A CLEAR RESEARCH QUESTION GUIDES THE STUDY:
How can immersive art and design contribute to spatial justice in urban environments, and what role do liminal spaces play in this process?

The above quote is from scholars Asma Mehan and Sina Mostafavi from their 2024 case study, Spatial justice through immersive art: an interdisciplinary approach. Looking for critical scholarship on immersive design is like looking for a needle in a haystack. There is very little out there in the literature that considers immersive design, and the digital technologies necessary for producing these experiential spaces, from perspectives outside of commercial or educational purposes. Within the art sector, although some artists engage with emerging digital technologies, for most artists the technology is cost-prohibitive and therefore inaccessible. If there are artists using the technologies, art critics, curators and academics often don’t know how to critic the technological aspects of the work. In design thinking practices,  designers might not now how to contextualize an artist’s work within an art historical framework.  It is into this gap, between art, technology and critical scholarship, that I place my own research.  

“By leveraging XR technologies and gamification, users are not mere spectators but active participants in the urban historical narrative. The role of AR in curating these experiences cannot be overstated; it enables a visceral connection with the past, rooting historical narratives in the present, and paving the way for a future where urban heritage is actively engaged with, rather than passively observed (Graham, 2018). The “Phygital” approach stands as a bridge across time, fostering a deeper connection between citizens and their urban surroundings. Through its meticulous combination of various disciplines, this project exemplifies the future of urban research. By weaving together immersive art, urban heritage, and socio-environmental justice narratives, it paints a holistic picture of Houston and Amsterdam. The interdisciplinary methodology champions a future where cities are not just understood in their physicality but are also deeply felt, engaged with, and reimagined through a confluence of art, technology, and justice. ” (Mehan, A. and Mostafavi, S. 2024)

After working with the Carleton Immersive Media Studio over the duration of the Winter Semester in 2025 for Onondaga artist Jeff Thomas, on The Scout Relocation Project, I have brought forward what was completed, a VR production, as a digital production that will be adopted for my Masters of Architectural Studies (MAS) at Carleton University in Ottawa. My MAS project, Immersive Engagement at the Edge (IEE), will examines the application of immersive design (ID) for artistic productions, more specifically for projects that counter colonial narratives. For artists, ID allows for evocative digital storytelling via multi-sensory experiences that engage through projection and screen technologies. Implications of such projects – technological, cultural, structural, ecological – will be examined through the notion of an immersive architecture for a projection adaptation of a Virtual Reality (VR) production, The Scout Relocation Project that builds on Thomas’ ongoing engagement with the Anishinabe Scout, a statue that was part of the Samuel de Champlain monument, Ottawa.

Upon first encounter, Thomas asked the Scout, “If you could leave this place, where would you go?” Advances in digital technology (i.e. photogrammetry) allow for a virtual relocation to Thomas’ revision site, Asinabka (Victoria) Island. Situated in the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Gatineau municipalities, it is a site of Indigenous ceremonial importance as well as the location of a former paper mill. Construction considerations include: use of Indigenous materials and design; sustainability and ecological impact. The reed, as a local Indigenous species, is explored as a possible construction material due to its ubiquity and role as Cultural Keystone Species (CKS).

I will also be researching the work of others artists whose work conveys narratives of place that look at the edge conditions, shorelines as contact zones of geopolitical, ecological, and histories of displacement. As an object of knowledge production, IEE proposes an in-situ structure that interrogates colonial settlement through its materiality and artistic content.