Students Apply Immersive Design in Practice
You guys talk about real assignments. Can we see your students' work somewhere?
Kamphuis: “Absolutely. Our students have worked on installations and research projects for the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and the VPRO programme 'Dorst'. They have designed and developed installations for Museum Hilversum and the Geological Museum Hofland. At the latter, the students' installation has been included in the permanent collection.”
Ten Cate: “We also design and build for our own university's research groups and programmes. For instance, our students collaborated with the Human Experience & Media Design research group and the Municipality of Amsterdam on a project aimed at encouraging field staff to adopt more climate-conscious thinking and behaviour. For the Bachelor's programme in Medical Assistance, we explored how to create an IX that simulates a crisis situation, enriching the educational experience.”
Immersive Experiences are thus widely used. But what does it actually mean?
Kamphuis: “The term 'immersivity' refers to immersion. Consider stories in books that are so well-written you become completely absorbed. Such narratives can transport you to a different place than where your body physically is. Modern technologies like 360-degree projection, VR headsets, and augmented reality stimulate the senses even more than written stories, making it easier and more intense to create that sensory immersive experience. Visuals, sound, vibration, and colour are excellent tools to captivate people.”
Where can we see or experience immersive worlds?
Ten Cate: “Immersive worlds have existed for a long time, such as period rooms in museums and castles. By furnishing a space with historical furniture, utensils, and paintings, you can imagine how people lived, ate, and worked in a particular era. However, in 2025, most people think of digital worlds when considering immersive experiences. Digital immersive experiences are increasingly common, for example, in escape rooms, the Omniversum, at the Efteling, Remastered, and in numerous games.”
How do you build a digital immersive world?
Ten Cate: “For example, using augmented and virtual reality and room-filling projections, where images are added to the visible reality. There is ready-made technology for this. With metaverse platforms like VRChat and Neos, you can walk around a space and interact with other visitors in a 360-degree film, while physically sitting still with a headset on.”
Kamphuis: “All these technologies are not immersive by themselves; it's the designer who creates an immersive experience with a story and a communication goal, combining technologies. Storytelling plays an important role here, not only in the new virtual world but also in the path leading to it. If you integrate the act of putting on a VR headset well into your story, the new reality becomes even more authentic.”
Why is the teaching location of specialisation course Immersive Design located in Mediapark?
Kamphuis: “There is significant potential for this subject among the companies and organisations at the Media Park. Moreover, MediaCampus NL, the largest media cluster in Europe, is located here. As an educational institution, we want our students to learn and experiment as close as possible to their future clients and employers.”
Ten Cate: “Additionally, students can build their installations here and leave them in place for extended periods for research or experimentation. There is ample space and 'shelter' for experimental and iterative education, for making mistakes. And the latter—being able to fail and learn from it—is absolutely necessary in this field: only through experimentation can you achieve innovation.”
Kamphuis: “Besides HU, other educational institutions are also located at the Media Park. There is fruitful exchange between our Immersive Design students and those from the XR (Extended Reality) Lab, a shared learning company of Mediacollege Amsterdam and Grafisch Lyceum Utrecht.”
What is the difference between the location at Mediapark and the one in Utrecht?
Kamphuis: “The Hilversum location is currently used by students from the Communication & Multimedia Design programme and is focused on immersive experiences. We immerse them here for twenty weeks, four days a week, in Immersive Design.”
Ten Cate: “In Utrecht, we have various other initiatives, such as the IX-lab and the HUB-lab, which are intended for everyone. For example, students and lecturers can go to the HUB-lab, which stands for Utrecht University of Applied Sciences Library, for workshops, programming robots, or borrowing VR headsets. Currently, the entire school is engaged with IX at various levels for programmes, organisations, companies, and museums. We are, after all, an University of Applied Sciences.”
If you would like to collaborate with students or researchers in the field of IX, or if you have any other questions, get in touch with gijs.tencate@hu.nl or kim.kamphuis@hu.nl.
