content in both worlds, supported by theoretical and
aesthetic elements, to construct an open, immersive, and personalized
artistic proposal for the audience.
The selection of cases is based on three specific features that an
artwork must possess to be considered, or come close to being
considered, an open-world artwork:
– A fully immersive experience in which viewers have the autonomy to
move around and explore. This is the most essential characteristic of
open worlds.
– It must take place in a virtual environment. To be considered a
‘world of art’, the environment must be potentially manipulable by the
artist. In this regard, VR artworks or installations similar to scape
rooms can be examined.
– There must be interactivity between the artwork and the
participant. This aligns with Czikszentmihalyi’s concept of immersion,
in which interactivity forms the basis of the ‘state of flow’. This
criterion excludes most scape rooms, visual installations and
traditional artworks based on static and contemplative experiences.
According to this framework, the analysis will focus on three
immersive artworks: Tempest by Tender Claws, Le bal de
Paris by Blanca Li and VR_I by Gilles Jobin. First, we
will identify Calleja’s axes of involvement in museographic experiences
and certain open-world video games as a preliminary step to analysing
these artworks, with the aim of uncovering connections between those
games and the artistic proposals.
3.
Micro-involvement: similarities between videogames and immersive
art
The main elements of Player Involvement Model describe an
extrasensory line to define the level of immersion achieved by the
videogame, based on the idea that participation fosters deeper
immersion, leading to a heightened state of flow. Unlike traditional
arts, videogames have been described as intrinsically rewarding, due to
a combination of challenge, fantasy, curiosity and other interpersonal
motivators, which fosters an open and active approach to ‘gameplay’
(Juul, 2005; Salen & Zimmerman, 2003); what Bernard Suits (1978)
refers to as the “lusory attitude”. However, the allure of art does not
solely reside in its narrative or entertaining value, or at least, these
aspects are not its primary objectives if the artwork aspires to be
fully regarded as an artistic product from a traditional aesthetic
perspective.
Historically, the motivation to engage with art has evolved from
contemplation, arising from the aesthetic appeal inherent in the
artwork, an attraction to be undergone aesthetically and to be the
genesis of a knowable experience (Bourdieu, 2002). Interactive art has
introduced a new perspective on contemplation, shifting from a passive
to an active stance, from viewer to ‘interactor’, bringing ‘engagement’
into artistic narratives (Vázquez-Herrero & Pérez-Seijo, 2022). In
this regard, immersive art incorporates elements of contemporary
interactive communicative narratives pertaining to videogames. However,
art goals remain rooted in classical aesthetic principles: the artwork
becomes art when contemplated, even if the visitor is not merely
observing but actively interacting with the piece of art.
The nature of art fosters an affective connection with the audience;
it inevitably produces both affective and narrative involvement, often
in a deeper emotional way that digital games do. As viewers, we are
usually aware of this attraction, making us conscious of our engagement
with the artwork. Conversely, open-world games create significant appeal
through geography, which can be inspired by virtual or real environments
(Fraile-Jurado, 2023). This dimension of spatial involvement is also
seen in new museographic immersive scenarios, structured as 360º worlds,
placing the consumer in a new geography (Martí Testón, 2018) –a space
shared with other users, creating shared involvement. For instance, Tim
Burton introduces viewers to a new world based on Alice’s Wonderland in
Tim Burton’s Labyrinth (Burton, n.d.), using physical
architectural models to submerge the viewer in a fictional space. While
Tim Burton’s creation focuses on ‘analogical’ scenography, other
efforts, like Exhibition Hub and Layers of Reality, implement 360º
immersion using 3D projections and videomapping (Gil, 2023; IDEAL
Centre d’arts Digitals, 2019).
The spatial involvement in immersive museography builds an immersive
perspective adapted to space; the construction of these exhibitions is
based on architecture, an analog space where audiences experience a new
reality, a fictional world. In Virtual Reality (VR), as in open-world
games, we also have to consider world scaling, geomorphology, and
weather conditions (Fraile- Jurado, 2023). These elements are crucial in
videogames like Assassin’s Creed Origins and Red Dead
Redemption 2, which not only build a geography, but also a
historiography to immerse players in the past. In recent years, new
immersive artworks have focused on constructing new geographic virtual
scenarios; in fact, most of these works use game engines like Unity or
Unreal Engine. For instance, the art and games studio ‘Tender Claws’
presents a world with its own virtual geography in ‘Tempest’ (Rodríguez,
2021). In this case, Head-Mounted Displays (HMD) are applied to submerge
viewers in an adventure world based on virtual oceans, fields, and
climatology, achieving significant spatial involvement that causes
motivation and attraction.
