About the Contributors

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Jacquelyn Morie’s 30 years of researching & creating meaningful VR experiences combines multi- sensory and perceptual techniques for VR that predictably elicit emotional responses from participants. Her company All These Worlds, LLC is active in social VR, Mindfulness applications, storytelling, stress relief experiences, avatars and immersive education & training. In 2016 she concluded a special project for NASA called ANSIBLE, a full virtual world ecosystem designed to provide psychological benefits for future astronauts who will undertake extremely long isolated missions to Mars. ANSIBLE was tested in an analog facility called HISEAS in Hawaii, where a team of six scientists was sequestered for a full year to simulate the conditions of isolation on Mars, including long communications delays. Dr. Morie also investigates the use of personal avatars for how we use them and how they affect our human selves. In 2004 she invented a novel scent release device for VR (now called called RemniScent), to aid in the evocative power of VR experiences. Her education includes advanced degrees in Fine Arts and Computer Science (MFA, 1984 & MS, 1988 from the University of Florida) and a PhD in Computer and Information Systems from Smartlab, University of East London in 2007. Morie lives on a tiny urban farm with her extended family in a 110 year old house near downtown Los Angeles, CA.

Kate McCallum is a forward-thinking multi-media producer, writer, and digital arts and media strategist with an emphasis in IP development, transmedia, and new media technology platforms. Kate served as a Board Delegate on the Producers Guild of America New Media Council for six years and on the PGA National Board for three years. She was the recipient of the 2019 Marc A. Levey Award for Distinguished Service, and as a Co-Chair, Kate helped to spearhead the creation of the PGA Social Impact Entertainment Task Force. She is a member of the TV Academy, the WFSF: World Future Studies Fed- eration, and is Chair of the Arts & Media Node for The Millennium Project, a global futurist think tank. In 2004, Kate founded her own development and multi-media production company, Bridge Arts Media, LLC, and consults and produces for a variety of clients including Vortex Immersion Media, a company specializing in fulldome 360/VR immersive content and experience design, immersive brand experiences, VR, interactive, live mixed-media performances, and projection mapping. In 2010, Kate established the Vortex AIR: Artist-in-Residence program and innovation lab in The Vortex Dome CineTheater at Los Angeles Center Studios. Prior, Kate spent 20 years at NBCUniversal and Paramount Studios working in development and production of feature films, and broadcast and cable episodic television with some of the top showrunners and writers in the industry on such shows as; Miami Vice, Law & Order, Equal- izer, Gimme a Break, Charles in Charge and The Marshal to name a few. She produced a TV Movie for NBC called What Kind of Mother Are You? and as VP of Creative for Western Sandblast at Paramount, Kate developed and sold TV movies and off-net series concepts to outlets such as Showtime and UPN.

About the Contributors

She has produced and/or written for traditional, digital and immersive media, produced live events, industry conferences, educational workshops, concerts, currently serves as the Managing Editor for the SOC: Society of Camera Operators’ quarterly magazine, Camera Operator, and is the producer and co- designer of an innovative distribution model for James Hood’s MESMERICA 360, a fulldome visual music production and upcoming sequel. Kate’s also been an international guest speaker and instructor on the topics of future trends in media and entertainment, and transmedia storytelling at the Hong Kong Design Institute, Singapore Media Academy, the Asian Childrens’ Content Conference, XMedia LAB in Australia, the China Science Film and Video Association in Shenzhen, China, TiE Global Summit in Mumbai, India, and InventureS, Calgary, Canada to name a few. She co-produced and presented “Trans- media Storytelling and Strategy Design” for the PGA and the TV Academy, and was a featured speaker at the Global Leaders Forum in Seoul, Korea addressing the “Future of Entertainment and Media.” Kate has pursued a lifelong interest in human potential and in 2004, earned an MA in Consciousness Studies from the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles. Kate was awarded an Alumni Achievement Award from Western Michigan University, was appointed as an honorary fellow at SNCR: Society for New Communication Research, and serves on the Advisory Board of The Studio School, Los Angeles.

