Investigating metaphors of musical involvement: Immersion, flow, interaction and incorporation

The concept of immersion, despite being relatively unknown within music research, presents a potentially productive way for understanding the well acknowledged phenomenon of "being drawn into music". This paper 1) discusses immersion as a metaphor for conceptualizing musical involvement by drawing on the research into video games and virtual reality and 2) aims to clarify the metaphor of immersion by utilizing the concept of image schema to analyze it in relation to alternative metaphors of flow, interaction and incorporation. The theoretical stance of the paper is based on the paradigm of enactive cognitive sciences, which stresses the bodily, constructive and interactive nature of experience. As a conclusion, the paper suggest several ways to consider the differences between the chosen metaphors based on their image schematic structures. In line with the enactive approach, it is suggested that the experience of immersion should be considered as a constructive activity of using music, thereby highlighting the view of experience as a skillful activity. All in all, the paper aims to offer one kind of approach for considering different experiences with media and to stress the role of metaphors in how we understand experiences.