Erin Reilly on immersive experiences: Story-living rather than storytelling

Walking beside the canal of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens, Greece, during the SNF Nostos 2026, audiences encountered a large interactive installation. A led wall displaying a colorful oceanic environment, with coral reefs and all sorts of different fish, stood right in front of the canal. Passersby were stopping in their tracks, adults and children alike, curious about what is in front of them and, more importantly, why. “The Harmonic Sea: Humanity in Motion” is an immersive installation by the Texas Immersive Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

The Institute created a mobile web app which generates a personalized sea creature that is released into a shared aquatic environment, where no two sea creatures are the same. “The goal of this project was to give audiences agency,” said Erin Reilly, founding director of  Texas Immersive Institute and a professor of practice in the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations. Reilly’s career on new approaches, products and experiences for storytelling and audience engagement spans more than 25 years.

These days, conversations around media and journalism seem to revisit the format; from short-form videos to live performances, the community is looking to re-imagine itself. Can immersive storytelling contribute to what journalism is looking for? We met Reilly at SNF Nostos 2026 and discussed about it.

What is immersive storytelling?

Immersive storytelling is stories where audiences step into the world. It’s story-living rather than storytelling. Audiences have agency in the experience. The most important thing in immersive storytelling is that you put the audience at the center of your narrative; and with that comes a new relationship between the creator and the audience. You want them to feel like they have a role in the narrative – and the roles can vary, from being a spectator to a visitor. Think of it like fans in a stadium. They’re still fully bought into their passion, and engaged, wanting to lean forward rather than lean back in the narrative. Immersive storytelling really goes into that.

What is an immersive project you’ve worked on that still stays with you today?

Well, a project I’m currently working on, that is very personal to me, is “Anchored Memories”, a virtual reality and haptics experience. My in-laws live on the coast of Maine and, in their neighborhood, I’ve seen four blocks lost to the ocean. The water is creeping closer and closer to my family’s home. It made me really start looking at the rising sea levels across the world. […]

What you’re dealing with is people losing their home or not wanting to leave their homes, because it’s where they raise their families; it’s where they have their memories. I went and spoke with some other professors, who are flood risk specialists, in the communication college, and I learned [what] the biggest issue is: while they can do emergency preparedness, they are not ready for the conversation of displacement. So, my piece is a five-act narrative where you still step in the shoes of the child with your father on the porch.

I’m a big believer that immersive experiences do not need to be complicated; rituals where you replay or do something again have a better sense of stickiness for the audience to not feel confused by the experience. Also, it has a sense of remembering and memory. So, I created the boarding up your windows on a porch, which is something that’s common during hurricanes. And you go through this five-act story where every decade you grow up, your father gets older, and your house gets more into disrepair, as the sea levels rise, and you are boarding up the windows. I’m hoping that, with this 10-minute piece, through haptics and being immersed in this ritual, you can step out of it and have that conversation with your family. Maybe we shouldn’t be the last ones standing; we should be taking action before it’s too late.

I’m a big believer that immersive experiences do not need to be complicated; rituals where you replay or do something again have a better sense of stickiness for the audience.

Erin Reilly, founding director of  Texas Immersive Institute

Have you ever seen immersive experiences that genuinely change the way someone thought about an issue or a community?

I would say the number one immersive experience in our field, which, not a lot of people have been able to experience, is “Carne y Arena”. This was a mixed reality experience where you stepped into a studio, and you put on this mixed reality gear, including haptics and everything. You were asked to take off your shoes, and it was very much a high-end experience that allowed you to feel and embody a sense of migration across the borders. The border patrol actually comes in, the helicopter is whipping around, you feel the heat of the desert, you are feeling the sand, you feel the wind, you feel someone literally gets in your face and tells you to get down. I haven’t seen many experiences that have that type of in-your-face journalism, fully embodying what it means to be displaced and having to cross a border to save your life; and then being an immigrant and feeling this border patrol treating you with such hostility.

For decades, journalism has been something we consume. What changes when it becomes something we experience? 

We’ve gotten [so much into] this “swipe, scroll and forget” mentality that we need to move to immersive journalism, because when you do that, you become more playful with it. I believe that the real definition of “play” is experimenting with your surroundings as a form of problem solving, which is what we did as children. Some other characteristics of immersive journalism are that when you have that embodied presence, it has better emotional and cognitive recall. […]

We’ve gotten so much into this “swipe, scroll and forget” mentality that we need to move to immersive journalism, because when you do that, you become more playful.

Erin Reilly, founding director of  Texas Immersive Institute

In immersive journalism, we can use a lot of our locations to focus on mixed reality or augmented reality. We can unlock things that are invisible and make them visible. I talk to my students a lot about how augmented reality is a democratizing force. It doesn’t need to always be “smart glasses with a screen”. Augmented reality can also be sound in your environment that’s unlocked by your location. Imagine wanting to support minority owned businesses or stores that are fair trade. It would allow you to know that before you walk into the store.

Immersive journalism requires some design skills, maybe sound design or even sometimes some game engine knowledge. Does that change who gets to tell stories or whose stories are being told? 

We’re in a revolution where a lot of the tools now are either no-code or low-code experiences. If we’re not teaching our children by 8th grade how to make a video – not just like shoot a video where it’s just a clip on your phone but really edit a video – we are doing a disservice to their media literacy education. By the time you’re in high school or college, if you know how to, if you’ve seen an editing platform, you probably can get around these low-to-no-code platforms, because they’re very visual; they’re very much “drag and drop”. […] We need to walk, not run, with artificial intelligence, I think that it’s here forever. Already, I’m seeing [AI] shifting the development of these tools and softwares, that you will have a guide on the side –for example, AI; and it will support you, but only if you learn how to use it effectively and ethically. In that [case], you need to be the creator, I call it “benevolent dictator”, where you are in control of how much it is taking over your creative process and hopefully it never takes it over. Hopefully, it’s supporting you in the needs you want.

Journalists don’t have to speak for the audiences, speak with them.

Erin Reilly, founding director of  Texas Immersive Institute

As AI becomes part of the storytelling process, what should never be lost?

I would say that what’s going to be most important for the next generation is to have your own taste. I think it has happened over the past couple of decades where we were all re-regurgitating and seeing a lot of the same stuff globally. We’re all being influenced by each other. Βe that outlier, be that different voice. Always look at the world through a new lens, which, I think, is really important. I feel that will make you stand out, and it will make you be a tastemaker that people will follow. 

Ten years from now, what do you hope journalism will feel like for audiences?

My hope as an immersive storyteller is that stories will be about feeling, that [audiences] will be able to enter in a sense of “I have purpose, and I have agency and I am part of the equation”, rather [than] just the end result. I really believe in co-creation. I think that journalists should really embrace their audiences and have their voices heard through whatever you deliver or create. You don’t have to speak for them now. You can speak with them.