Besides motivation, personal and situational engagement is one of the
most important goals of computer games. This introduces the audience
into a state of flow, disturbing its sense of time, and reaching the
phase that Calleja calls “incorporation” (Calleja, 2011). The author
focuses his model of analysis not on the direction that the videogame
takes, but on the form of involvement prevalent during gameplay. For
instance, shooter games mainly seek a ludic involvement from players.
However, there are some games in which specific moments can develop
different types of involvements. For example, World of Warcraft
offers different phases, such as ludic involvement when pricing items at
the auction house, and spatial involvement in the regional distinctness
of worlds like Azeroth (Calleja, 2007).
Open-world digital games offer narrative structures based on the
design of complex spatial elements and virtual environments (Rizopoulos
et al., 2023). These environments are constructed upon real or fictional
geographies which provide the video game with a narrative structure.
However, this narrative is built by the user, whose presence in the
gameplay defines the storyline’s evolution within the digital game.
Therefore, the narrative in open-world games depends mainly on user’s
choices about when and where to go (Hughes & Cairns, 2021).
Nevertheless, digital games usually propose a principal storyline that
is useful for player to avoid getting lost in the world. This is seen in
Red Dead Redemption 2 with the main story of Arthur and various
secondary characters and situations that the player can choose to engage
with or not, determining their kinesthetic and narrative involvement in
the game.
Some current immersive artworks propose similar perspectives to the
considerable user’s autonomy of open-world digital games, although they
do not reach the point where viewers are allowed to go wherever and
whenever they desire. From a micro-involvement perspective, Blanca Li’s
artwork Le bal de Paris offers actual autonomy for participants
to dance in a virtually transformed scenario (Li, 2020). Even so, the
consumer still experiences from a kind of constraint in this immersive
work: viewers are guided through the world and must follow a predefined
trip. During that trip, they can dance completely ‘ad libitum’ with the
rest of the viewers and NPCs, but only in a closed environment
structured and delineated by physical space where their gestures are
recognised digitally and performed virtually from other participants’
points of view. Its engagement thus lies in a search for kinesthetic
involvement, giving ‘spatial’ a secondary role as an environment that
causes visual engagement and aesthetic pleasure. This results in a loss
of autonomy about personal choices: they can decide how to dance and
perform around the space, but not where in the world they do it.
Tender Claws’ spectacle Tempest works in a similar way.
Although performance involvement is hardly less important than
in Blanca Li’s work, ‘Tempest’ builds a complete virtual world
of adventures guided by a real actor, expressed as an ‘avatar’ (Gorman,
2020). In that world, the viewers live a phantasmagorical experience to
bring Prospero to life. They must interact with some avatars controlled
by other actors, making each performance different depending on actors
and group of participants’ decisions. During the experience, users can
move around and interact using Oculus Quest joysticks. This feature
allows them to explore the environment with a high level of autonomy
(Adam Savage’s Tested, 2020). However, this movement and exploration are
designed to be performed while stationary; they do not require
kinesthetic involvement or physical activity from the participant.
Paying attention to Calleja’s model, this theatre play would develop
mainly narrative and shared involvement because of the existence of a
specific goal to execute. Thus, the viewer must plan and think about how
to achieve it instead of focusing on a dance or a world to discover, and
this directly connects the experience with Czikszentmihalyi’s thoughts
about immersion (Li and Huang, 2023).
