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World-Building as Multisensory Resonance: A Comparative Analysis of Immersive Perception in Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049

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Date

2025

Authors

Li, Zhuxi

Supervisor

Mountfort, Paul

Item type

Thesis

Degree name

Master of Communication Studies

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Publisher

Auckland University of Technology

Abstract

The concept of world-building has been extensively examined in narrative-driven domains such as speculative fiction, films, games, transmedia stories, and virtual spaces. Yet most studies have focused on narrative coherence and symbolic interpretation while overlooking sensory and embodied dimensions. This study addresses how six visual elements, cinematography, art direction, production design, mise-en-scene, set design, and costuming, contribute to world-building in Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and how these elements, in interaction with sound, generate immersive perception through sensory resonance. The research pursues four objectives: (1) to apply a layered perceptual framework to analyse world-building in the two films; (2) to examine how the six visual elements construct immersive cinematic experience across different layers; (3) to explore how visual and aural elements interact through cultural echo, spatial dynamics, and affective atmosphere; and (4) to validate the perceptual resonance loop as the core mechanism sustaining immersion. A qualitative comparative case study approach was employed, drawing on visual grammar and multimodal analysis (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001) alongside theories of affect (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987), embodiment (Sobchack, 1992), haptic visuality (Marks, 2000), and sound (Chion, 1994 & Barthes, 1977). A macro–meso–micro framework, supplemented by a perceptual rhythm layer, was developed to examine how visual and auditory design engage viewers. The findings indicate that the six visual elements collaborate across three layers of world-building: the macro layer establishes the foundations of the world, the meso layer structures social order, and the micro layer shapes affective experience. Immersion emerges through multisensory resonance between audiovisual elements and bodily perception, unfolding across the dimensions of cultural echo, spatial dynamics, and affective atmosphere. Blade Runner relies on strategies of sensory overflow to generate an immersive experience of oppressive melancholy, while Blade Runner 2049 employs strategies of sensory restraint to create a cold and nihilistic atmosphere. Furthermore, the perceptual resonance loop models immersion as a dynamic process shaped by the interaction of detail density and consciousness reception rate. These findings suggest that cinematic immersion is not an outcome of semantic decoding but of perceptual structure. The study contributes to film studies, media aesthetics, and immersive design by showing how non-interactive cinema produces embodied and multisensory experiences.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10292/20669

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