Mixed Reality in Culture

In this episode I talk with Prof David Bassuk speculating on the future narrative directions in the age of mixed
reality. Looking at the osmosis between theatre and MR experience design, we talk about how immersive reality is likely to change storytelling across different media further, the potential for new narrative forms, and their challenges for cultural production.

Links talked about:

Regenerative Time Lab

Seven Deadly Sins

David Bassuk is a Professor of Theater, Transmedia, and Immersive Narrative and Experience Design, including Game Design and location-based technology. He specializes in creatively exploring Spatial Storytelling in live and virtual settings focussing on developing meaningful and engaging interactions between designers and participants using layers of technology within performances and theme parks.

In this episode Christiana Kazakou and me talk about the curator's role expansion towards transdisciplinary creative production for Mixed Reality installations/experiences.

Christiana Kazakou is a trans-disciplinary Researcher, Curator & Producer. She is the Program Engagement Specialist for LEONARDO/ISAST and LASER Talks; a program of international gatherings that fosters interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building in over 50 cities & 5 continents worldwide. Her current research with i-DAT, funded by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council, explores transdisciplinary curatorial models and spatial trajectories within the art & science discourse.

Links mentioned in the episode:

New Media Curating list

computer arts society

Further links:
Call for curators - https://callforcurators.com

Ars Electronica Open Calls - https://ars.electronica.art/news/en/opencalls/

S+T+Arts Open Calls - https://starts.eu/calls/
Leonardo Opportunities Hub - https://leonardo.info/calls-jobs-and-events

Residency Opportunities - https://resartis.org

Art Quest - https://artquest.org.uk/opportunities/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw9IayBhBJEiwAVuc3fgDETpDX0F_NZshOga9Coh6RtwvJrKJynkl6Wi_n_W7BbPJARgBfLBoCJUkQAvD_BwE

In this episode I talk to Dr Kai Lukoff about designing AR experiences with and for indigenous communities. We talk about co-creations models, ethics in co-design including the Design Justice principles, research with respect to the community's self-determination rights, and how to handle data management in funding applications for projects where the community takes the lead in research.

Dr. Kai Lukoff is an Assistant Professor at Santa Clara University in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, where he directs the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. 
His work explores how digital interfaces can lead to meaningful or meaningless experiences and support or undermine user sense of agency. He has redesigned features of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter and tested their effects on digital wellbeing in field experiments.

I talk with Prof Marientina Gotsis about the challenges that VR/MR environments pose to how we understand movement and use our locomotor and vestibular abilities in virtual spaces. Marientina discusses some of her projects on sensory motor rehabilitation and the knowledge gained from them in terms of interaction design in VR.

Marientina Gotsis is an artist, designer and technologist. She is Professor of Practice at the Interactive Media & Games Division of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. She has a broad background in arts, design, and engineering with a special interest in interactive entertainment applications for health, happiness, and rehabilitation.

Her work focuses on applications of entertainment at the intersection of behavioural science, medicine and public health, working in diverse topics areas such as obesity, exercise, rehabilitation, HIV, autism, traumatic brain injury, PTSD, vision and early child development.

https://www.marientinagotsis.com/

In this episode I talk with Andreea Ion Cojocaru about the current challenges of the MR tools development landscape and we look at the potential for shaping a healthy business ecosystem for tools developers and tools users.

The VR tool we talk about in the episode developed by NUMENA, the company that Andreea has co founded:
https://spaceelevatorvr.com/

Andreea is a licensed architect and a software developer and the co-founder and CEO of NUMENA, an award-winning German company. Andreea works at the intersection of traditional architecture and immersive technologies to develop projects that require a new approach to cognitive and spatial challenges. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships and is a frequent guest speaker at international events in the creative technologies space, including SXSW, the Architectural Association in London, the UW Reality Lab, Cornell Tech, and several episodes of the Voices of VR, the leading virtual reality podcast.
Andreea believes that by expanding the possibilities and affordances of spatial experience, we are expanding and redefining identity, subjectivity and modes of collective being. Currently, she uses virtual and augmented reality to explore multimodal approaches to design tools and to storytelling. Selection of her talks: https://andreeaioncojocaru.com