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Julieta Christina Aguilera studied Design at the School of Architecture, Catholic University of Valparaíso, Chile. She holds two Masters of Fine Arts: in Design from the University of Notre Dame, and in Electronic Visualization from the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with an emphasis on Virtual Reality and a focus on shared spaces. Because of these research interests, Julieta took a job at the Adler Planetarium’s Space Visualization Laboratory where she created or contributed to scientific visualizations for exhibitions and planetarium shows. Julieta eventually became the Associate Director of the Laboratory, working alongside Adler astrophysicists, educators and administration staff, as well as astrophysicists from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and University of Illinois at Chicago. She handled weekly presentations on how scientific visualization and current technologies are used to explore, study and communicate scientific discoveries and theories. While at Adler she also spearheaded events geared to advance the understanding and integration of im- mmersive, collaborative and interactive media. She has taught the full Design curriculum, as well as Graphical Interfaces, Immersive Environments and Scientific Visualization (with scientist colleagues). While completing her Doctoral disertation with the Planetary Collegium at Plymouth University in the United Kingdom, Julieta worked for a year at the University of Hawai’i in Hilo, sponsored by the Academia of Creative Media and hosted by the ‘Imiloa Planetarium. Julieta has participated in various conferences related to Art, Science, and Planetariums.

Leila Amirsadeghi has over 20 years of experience in entertainment, technology and live event production; designing, building and producing integrated marketing campaigns, experiential activa- tions, brand events, festivals and digital products for some of the world’s most notable brands. Leila’s experience in digital product development spans AR/MR/XR, OTT, mobile & web for art, entertainment and video games, and she has created and helped launch award-winning campaigns for a number of TV and movie titles including The Walking Dead, Jurassic World and Ready Player One. Leila co-founded and launched the 20,000 sq.ft. LBE, Onedome, in San Francisco in 2018, featuring three immersive entertainment experiences (F.E.A.S.T, LMNL and The Unreal Garden); including the world’s first mass-

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consumer, AR multiplayer mixed reality experience. Leila has worked with some of the world’s largest brands including Disney, Microsoft, Warner Bros, Google, DreamWorks and Adobe, and with some of the world’s most successful location-based entertainment startups including Two Bit Circus, the VOID and Electric Playhouse. Leila currently consults within the XR world under her own brand, MESH, and is an advisor to a number of XR & LBE startups including Enklu, Portals, Vibiana Immersive, Otherside and WeHOWL.

Michael Daut is an immersive media specialist, working as an independent writer/producer/director in Los Angeles, CA. Michael brings a wealth of experience within the giant screen cinema and digital fulldome industries. He is an award-winning writer, producer, and director for fulldome videos, theatrical productions, music videos, live concert videos, commercials, documentaries, corporate videos, and trade show presentations. He most recently served as the Director of New Business Development for Mouse- trappe, an experience design and production studio in Burbank. Previously he worked for over 20 years at Evans & Sutherland, where he was instrumental in acquiring numerous large accounts, expanding the product line, and developing a library of shows for the digital fulldome community. Michael’s current clients include K2 Studios, a giant screen film production and distribution company, and Moodswings, LLC, creators of the visual music show Mesmerica, currently playing in digital dome theaters across North America. He has a BA in Media Communications with a video/film emphasis from Webster Uni- versity, where he also served as an adjunct professor. He created the world’s first digital fulldome film for SIGGRAPH ’99 in Los Angeles. He also helped create the world’s first digital fulldome transfer of a giant screen film, Africa the Serengeti, in 2007. Because of this groundbreaking first step, there are now over 60 giant screen films converted to fulldome digital. He also produced the first two 8K Digital Dome Demos for Giant Screen Cinema Association and co-produced 2016’s True8K digital dome event and 2018’s HD Digital Camera Comparison with members of the GSCA Technical Committee. Michael is a member of the Producer’s Guild of America, the Themed Entertainment Association, a founding member of the Association of Fulldome Innovators, a member of the Telly Awards’ Silver Council, a board member of the Giant Screen Cinema Association, and a board member of IMERSA.org, the Im- mersive Media Entertainment, Research, Science and Arts organization dedicated to raising the visibility of immersive media across a variety of disciplines throughout the world.

Kelley Francis, as a producer and pioneer in immersive media art and fulldome cinema, works to combine the arts, technology, entertainment and big ideas for installations that provoke a lasting experience among audiences. Culling from inspiration which includes the sciences, wellness, storytelling, and play— her works are interactive, immersive, and cross-disciplinary.

