I just finished a great book called The Art of Immersion, by Frank Rose, about how storytelling is changing. It’s both exciting and a little discombobulating, at least for a digital immigrant like me. Rose isn’t writing about changing format, exactly, although there is certainly both excitement and discomfort in the world of readers, authors, and publishers about the general shift from paper books to ebooks. What he’s talking about is more like a shift in the way we experience the world. Stories are essential to that.

In today’s world of overwhelming media exposure and social media tools, many people want multiple, connected, participatory approaches to fictional worlds. One of Rose’s examples was the Star Wars universe. Movies, toys, books, comics, games, and much more originate from George Lucas’ empire, but he’s given Star Wars fans license, within limits, to produce their own content as well. There are endless discussions and forums online, websites dedicated to Star Wars, YouTube videos inspired by the movies: there’s even a wiki called Wookiepedia. George Lucas created a world that felt real, in every detail, but the fans have taken it deeper, farther, and wider than he could ever have expected. Using every connection and media tool at their disposal, fans have made Star Wars into far more than a movie (or even six movies). It comes at you from every angle. It’s what Rose calls an “immersive experience”.

An immersive experience doesn’t have to be that large or complex- I was recently pointed towards a review of a theater production inspired by Macbeth called Sleep No More. It takes place on three floors, each with many rooms. The audience members are masked and have the opportunity to wander randomly through the the production, following a character, seeking out hidden places, touching things, almost a participant in the action- immersed in the experience. Macbeth, of course, has been interpreted in many ways, and in other media- maybe a love of the play attracted some audience members, and maybe a show like this one could inspire someone in the audience to check out other interpretations. Or maybe someone who liked the idea of participating in such a creepy experience will try out another live theater performance. It’s all good.

So, immersive experiences don’t HAVE to directly involve digital technologies, advertising, movies, social media, or whatever. But they have to involve people and stories, and when you don’t have the ability to engage people one on one like Sleep No More can, those are ways to reach a lot of people quickly- and even to engage them in the story you’re creating on both an individual level (by empowering them to participate or express themselves in the ways they want to) but also on a collaborative level via technology tools and social media that gives them ownership, too, and it has the opportunity to take storytelling to a completely different place, involving outer experiences as well as (to quote a poem I love) the pictures that storm inside our head.