Call for Papers

“Sound and Music for Immersive Storytelling”
Special Issue of Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies

Deadline for Abstracts: January 31, 2024 / Expected date of print publication: February 2025

The role of sound and music within audiovisual storytelling has been well established as an empathetic, affective mechanism that can support or challenge the presented narratives. In the emergent field of immersive media storytelling formats, (e.g. Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality, the Metaverse, video games etc.) sound and music can take on a similarly important role. However, currently there is often an emphasis on the visual components of the story and/or the user’s physical interactions within the medium with comparatively less attention on the important role of audio. For researchers investigating storytelling within new immersive media formats, where the user has greater agency over their interaction with the narrative than traditional linear storytelling formats, we contend that there are vast opportunities to exploit the power of sound and music within both new and existing technological innovations to affect the user’s experience with, and interpretation of, the story.

This special issue aims to assemble scholarship from different disciplinary perspectives that recognises the importance of sonic design within immersive storytelling, as well as exploring the potential for innovation in this exciting space. Papers may offer conceptual reflections, methodological and technological advances, and in-depth discussions of the role of sound and music within immersive storytelling within a variety of contexts including, but not limited to, theatre, heritage, environment and accessibility.

The editors welcome contributions that explore, or go beyond, topics including:

• Immersion, interaction and sound;
• Approaches for telling compelling stories with sound and music in immersive experiences;
• The challenges of composing and sound design for immersive stories;
• Sonic aesthetics for immersive stories;
• Understanding audience/user response to audio in immersive stories.

Please send a 500-word abstract and a 100-word bio for each author by emailing the guest editors at samis.convergence@gmail.com by 31st January 2024.

Authors of accepted abstracts will be contacted by the end of February 2024 and invited to submit full paper contributions (in the region of 9000 words) by 26th June 2024.

Guest editors: Dr. Anna Bramwell-Dicks (University of York, UK), Dr Angela McArthur (University College London, UK) and Dr Darrell Gibson (Bournemouth, UK).