Like Le bal de Paris, VR_I presents a complete
virtual reality environment to viewers in real time. This environment
invites participants to explore the world (Trilnick, 2017). Meanwhile, a
group of dancers performs within the virtual world, represented by
avatars that interact with the viewer during their exploration. The
experience uses gesture recognition systems and HMD devices to create a
fully shared experience2. This artwork offers participants
genuine autonomy to explore and move around. However, they are confined
to a small area due to the limitations of the recognition system –an
issue shared with Le bal de Paris. Since it employs similar technology
and immersive techniques, it demonstrates a strong sense of shared
spatial and kinesthetic involvement. Participants can see their own
bodies and those of others while moving within the confined space and
interacting with fellow participants. As a result, other potential
elements of engagement, such as playful or narrative involvement, take a
secondary role. Their enjoyment is driven primarily by interaction with
peers and exploration of the virtual world, although they cannot choose
between different scenarios or make decisions as they can in
Tempest.
This analysis discloses a strong resemblance between Tempest
and certain multiplayer and open-world games, positioning the
participant as the main character to make the audiovisual content flow.
Although ludic involvement may be prevalent in the immersive structure
of Tempest, interactions with actors and the interface provide instances
of spatial, kinesthetic and narrative involvement. The use of VR as an
interactive platform thus builds a complete experience, quite similar to
open-world games. Meanwhile, Le bal de Paris and VR_I
construct a utopian scenario for an open-world artwork. However, the use
of gesture recognition technology limits participants’ autonomy to a
small area where they can move freely alongside others, creating an
optimal environment for shared and kinesthetic involvement.
In summary, Le bal de Paris and Tempest represent
performing artworks quite similar to open- world games due to their
construction of entirely new virtual geographic worlds. Moreover, they
provide audiovisual products with comparable levels and types of
involvement in open-world games, engaging participants in artistic
experience using motivations beyond affective and narrative topics, such
as spatial or tactical involvements. In open-world games, consumers
traverse the virtual world as they desire, selecting routs and
destinations from a vast array of options, even leaving some of them
unvisited (Hughes & Cairns, 2021). In contrast, these immersive
performing artworks offer limited autonomy regarding the choice of
locations to visit and stay; viewers are required to follow a predefined
plan, although they can make decisions about specific aspects such as
how to dance in Li’s work or who to interact with in Tender Claws’ (Li,
2020; Gorman, 2020). However, these decisions primarily influence how
consumers react to the same experience rather than what they perceive
sensorially. To gain a fully distinct perspective, it is necessary to
let viewers to choose their own course, even if it means potentially
missing out part of the content, as some open-world games cause.
4. Discussion
Immersive media art has adopted some aspects and the essence of
‘engagement’, creating entire virtual environments and interactive
experiences to captivate audiences. Nevertheless, it seems to fall short
of the level of personalisation found in digital games. A significant
factor here is the absence of complete autonomy that characterises
open-world and FPS games. To delineate the difference between open-world
games and immersive performing art, an examination of immersive artworks
is conducted using Calleja’s Player Involvement Model (Calleja, 2011).
Consequently, the term of open-world art is introduced to bridge the
features of open-world games with immersive art.
The concept of open-world art brings up some important topics and
problems to face with. Although game engines are good options, the most
complex problem is probably how to build the interface. An open world
with an interaction like that of Le bal de Paris would require
an enormous space and a large number of resources of gesture recognition
and live rendering to be performed. On the other hand, Tempest
proposes an interface potentially adaptable to open-world games format
as it uses HMD for immersion and Oculus Rift hardware for movement
within the world (Gorman, 2020). In this regard, volumetric recording
seems to offer a sustainable tool to introduce real actors in virtual
worlds, thereby enabling the virtualisation of characters from the real
world to create a mixed reality environment (Martínez-Cano & Roselló
Tormo, 2020; Martínez-Cano & Roselló-Tormo, 2021).
Other important topic is how the introduction of open-world format
into art transforms the way the artistic narratives are built. Classical
narratives in performing art are based on linear development of stories
through space and time. However, contemporary artworks introduce
temporal ellipses that break the natural line of the story. Open-world
games shatter these classical and avant-garde narratives by granting the
audience considerable dominance over the evolution of time and space.
Thus, open-world art would need to offer multiple options for audience
to view simultaneously, giving the viewer the chance to observe the
space he desires. An example of it could be an opera in which many
singers are performing in different rooms of the same building, rooms
that the viewer could freely prospect. According to the analysis
performed, the level of autonomy is the main point that makes a
difference between immersive performing art and open- world games. If
current immersive art can achieve a similar level of autonomy, it will
provide a distinct experience to each participant, offering a
personalised perspective on the same artwork.
