The power of imaginary spaces — Imagined spaces are still spaces

Immersive technologies are abundant and touted as the harbinger of a better tomorrow — often by the companies who sell the very same technologies. Yet there is no denying the significant developments in immersive media technology over the last decades, and the educational potential of virtual worlds seems substantial. But does this force us into a consumerism race with new tech companies, or is a low-tech way still possible? Do we need a head-tracking virtual headset with spatial audio to experience the future?

In this article, I explore the role of imagination and aesthetics in effective immersive technologies, and what this means for approaches that rely less on cutting-edge technology. The topic was explored within the Erasmus+-funded RIGO (Ready, Immerse, Go!) project, and the article emerges from the research and discussions conducted during its implementation.

New dimensions for sale

The developments in technology often lead to developments in aesthetics. When Pixar made Toy Story in the early 1990s, the upgrade from traditional 2D animation to 3D was a technological triumph, and the audiences loved the new 3D look of the animation so much Disney eventually stopped making 2D animations they were known for.

For a good part of the past century, technology manufacturers have been focusing on adding new dimensions to our media experience. However, from the perspective of the user market, arguably the biggest leaps were made in the 1990s, when 5.1 surround audio systems began replacing traditional 2-channel stereo systems. In gaming, Super Mario made the jump to a three-dimensional world in 1996. This trend has continued. In recent years, new head-tracking devices have added Dolby Atmos spatial audio to our headphones, and altered reality (AR) headsets such as Apple Vision and XREAL are bringing the digital world into the real space we inhabit.

Obviously, a lot of this is just marketing. Pixar did not really add a third dimension to films. The movie screens were just as flat as they were before. Super Mario still crushed bricks on a flat screen, and the head-tracking audiovisual experience of Apple Vision Pro still plays media for our two eyes and ears. One could argue that nothing has changed except aesthetics. The receiver tech is the same as it ever was — we are still humans.

However, for Pixar the expressive and immersive power of the increased sense of spatiality was a key selling point. The third dimension, even if completely imaginary, proved sufficiently compelling to audiences that many studios began to abandon traditional animation methods (Brajer & Furzan 2023).

Spatial computing will change everything (or not)

New technologies often come with big promises. Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg boasted in 2021 that Metaverse (Meta’s version of extended reality) will replace the mobile internet (Meta 2021), and Apple has announced that Vision Pro has launched a new era of spatial computing (Apple 2024).

Recent findings and a meta-analysis of VR research suggest there indeed might be many treasures to be found in spatially enhanced media (Lara-Alvez et al. 2023). Humans just might be better at processing information spatially. When dealing with critical three-dimensional real-life tasks, such as heart surgery, a simulated practice in extended reality might give young doctors a significant upperhand compared to previous generations in understanding the delicate architecture of the heart (van Rijn et al. 2024).

However, spatiality is not limited to material structures. Even language is embedded with spatial components and understanding them better might one day open unexpected ways of learning the abstract aspects of language, such as grammar. Who wouldn’t like to see the grammar of a foreign language as a three-dimensional map, guiding through the maze of conjugations and declinations when trying to order a croissant? (Pillen & Matthews 2022.)

More spatially minded designs can enable deeper immersion, better focus, and more memorable presentations, yet building learning experiences around new technologies still requires a fundamental understanding of how humans learn in real-life situations. Does it also mean that to offer the best learning experience we need to have all the latest gadgets?

Imagined space is still space

Mental training, or mentalisation, is a common technique used by pro athletes prior to performing. A professional cliff diver, for example, might imagine stepping towards the cliff edge and performing the complex sequence of controlled maneuvers, including a perfect landing into the water, before the actual dive. Now, would the training be as effective if the dive was recorded from the first-person view and played back to the diver with a virtual reality headset before the jump? Most likely not. Without the holistic internal activation of imagination, the diver would merely witness a nauseating falling of a camera to the water.

This example suggests that seeing something happening does not equal immersing to that experience on the mind level.

Proprioceptive imagination, or our ability to imagine our body’s position and movement in space, might in fact be all we need to reap most of the benefits of the spatial cognition, that Apple and Meta aim to capture in a form of futuristic hi-tech ski goggles.

If the key to a more effective learning experience lies within activating our spatial senses, or proprioceptive imagination, low-tech solutions might provide surprising options for designing more effective content for education. All spatial experiences, after all, are created in the mind.

The crucial question here is: what is gained with deep spatial immersion? A sense of ‘being there’ can be thrilling and may help us focus on the presentation or the content, but in education immersion is hardly ever enough. To paraphrase the philosopher and psychologist John Dewey’s ideas (2007), we do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience .

Low-tech solutions for more effective immersive design

Dewey’s notion of reflection as a requirement for learning seems to hint at a paradox: in order to learn something from an immersive experience, we need to break out of it. This is why memory plays an important role in experience.

In the RIGO-project, a learning game was developed for students who were preparing for an exchange period in a different country. The game consists of separate parts or levels, each of them dealing with a different scenario that could take place during the exchange year abroad. The game was built on Speedernet Sphere platform, which allows simple development of interactive 3D experiences.

Compared to contemporary game engines, such as Unreal Engine or Unity, Speedernet Sphere is simple and runs in usual internet browser (such as Chrome, Safari, or Edge). The learning curve for the developer, however, is not as steep as with more advanced game engines. The platform allows for creating interactive 360-degree media with basic point-and-click interactions, and instead of trying to push the technology to its limits, an emphasis was put on immersive and memorable storytelling.

At Haaga-Helia, we developed two scenarios for the full experience. We based our scripts on real-life experiences collected in workshops with students. To make the scripts more memorable and immersive, we focused on describing sensory experiences (such as smells and sounds) and emotions and feelings. We used real-life locations as backdrops for our scenes, but in a surprising and dramatic way, such as meeting a lost elderly person in the middle of a busy car lane. We also wrote social situations and relationships to the stories, so that it would be easier for the player to connect to the story on an emotional level.

During and after development, international students in Haaga-Helia tested the scenarios, and their feedback on storytelling was largely positive. Although the technical production faced challenges and delays, the overall process remained smooth for our team.

We chose to prioritize storytelling over a fully interactive 3D environment, believing that a simpler technological approach could better engage the player’s imagination. Focusing on emotions and narrative allowed us to create a more meaningful experience than a freely explorable but narratively hollow 3D city. This shift streamlined the technical process and let us concentrate on crafting the story rather than solving technical challenges. Our aim was not to dismiss high-tech solutions, but to underline how meaningful design emerges from a balance between technological ambition and emotional substance.

The power of immersive education lies in imagination

In conclusion, immersive learning design is not determined by technological achievements, but by the extent to which imagination, memory, and reflection are activated. While advanced devices can enhance spatial awareness, they are not prerequisites for meaningful or effective experiences. Our findings suggest that low-tech platforms, when combined with carefully designed storytelling, sensory detail, and emotional engagement, can produce immersive and memorable learning situations.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of immersive education does not depend on the realism of the technology, but on the resonance of the experience it creates. Imagined space is still space, and in some cases, it can be more powerful than technologically mediated simulations. This reframes the central question: rather than asking What does the newest technology allow us to do? it may be more productive to ask, How do we design experiences that matter? Such a perspective underscores that the deepest potential of immersion lies not in the device, but in the learner’s capacity to reflect, imagine, and engage.

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