Christina Heller is the CEO of Metastage, an XR studio that brings real people and performances into digital worlds through volumetric capture and complementary tools. Metastage uses the Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture system and is located in Los Angeles. Prior to leading Metastage, Christina was the CEO of VR Playhouse, an immersive content company based out of Los Angeles. She is a recipient of the Advanced Imaging Society’s Distinguished Leadership in Technology Award and was named in the Huffington Post as one of five women changing the virtual reality scene. She has contributed to over 80 immersive projects and comes from the world of journalism, radio and television.

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Brian Hurst, a multi-disciplinary producer, writer and strategist, has spent his career at the forefront of innovation and storytelling. His work in theater, television, emerging and new media and now immersive media has enabled the building and extension of storyworlds and brands. He has also held leadership positions in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Board of Governors and Second Vice Chair), the Producers Guild of America (Board Member and Chairman of the New Media Council) and the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Digital Ambassador). As President and Chief Storyteller of StoryTech® Immersive, Hurst leads the company’s work in cinematic and Live VR as well as immersive event production. Credits include My Brother’s Keeper (VR, PBS, Digital Studios), The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth 360 (VR, Showtime) Gettysburg: A National Divided (MR, QuantumERA), The Rolling Loud Hip Hop Festival (Live 360 broadcast, LivexLive, SamsungVR) Super Splat Brothers E-sports Tournament (Live 360 broadcast, E-Sports Arena, SamsungVR), Passport to Philadelphia (AR, QuantumERA).The company produces, curates and manages the competition for the Vancouver International Film Festival VIFF Immersed program. Recipient of the Interactive TV Today Award for Leadership in Interactive Television, Hurst was profiled in emmy magazine as one of the 10 media executives leading the industry’s digital drive and was named two years running to the Hollywood Reporter/PGA Digital 50. He was awarded the Television Academy Interactive Media Peer Group Digertati Award for his contributions to the industry and the Emmy® organization; and was named one of the AlwaysOn Power Players in Digital Entertainment. He has received the Producers Guild of America Marc A. Levey Award for Distinguished Service in recognition of his service to the PGA and the new media industry. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Television of Tomorrow Show. Hurst is also co-author with Olivia Newton-John of the best selling children’s book “A Pig Tale” from Simon & Schuster and the book “WHOLE,” a collection of essays on life’s challenges.

Jessica Kantor is highly sought after for her work in virtual and augmented reality, having developed a unique perspective of place, movement, and worldbuilding she now brings to traditional filmmaking. She has made 100s of branded videos, op-docs and short films including the recent Alcoholocaust which premiered at the LA Shorts Fest 2018, a music video for rising artist Rebecca Perl and a branded series for Vox/ Microsoft. Jessica’s VR work has premiered at Film Festivals all over the world. Most recently, Together as One made for Oculus as part of their VR for Good Program which premieres October 2018 at San Francisco Dance Film Festival and on the Oculus store. In the 360/VR space, she’s made work for pride.com, Miller Lite, Wiser Distillery, Youtube/ Vsauce, and Music Artist Hunter Hays. Additionally, Jessica is asked to speak about her take on immersive storytelling at film schools and film festivals including USC, North Carolina School of the Arts, Sundance Film Festival and New Orleans Film Festival.

Ed Lantz is an entertainment technology engineer, immersive experience designer and innovator in giant-screen digital cinema and large-scale immersive environments. He left aerospace engineering in 1990 to transform traditional planetariums into 360-degree immersive visualization environments, designing over a dozen dome theaters worldwide including the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, Na- tional Space Center in Leicester, UK and Papalote Museo del Nino in Mexico City. Ed founded Vortex Immersion Media in 2007 to bring 360-degree immersive and interactive experiences into mainstream arts and entertainment markets. Vortex has produced 360 venues and programming for concerts, EDM festivals, VR Cinemas and experiential marketing for numerous brands including AT&T, CAA, Condé Nast, EMC2, IBM, Live Nation, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Nestle, NFL, Nike, Nokia, Sprint and Turner Broadcast. Artists supported include Childish Gambino (Donald Glover), Skrillex, Diplo, Braves, Kaleo,

