From ritual spaces to digital worlds, humans have long created environments in which ordinary structures are suspended and questions of identity, belonging, and transcendence can be explored. While religious rituals and communal festivals have traditionally fulfilled this role, contemporary societies increasingly cultivate comparable experiences through immersive media and technologically mediated cultural environments. Despite their growing cultural significance, these environments remain rarely examined within a shared framework of contemporary meaning-making. This paper introduces a new research project investigating how participatory symbolic worlds created through immersive media foster experiences of liminality, community formation, self-transformation, and existential reflection. Rather than treating technology simply as a medium of communication or entertainment, the project examines how digitally mediated environments become spaces where narratives, symbols, identities, and collective experiences are actively negotiated. Focusing on selected East Asian countries, particularly Japan, China, and South Korea, the research explores how contemporary cultural forms - including video games, underground electronic music scenes, and related participatory practices - generate meaningful symbolic experiences across diverse media. Combining perspectives from media studies, anthropology, ritual studies, and the study of religion, the project investigates how these environments reshape processes of meaning-making beyond traditional religious institutions. Presented as the first stage of a broader research agenda, this paper outlines the project's conceptual framework and invites critical discussion of its theoretical foundations and methodological approach.

Authors:
Andrej Kapcar, Masaryk University in Brno, Slovakia

About the Presenter(s)
Andrej Kapcar's academic background includes a BA in Archaeology, MAs in Economics, Archaeology and Comparative religions and a PhD in Archaeology.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

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