The analysis reveals numerous similarities between digital games and
contemporary immersive art. Calleja’s model seamlessly applies to modern
VR theatre and dance artworks, showcasing a complete “incorporation” of
audience throughout their virtual journeys (Calleja, 2007, 2011).
However, it is imperative for artworks to continue crafting experiences
focused on generating aesthetic experiences, rather than mere
entertainment, thus upholding their status as art. Moreover, the
interaction of the audience prompts a new reflexion about creator-user
relationship. The viewer acquires a dual role as both participant and
author: a co-author. Open-world art introduces the notion of the
co-author, that not only transforms the artwork, but also shaping the
viewer’s perception through embodied cognition (Trentini, 2015).
Nevertheless, open-world art faces the risk of devolving into mere
entertainment, resembling digital games. Therefore, user’s interactions
in open-world art must retain some main elements of classic aesthetic to
continue being considered as art, maintaining a distinction from
videogames. One such element is that viewers’ interactions must not
cause significant change in the development of the artwork; in other
words, the growth of its narrative cannot depend substantially on user’s
activities. This condition would transform the artwork into a kind of
platform game where users must overcome levels to advance through its
narrative. Additionally, user’s interactions must not be rewarded, as
this would impart a playful sense to the piece of art. Beyond its
aesthetic dimension, open-world art also raises ethical concerns. As a
potential shared environment, it can offer meaningful ways to interact
with others and create new scenarios for globalization within aesthetic
experiences. However, it also entails some of the most pressing ethical
issues associated with the use of VR, such as fraudulent behavior,
verbal abuse, and increased feelings of loneliness due to the absence of
face-to-face interaction. In this context, a moderate use of open- world
art activities involving VR is advisable. In summary, users’ activities
can allow them to travel freely through the virtual world and interact
with some elements, but they must not cause significant disruptions in
the flow of the artwork.
Furthermore, an optimal scenario for an open-world artwork would
present significant technological and practical challenges. Not only
would VR devices be required, but also an extremely large physical space
to allow users to move around and explore different parts of the virtual
world. For this reason, the use of joysticks and interactive tools may
be considered, although these can reduce the sense of kinesthetic
involvement. An alternative solution is the use of Mixed Reality, in
which the real world is modified using AR and spatial audio. This
approach can be implemented on most HMD devices and allows users to move
freely without physical limitations.
Moreover, the study of open-world art as a new artistic concept faces
significant limitations, particularly due to the lack of effective
control mechanisms for the experiences and the absence of a framework or
specific model to analyse user experiences or to guide the creation of
artworks that explore and research this concept. For this reason, we
have turned to a model from the field of video games, an audiovisual
media directly related to this type of artwork. As a result, future
lines of this study will focus on designing artistic experiences that
can be considered open-world art, according to the features outlined in
the methodology, and on assessing whether viewers perceive and
experience something akin to an open world using Calleja’s model.
5. Conclusions
Calleja’s Player Involvement Model has revealed a significant
similarity between videogames and contemporary VR performing art. Its
application demonstrates that artworks like Le bal de Paris and
Tempest develop immersive experiences akin to those found in
open-world games and multiplayer FPS games. These artistic proposals
also allow the viewer to achieve deep levels of engagement through
spatial, kinesthetic, narrative, and shared involvements.
Open-world games construct virtual worlds that can be freely explored
and discovered. This achieves customisation of user’s experience through
free interaction with the game. By contrast, VR media art remains highly
limited in terms of viewer’s autonomy, allowing interaction with the
content in a close range of actions and restricting the exploration.
Consequently, a blend of open- world games and VR media art is necessary
to create truly individualised artistic experiences for the audience,
offering new motivation and attractive elements to engage users in
performing arts. As a result, the concept of open-world art is defined
as a construction based on current immersive media art and user autonomy
in open-world digital games. Thus, artworks like Le bal de
Paris and Tempest provide a solid foundation for the
development of new artistic virtual worlds where the audience can
explore without restrictions. Beyond performing arts, visual arts are
leading the introduction of open worlds into user experiences through VR
museums and environments that allow the consumer to explore freely a
complete virtual gallery, a metaverse of arts.
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