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JZ/Beyoncé and more. The company operates the Vortex Dome, the first commercial immersive media studio and events venue in downtown Los Angeles which has hosted a wide range of arts, entertainment, cultural and special event productions. Vortex Immersion’s studio is focused on partnering with top talent to produce transformative immersive experiences for mainstream audiences. VIM’s latest collaborative production, James Hood’s MESMERICA, has currently presented over 1,000 shows to sell-out crowds in digital domes across North America. The company recently announced plans to build a network of DomePlex immersive location-based attractions with their initial venue opening in Phoenix, Arizona in 2020. The DomePlex features a central 2500-seat CineTheater and a cluster of smaller dome venues featuring the world’s best immersive arts and entertainment experiences. Ed holds a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, is a Board Delegate of the Producer’s Guild of America’s New Media Council, and he Chairs the LA Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH.

Brett Leonard, for over 25 years, has been at the forefront of the digital media revolution—whether it be as Director/ Writer of the groundbreaking cult-classic film Lawnmower Man, which introduced the concept of Virtual Reality to popular culture—or being the first to pioneer modern stereoscopic techniques and photo-realistic CGI in his hit IMAX 3D film “T-Rex”—or introducing American audiences to Russell Crowe and many other talents both in front of and behind the camera, Brett’s work as a visionary Director/Producer/Futurist has always pushed the edge of innovation in the entertainment industry, and continues to do so with a project slate at his company Studio Lightship, focused on creation of VX (Virtual eXperience) executed in a hybrid approach with Film and Television. Studio Lightship is dedicated to defining a process and platform for truly interactive narrative VX StoryWorlds for the emerging era of Immersive Entertainment.

Keram Malick-Sanchez founded both the VRTO World Conference and the FIVARS Festival in 2015. A graduate of UCLA’s certification programs in Cinematography, Producing, and Digital Media, he is also an alumnus of Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School, was a student in Ryerson University’s inaugural New Media Studies program, a business and creative consultant to a wide variety of tech companies, and has over 30 years of experience as an actor in Hollywood.

Gregory Peter Panos is an American writer, futurist, educator, strategic planning consultant, conference/event producer, and technology evangelist in Augmented Reality, virtual reality, human simulation, motion capture, performance animation, 3D character animation, human-computer interaction and user experience design. Greg has worked as an engineer with Rockwell International Space Station Systems Division visualizing real-time, computer generated Space Station designs. As a Chairman of Siggraph - Los Angeles Chapter, he has led the entertainment industry in the adoption of computer-generated visuals and animation. As a consultant and industry expert, Greg is often invited to speak at events and conferences on Human Simulation, Virtual Reality and 3D Scanning.

Audri Phillips, director/3D animator, content creator, immersive media specialist. She is based in Los Angeles and has a wide range of experience that includes over 25 years working in the visual ef- fects/entertainment industry in studios such as Sony, Rhythm and Hues, Digital Domain, Disney and Dream Works feature animation. Starting out as a painter she was quickly drawn to time-based art and visual poetry. An interest in science and technology has always played a part in her work. She is a pioneer of using cutting-edge technology in immersive media performances, fulldome and mixed reality.

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As a member of the Intel Innovators Group, she writes online articles for Intel, is a member of ADN (Autodesk Developers Network), a resident artist at The Vortex Dome/Vortex Immersion Media, and is a consultant/researcher for a technology company, Stratus Systems. Audri is co-founder and director of Robot Prayers, an immersive transmedia project which explores AI and our hybrid identities in a world where man and machine are melding. Over the past six years she directed/animated/designed over six fulldome shows, one with composer/musician Steve Roach. She created animations for dance companies as well as a number of cinematic and interactive VR pieces using Autodesk Maya, Touch Designer and Unreal Engine. One of the VR pieces, “Migrations” is on the Samsung Indie channel and the fulldome piece, “Migrations” was chosen to be shown in the 2019 DTLAFF. All of the fulldome pieces as well as her animations and paintings have been shown in festivals and conferences around the world some of which she has spoken at and given master classes. She holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and has been an adjunct professor at a number of Universities in Los Angeles. BFA from Carnegie Mellon University.

