The Immersive Worlds Project
A digital anthology from the New Literacies, Technologies, and Cultures of Writing classes at Valparaiso University
This project presents sections from five novels of speculative fiction, all of which feature digital media and immersive worlds. These worlds include gaming and virtual reality, nations no longer restricted to geography, social media and corporate culture, and the interaction between alternative and future versions of our own history. Together, these novels evaluate innovative methods of education, commerce, entertainment, voting, medicine, security, and artificial intelligence. Together as well, the novels feature protagonists interacting with each other in fragile environments whose very cores have been reworked by technology and digital media.
Pictured above: microdemocracies as they might appear on a map in Infomocracy; the pyramids as they appear in the immersive game, Three Body; the avatar of Eunice, the sophisticated AI in Agency. James Halliday's avatar, Anorak, as he appears in the film Ready Player One; Mae Holland at work in the film The Circle.