This is the first in a sequence of research updates that will be published on this website and that will reflect an ongoing sequence of conversations with a range of multisensory storytelling practitioners, stakeholders and critics.
This initial blog will offer a summary of what we have been up to researching the space of multisensory storytelling, as it emerges at the convergence of embodied HCI, immersive art and XR. Having looked back at activity of the past twelve months, I will then give some indication as to what you can look out for on the resources page of this website.
Research Highlights:
2026 has been a busy year so far, with lots of momentum building around MyWorld projects such as Sacha Wares’ Inside: The Childhood of An Artist which was not only featured in the CPH:Dox INTER:ACTIVE Exhibition, but won INTER:ACTIVE Award. Professor Mandy Rose was present at the festival and chaired a fantastic panel on Multisensory Storytelling featuring Sacha Wares alongside Ali Adjorlu and Chrisato Minamimura.
Elsewhere, Tom Livingstone has joined the research team of the Immersive Arts UK project as part of its Tools and Technologies strand. Tom joins a research group that “is looking into the things that make it possible to engage multiple senses, bridge the gap between physical and digital spaces, connect people to each other and the environment and change the way we think and create!” This is a fantastic opportunity with Immersive Arts having commissioned 200+ fantastic projects across a range of disciplines, offering all sorts of new ways to approach and develop the practice of multisensory storytelling.
Still to come:
As part of this work with Immersive Arts, Tom Livingstone has been working on a project that looks at the technical bottlenecks encountered in the development of multisensory experiences. The motivation behind this research is to understand what tools and technologies – currently being developed and deployed experimentally – will form the norms and standards of an increasingly multisensory media environment.
He convened a sequence of Multisensory Storytelling Development Debriefs – online conversations where artists participating in the Immersive Arts programme and working with multisensory tools and technologies could come together to discuss the challenges they faced when developing their practice with these new tools.
15 artists responded to the call and participated in a sequence of conversations that were lightly themed around stages of creative development – worldbuilding, accessibility, and finalisation – where the technical constraints of this emerging class of multisensory and immersive technologies impact creative decision making. Please look out for brief reports that reflect these conversations and highlight some of the common strategies and areas for concern in the Immersive Arts community as it continues to push the boundaries of Multisensory Storytelling practice and culture.