Dr. VR

In this twenty-second episode, I'm glad to host Tendisai Crowell, who is a Toronto-based UX designer and researcher with a focus on immersive experiences and the CEO and co-founder of Bioimmersive, a studio and lab dedicated to developing immersive experiences for organizations championing environmental causes, tackling interconnected social issues, and fostering connections with the natural world.

I had a great time discussing often under-explored yet fascinating subjects in VR, such as darkness, spatial audio, and architectural design, with Andreea Ion Cojocaru in my new episode. Andreea is the co-founder and CEO of Numena, an award-winning creative studio that designs and develops both virtual and physical spaces. She is also the developer of the unique Artistic VR experience ‘The Third Pill,’ which is currently in development.

Pour ce vingtième épisode, j’ai eu la chance de recevoir Elie Levasseur, responsable de projet de la nouvelle Compétition Immersive du Festival de Cannes, où nous parlons de cette toute première entrée compétitive de la XR au sein du plus grand festival de films du monde entier, des enjeux liées à la nomenclature d’une œuvre dite « immersive », ainsi que de la place de l’industrie de la XR dans la sphère médiatique et culturelle.

For this nineteenth episode, I had the pleasure of hosting Matthew Celia, Creative Director of Light Sail VR and Co-Executive Producer of "The Faceless Lady," the world’s first live-action VR series produced by horror legend Eli Roth.

For this eighteenth episode, I had the pleasure of hosting Jason Moore, CEO of the multiple award-winning ‘The MetaMovie Project,’ where film, theatre, and VR are combined to create a successful interactive experience focused on agency and social interactions.

For this seventeenth episode, I’m glad to host Paweł Sobik, CEO of Spectral Games, and Grzegorz Fojcik, Lead Unity 3D developer at Spectral Games, who have just recently released their first VR experience Medieval Dynasty – New Settlement. Their very unique game focuses on embodiment through intuitive controls and freedom of action.

For this sixteenth episode, I had the pleasure to host Evan Jones, founder of Games by Stitch and a two-time Emmy Award winner, whose work combines web, mobile and games with VR, TV, film, radio, and the real world. He has been recognized as a one of the 'Top 10 New Media Groundbreaker' by the Bell Fund, and his most recent VR experience, 'Broken Spectre', won in 2023 the VR experience of the year at the prestigious VR awards and is nominated for the 'Best Immersive Experience - Fiction' at the Canadian Screen Awards.

In this fifteenth episode, I'm glad to host Arome Ibrahim, who is the co-founder of Immersive Tech Africa, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to democratizing and increasing access to XR technology through education, training, and research programs, fostering a thriving and inclusive XR community in Africa

For this fourteenth episode, I had the pleasure of having Tony Bevilacqua, the founder and CEO of the Canadian company Cognitive3D that provides data analytics insights to individuals developing VR/MR training simulations or research applications.

For this thirteenth episode, I had the pleasure of having Lesley Klassen who is the co-founder and Head of Creator Relations at Flipside XR who specialize in creating a new era for next-gen creators to connect, remix and share immersive content in VR.

For this twelfth episode, I had the pleasure of having Priam Givord who is a senior digital artist, designer & technologist with a career focused to date on the digitally­-mediated spatial experience of things. He has designed and built large high-­end interactive installations that are exhibited internationally, which led him to recently start a 2-year experimental partnership with the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto to build the project BRISTOL 1775 (now available on Steam) that recreates an 18th-century ship in 3D and in VR from plans and scale models for preservation and research.

For this eleventh episode, I had the pleasure of having Thomas Wallner who is a two-time Emmy Award and SXSW Interactive Award-winning producer, writer, director and game designer working in feature film, television, games and interactive media. He is also the director and producer of The Polar Sea, the world’s first long format 360° documentary film, and the founder of Liquid Cinema VR, a revolutionary gaze-triggered that allows filmmakers, journalists, advertisers and educators to create and distribute cinematic VR.

For this tenth episode, I had the pleasure of having digital artist and XR developer Debbie Deer. We discuss representation, inclusion and systemic barriers in the digital arts, as well as her new Afrofuturistic Hybrid XR theatre production ‘Nefertiti: Story of a Rebel Queen’ and her interactive live theatre experience ‘A Christmas Carol VR.’

For this ninth episode, I had the chance to interview Carol Silverman, who is a painter, a four-time Emmy award winning set decorator for film and television, and the director of Belongings,’ a 6doF object-based storytelling VR piece that uses the medium to bring an embodied immediacy to one woman’s life story.

For this eight episode, I had the pleasure to talk to Victoria Bousis, the Winner of the 2023 Producers Guild of America Award for Innovation, who is an Experiential Director/Writer/Creative Technologist of Immersive Experience, and most importantly, the director of the VR interactive film ‘Stay Alive, My Son,’ which we are going to discuss in this episode.

For this seventh episode, I had the pleasure to interview Keram Malicki-Sánchez who is the Founder, Executive Director and Programmer of the Festival of International Virtual & Augmented Realities (FIVARS), as well as VRTO, the yearly Spatial Media World Conference held in Toronto, Canada.

For this sixth episode, I had the chance to interview Mohammed Elfarargy who is the Head of the Vista Unit team of the famed Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. The team is responsible for the development of the remarkable "Virtual Antiquities Museum" VR app available for free on the Meta Quest App Lab store that houses artifacts narrating the Egyptian history from the Pharaonic era, going through Greco-Roman and Coptic epoch, until the Islamic period.

For this fifth episode, I had the chance to interview Curtis Hickman, an award-winning illusionist, creative designer & director, and the inventor of 'hyper-reality,' as well as the co-founder of The VOID. This renowned VR worldwide location-based arcade pioneer partnered with the Disney Accelerator program and co-developed attractions based on intellectual properties such as Marvel, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, and Jumanji. Now, they are planning a comeback…

Pour ce quatrième épisode, et tout premier en français, j’ai eu la chance de discuter avec Georgiana Stanciu, directrice générale du musée du Royal Canadian Regiment à London en Ontario, où nous parlons de l’expérience de RV, « La bataille de Vimy », qui est offerte au public depuis 2017. Nous traitons également de la place de la RV dans un contexte muséal, les nombreux avantages, enjeux et contraintes que présente une œuvre de RV basées sur la localisation pour enrichir l’expérience des visiteurs, ainsi que des questions liées à l’éthique.

For this third episode, I had the chance to talk to Justin O’Heir, co-founder and CTO of ArtGate VR, a social virtual reality platform for gallery and museum exhibitions to exhibit in the metaverse. Art Gate VR is one of the first museums (or platforms) in VR where galleries can host events, curate exhibitions, promote artists, meet collectors, and in general do business.