Immersive Tech In Culture

Session

Tues

This panel features voices from arts leaders and creative technologists who are revolutionizing the role of immersive storytelling in cultural heritage organizations. Drawing on the distinctive expertise of each panelist, the discussion examines innovative approaches using augmented reality, virtual reality, projection mapping, and other technological augmentations to transport audiences into meaningful cultural narratives.

From Afrofuturist world-building and Global South perspectives, to cross-disciplinary residencies that nurture creative collaboration, and cutting-edge R&D for XR in museums and heritage sites, panelists will share insights on crafting transformative audience experiences. They will offer practical guidance on building successful collaborations between artists and organizations, and explore community-centered storytelling that connects past, present, and future in powerful, inclusive ways.

Chipo Mapondera

GLOBAL DIGITAL FUTURES

Chipo Mapondera is a Creative Technologist of Zimbabwean Rozvi ancestry, exploring her lineage through an intersection of African heritage and immersive technology. Her work channels the ancestral continuum through embodied storytelling, sonic environments and ancestral knowledge, synthesising tradition and a multilayered, diasporic artistic expression, and offering contemporary portals into ancestral memory and knowing.

Winning the 2024 Innovate UK Career Breakout Award, Chipo has been nominated for major awards, selected for leading international programs (NEW INC, S+T+ARTS and CPH:LAB), and presented her work internationally at CPH:DOX, NewImages Festival, Fak’ugesi, and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

https://tinyurl.com/chipo-mapondera-immersive-epk

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/chipo-mapondera

Emma Brown

XR Stories

Emma Brown is Deputy Director of XR Stories, based at the University of York. XR Stories provides access to expertise, infrastructure and facilities to help researchers, companies and creatives working in extended reality (XR) and next generation convergent media technologies unleash their full potential.

https://xrstories.co.uk

Kate Farrell

Mediale CIO

Kate is an experienced curator & creative project manager who has worked extensively across the arts developing and delivering exhibitions, installations and collaborative projects for a range of internationally acclaimed artists & cultural organisations including Manchester International Festival, BAFTA, the V&A Museum, The Lowry & MoMA (NYC).

http://mediale.org.uk

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-farrell-a4296730

Sarah Brin

Sarah Brin Consulting Services

Sarah Brin is a freelance executive producer and creative industries advisor specializing in immersive experiences, audience impact and creative technology Some of her clients and collaborators include Sony Interactive Entertainment, Meow Wolf, Rolls Royce, IKEA and more.

Sarah’s practice is inherently interdisciplinary; she combines critical cultural perspectives with practical knowledge of how to get things done. Her clients come to her with juicy problems that range from developing R&D processes, connecting with audiences, creating new business models and more.

Sarah has an MA in Art and Curatorial Practice in the Public Sphere from the University of California. She is a voting member of BAFTA and a recipient of the Creative Producers International Fellowship supported by Watershed and British Council. Her writing has been published by Routledge, SFMOMA, Vice, Digital Works and elsewhere.

Sarah lives in London and works internationally. You can learn more about her work at www.sarahbrin.com.

http://www.sarahbrin.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbrin/

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