Ensuring long-term value from public investment in immersive works

Non-gaming immersive works are increasingly funded as part of cultural, artistic, and educational programs. They reach audiences, generate visibility, and contribute to innovation. Yet today, many immersive works lose technical compatibility within a few years — often before they can be re-presented, studied, or licensed again.

This means that a significant share of cultural investment in immersive works delivers only short-term value.

IMPRES addresses this structural issue by enabling immersive works to remain technically functional and presentable over time — creating the conditions for sustained cultural access and long-term value retention.

The structural challenge

Funding bodies and commissioners invest in immersive works with clear public goals: cultural impact, audience reach, innovation, accessibility, and long-term relevance. However, immersive works face a systemic limitation that other cultural media do not.

Because immersive technologies evolve rapidly, works often become incompatible within 18–24 months. Even when project files or builds are archived, they may no longer be reliably executed or presented. As a result:

• Funded works cannot be re-presented in future programs
• Long-term public access is lost
• Licensing and reuse become impractical
• The cultural return on investment remains limited to the initial release window

This is not a failure of creators or institutions. It is an infrastructure gap.

What IMPRES enables

IMPRES provides the technical foundation that allows immersive works to remain executable and presentable over the long term, despite technological change.

For funds and commissioners, this enables:

• Long-term value retention — funded works remain accessible beyond their premiere, enabling future presentations, reuse, and circulation.
• Accountability and public return — investment continues to generate cultural value over time rather than expiring due to obsolescence.
• Conditions for licensing and reuse — when works remain functional, distribution and licensing frameworks can emerge.
• Creators can focus on their art – Regardless of big-tech enforced updates, their works will stay functional and available, for years beyond their premieres and festival-runs.

IMPRES as cultural infrastructure

IMPRES is enabling infrastructure. By stabilizing the technical lifespan of immersive works, IMPRES makes it possible for archives to hold immersive works responsibly, venues to re-present works in future programs, distributors to offer works reliably, and educators and researchers to access works over time.

This aligns immersive works with long-term treatment already expected of film, media art, and other cultural forms.

How IMPRES fits into funding workflows

IMPRES can be integrated at different points in the funding lifecycle:

• At commissioning stage — long-term technical compatibility can be included as part of sustainability criteria.
• After completion — finished works can be stabilized and prepared for long-term availability without requiring creator updates.
• For legacy works — existing funded works can be preserved to prevent loss of public value.

IMPRES operates at the technical infrastructure level and preserves the work as it was created.

Why this matters now

Audience interest in immersive works is established. What is missing is the infrastructure that allows this interest to translate into sustained cultural circulation.

Without addressing long-term technical compatibility, immersive works remain short-lived and institutional adoption remains structurally unsustainable at scale. IMPRES removes this barrier.