i m m e r s i o n   1 The inaugural Immersion focused on an exploration of the cinematic space and its potential to encourage innovative modes of musical composition and presentation derived from technological developments informing contemporary film sound. Immersion 1 was comprised of a series of three one-hour concerts that incorporated a broad range of work specially composed in surround sound, encoded into Dolby Digital and printed on to 35mm film stock for projection within a multi-channel cinema environment. Seventeen composers were commissioned to demonstrate different applications of surround sound within a range of musical styles to suggest alternative approaches to the highly mannered articulation of surround sound and music within cinematic discourse. No images or moving imagery accompanied the presentation as the focus was on the sensory and tactile sensations of sound moving through a cinematic space. The curatorial aims and strategic mechanisms of the concert presentations were: 1. To investigate ways of furthering experiments in multi-channel composition and surround sound presentation and diffusion by the production of work especially commissioned for these concerts.
		2. To initiate a wider understanding of three-dimensional acoustic space in order to encourage more ambitious approaches to sound production and presentation that challenge conventional forms of articulation predicated on stereophony. 3. To instigate a broader awareness of the function of sound within a disparate range of media by bringing together elements of film scores and sound design, soundscape, improvisation, musique concrète and electroacoustic composition in a cinema setting. Immersion 1 was staged at Cinemedia at Treasury Theatre over three nights, and comprised two different concert programs per evening so that each program was screened twice over the period of the festival. Cinemedia at Treasury Theatre proved to be an ideal location for this type of presentation as it had just been refurbished with a new Dolby Digital sound system, which was still relatively uncommon at the time. The cinema had also just been installed with a new set of acoustic baffles that helped with even sound distribution, while simultaneously cancelling extraneous noise filtering down from street level.