General issue with Special Section: ‘Impact of Virtual Worlds on Society and Communities’

Virtual Creativity is often approached by researchers, organizations or conferences interested in collaborating to make research and practice more accessible beyond the bounds of conference proceedings or symposiums. I was delighted when Dr Human Esmaeili, a researcher from the Staffordshire Games Institute in the United Kingdom, approached me to potentially collaborate on a symposium focusing on virtual worlds and their impact on society and communities. The Special Section of this issue includes articles that were presented at the symposium in 2025 and cover a variety of topics including research with a focus on animation production in immersive formats and designing emotional narratives utilizing augmented-reality storytelling as a way of supporting children’s mental health education. Beyond the Special Section, the issue brings together a range of research and practice, including immersive art practices, mixed realities and craft and the digital that focuses on the use of mixed realities in contemporary creative practice and a personal account of an artist who continually grapples with the tensions of working with craft in the context of the digital.