Welcome to this new issue of the Journal of Digital Media & Interaction. The texts published in this issue underlie the desire to communicate, this is the challenge of humanity. Whether the challenge comes from the specificities of the subjects involved, or from the ephemerality/perpetuity of the means and communication processes, or from the layers that an immersive narrative must have, or from the artificialization of sensoriality. The ontological desire to communicate is always present, as a founding element of the human being, as a social creature, who lives or perishes if he succeeds or fails to communicate.

Francisco Feitosa, Ricardo Fragelli and Virginia Souto in “Assessing a 3D digital Prototype for Teaching the Brazilian Sign Language Alphabet: an Alternative for Non-programming Designers” present the results of evaluating the perception of users (deaf and hearing people) of a high-fidelity prototype with a non-programming method, of 3D digital artifacts for teaching the digital alphabet of the Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS). The study took into consideration the principles of inclusive design. The investigation was structured into four phases, the last being dedicated to the usability study, which involved the use of a structured questionnaire survey. The majority rated the user experience as overall good. It should be noted that deaf people were the ones who in the highest percentage classified the user experience as Excellent (29%) compared to hearing people, where only 13% classified it as Excellent. This result is interesting considering that the 3D platform is aimed at deaf people, thus giving reasons to continue and deepen the investigation with the inclusion of new elements in the platform.

The paper “Computational media and the paradox of permanence” by Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Cardoso present a reflective analysis of the permanence and ephemerality of the media, contrasting analogue media with digital media. The idea of the need to develop skills to deal with the media is reinforced, which are not just media, but subsume culture and social dynamics, as they are dynamics of codes and symbols. However, the focus is on the discussion about the imitation of the stillness and stability that digital media makes of analog media, despite its nature being impermanence, which makes computational media time-based media, that is, based on time. in change, and permanence is just an illusion that the viewer creates. Which allows the authors to present the idea of paradox of computational media.

Narratives have been, since the beginning of humanity, a means of realizing the desire to communicate. In “Method for Assessing and Classifying Dimensions of Immersion in Narratives” the authors present and exemplify the use of a method that evaluates and classifies the three dimensions of immersive narratives: temporal, spatial and emotional. The empirical investigation was carried out in the context of Portuguese higher education, using an asynchronous teaching-learning approach. In this way, the authors contribute to studies on immersive learning and how to increase the student's subjective state of immersion.

Finally, in “The Alienated Senses: Artificial Stimuli for Sensory Perceptions in Interaction with Infomata” the authors propose an analysis of the alienation of the senses promoted through the use of personal digital home assistants and how this situation promotes an artificialization of sensory perception.

We hope that this set of texts contributes to deepening reflection on the desire to communicate, and how digital technologies promote and challenge, in a disruptive way, this desire.