Mixed Reality in Culture

Join me for the first episode of Season 3 where we delve into the world of MR Literature accompanied by Dr Agnieszka Przybyszewska. Agnieszka is assistant professor at University of Łódź (Poland) where she co-created a programme of creative writing studies. She teaches i.a. on visual and electronic literature and supervises students’ artistic projects of non-classic forms of literature (e.g. book-bound and electronic playable interactive books, concrete poetry installations in public space, locative narratives for mobile phones or AR literary stories). She is also a visiting fellow at the Center for Cultural and Creative Industries at Bath Spa University, resident of The Studio in Bath (UK) and research affiliate at Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver (USA).

Agnieszka has a double degree in literature and film & media studies and her research since years has been dedicated to electronic literature and textual materialism or - in other words - to the evolution of our understanding of literature, book and act of reading. Agnieszka has been researching on AR books, VR as context for electronic literature and on embodiment of the act of reading within some small Polish research grants for more than 10 years now (you can read her first English text on AR literature here). In 2021 she became a research fellow in Amplified Publishing pathfinder within Bath+Bristol Creative R+D, where her role was to research VR as a literary platform (you can check some blog entries from this project here and here).

Although its definition is still blurry, the Metaverse will be the new way to connect to each other, work, entertain, play, and create as the next iteration of the Internet. Along with the new web of exciting possibilities it is necessary, and this is a unique and important opportunity, to start, contribute to and amplify conversations about how to embed ethics as part of its fundamental design.

In this episode, which may not be particularly about culture but also is about culture since the Metaverse will be part of its future shape, I am joined by Dr Joris Weijdom and Dr Vangelis Lympouridis, experts in MR research and design, to discuss ethics by design in the Metaverse.

Although its definition is still blurry, the Metaverse will be the new way to connect to each other, work, entertain, play, and create as the next iteration of the Internet. Along with the new web of exciting possibilities it is necessary, and this is a unique and important opportunity, to start, contribute to and amplify conversations about how to embed ethics as part of its fundamental design. 

In this episode, which may not be particularly about culture but also is about culture since the Metaverse will be part of its future shape, I am joined by Dr Joris Weijdom and Dr Vangelis Lympouridis, experts in MR research and design, to discuss ethics by design in the Metaverse.

In this episode I talk with Jonathan Barbara about representation and authenticity in portraying tangible and intangible heritage, speculation during interpretation versus strict use of hard facts, and how interactive narratives can support speculation and experiential learning. 

Jonathan is a full-time senior lecturer at Saint Martin’s Institute of Higher Education teaching Creative Computing, Game Design, Interactive Narratives, Transmedia Storytelling and WorldBuilding. He is also a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin reading in the area of Virtual Reality, Interactive Narratives, and Intangible Cultural Heritage. He has an MA in Games Design from UCLAN, UK with publications in Board Game User Experience, Narrative Consistency across Transmedial Narratives, and Game Design Teaching Approaches.

One can follow his team's projects here: http://www.stmartins.edu/lovemycountry

In this episode I am joined by Georg Hobmeier, co-founder of game studio Causa Creations, to talk about making hybrid games in the city, collaborating with state institutions, skills gap for those that use games to educate, working around budget limitations and technology becoming quickly obsolete. 

Trained as an actor, Georg (AT) took the unusual path to make computer games and XR experiences instead, something he had no training or qualification whatsoever. For reasons not quite known to him, it worked out nevertheless. He usually works with his company Causa Creations and the art group gold extra, but also as a gun for hire on the commercial digital games market.

Today I chat with Ágnes Karolina Bakk (1986), PhD-researcher at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design’s Innovation Center, about magic in VR, immersion, on-boarding and art exhibitions in VR spaces. 

In her research Ágnes is focusing on the science of magic, the concept of immersion, analogue and digital storytelling as well as interaction (even between humans and non-humans). She is the founder of the immersive storytelling conference entitled Zip-Scene (zip-scene.com), that took place for the third time in 2021. She is the cofounder of Random Error Studio, a lab that supports various VR productions and is currently the curator of Vektor VR section. She is teaching escape room design, immersive&VR- storytelling and speculative design at MOME and pitched VR projects at GIFF XR Cruise, 5th Wall Forum etc. She presented her research on immersive theatre and VR at various conferences and platforms from Moscow (CILECT, 2019) to Montreal (SQUET, 2019) as well as at festivals such as DokLeipzig (2020). Her research is published international scientific journals and edited volumes.

In this episode Joris Weijdom talks to me about embodied design processes for MR performance, designing from a technodramaturgical point of view, accessibility, and the ethical side of MR design.

Joris is a researcher and designer of mixed-reality experiences focusing on interdisciplinary creative processes and performativity. He showcased a site-specific performative MR installation on the Prague Quadrennial 2019, collaborated with GobSquad for their latest production, and is involved as a technical dramaturge in many other interdisciplinary projects. He talks about embodiment and presence in performative mixed reality experience design, such as in the Transmedia Arts seminar of the Mahindra Centre of Harvard University in November 2020. He is working at the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, where he currently leads the Mixed-Reality research group at the Professorship Performative Processes and teaches several BA and MA courses. As part of his PhD project, Joris researches creative processes in collaborative mixed reality environments (CMRE) in collaboration with the University of Twente.

In this episode Dietmar Godina, veteran game designer based in Graz, Austria talks to me about designing AR games that immerse you in history, what forgotten stories can teach us about how we live and make history, and his design journey through the archives - all discussed through his work on the upcoming game Hamlet's Breed. You can find more of Dietmar here and more info on Hamlet's Breed here and here and in Youtube.

In this episode Sharon Clark (@esjayclark), Creative Director of Raucous, talks to me about the new creative paths of theatre and new technologies, adapting to new methods of creation, taking theatre outside the blackbox, the role of the audiences, and accessibility and inclusivity considerations. 

In this episode Dr Eleonora Bacchi and Roy Rodenhäuser from DymonLab talk to me about using AR to visualise museum research taking place in museum labs, and how this can help museum researchers and the dissemination of the research to the general public.