Micky Remann is a German born media artist and producer of media events. He is Professor for Immersive Media at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, where he has been teaching the art of fulldome since 2007. In the same year, Micky Remann initiated the FullDome Festival at the Zeiss-Planetarium Jena, which he continues to direct until today. The international festival showcases and awards innovative productions in the genre of 360-degree audio-visual media and fulldome theatre performance. As the inventor of “Liquid Sound,” Micky Remann is also connected to another experience of immersion: floating in body temperature salt water, immersed in underwater sounds, lights and video images. The concept and media technology of “Liquid Sound” is installed in three major Spa venues in Germany, operated by Toskanaworld, where it has become the key attraction, featuring regular underwater live concerts, DJ nights and an annual all night Liquid Sound Festival. As a travelling author, Micky Remann also published articles, books and travelogues, he hosts TV-Dome shows with the network Salve.tv, he presents at scientific conferences and performs at cultural events. One of his international media projects is the “Apolda World Bell Concert”, which connects sounds and stories of bells from around the world with music via livestream. www.fulldome-festival.de www.liquidsound.com.

Linda Ricci is senior professional with successful international consulting and management experience delivering thought leadership and strategic solutions to clients in industries where technologies are transforming consumer behavior.

Julia Scott-Stevenson is a research fellow in interactive factual media with the Digital Cultures Re- search Centre at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She works with researchers and industry to explore the potential of interactive and immersive factual media, and produces the biennial i-Docs Symposium. Julia holds a PhD in i-docs and social impact, for which she created the i-doc Giving Time. Julia received an academic immersion fellowship on the South West Creative Technology Network, to explore whether immersive media experiences might offer ways of imagining a preferred future, and her other research interests include digital rights, surveillance and data storytelling.

Mei Si is an associate professor in the Cognitive Science Department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). She is also part of the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Program at RPI. Mei Si received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and an M.A. in

532 About the Contributors

Psychology from the University of Cincinnati. Her primary research interest is embodied conversational agents and cognitive robots. Mei has more than ten years of experience developing virtual environments, intelligent conversational agents, and serious games. Her work is supported by NSF, DOD, NIH, Amazon, Disney, IBM, Tencent and the ESA Foundation.

Shaojung Sharon Wang, PhD, is an associate professor of Institute of Marketing Communication at National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Commu- nication, University at Buffalo, State University of New York. Her research span both communication technologies and media entertainments. Much of her work has been focusing on the social and psycho- logial implications of new media use on human behaviors and how these behaviors interact with the environment and technologies. Her work can be found in numerous academic journals such as Social Science Computer Review, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, and Computers in Human Behavior.

Eve Weston believes in storytelling as a force for positive change. She is CEO and Creator of Re- alities at Exelauno (www.exelauno.co) and writer/director of the first immersive 360VR sitcom, The BizNest. Featuring actors from Marvel’s Legion, FX’s The Bridge and YouTube’s Emmy-nominated Epic Rap Battles of History, The BizNest was one of six finalists for the Auggie Award for Best Art or Film at the 10th annual Augmented World Expo. Weston’s VR art has shown at galleries in LA, Miami and NYC and at Disney Concert Hall as a prelude to LA Phil’s Yoko Ono Tribute Concert. Weston is adjunct professor of 360VR filmmaking at Emerson College LA. Her speaking engagements as a VR storytelling expert include the National Conference of Science Writers’ in Washington, DC, Samsung’s Harman University, Stanford University, Stanford’s Brown Institute of Media Innovation, the Acad- emy of Television Arts and Sciences of Emmy’s fame, and Silicon Valley’s Augmented World Expo. Weston began her creative career writing jokes on Will & Grace and Better Off Ted. She’s since written television episodes for ABC’s Better With You, Disney XD’s Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, and Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place, where she also wrote and choreographed the song “Funky Hat Dance,” which became a YouTube sensation with more than a million views and girls internationally uploading videos of themselves and their best friend doing the dance. Weston developed a musical web series for AwesomenessTV and wrote the multi-cam pilot The Fast Track for ABC Family. Weston is also an award-winning journalist, having written about VR for Ms. Magazine and The New York Post. She earned her MFA in screenwriting from USC and her BA in classics cum laude from Princeton. Weston is also a Goldman Sachs alumna, honored to have had both a deal written up in The Wall Street Journal and a joke praised in The New York Times. She can be followed on Twitter at @eveweston.

Dorote Weyers-Lucci helps people manage and heal their anxiety and chronic stress symptoms with mindfulness-based approaches. She is focused on innovative and lasting habit transformation. She facilitates workshops and support groups, and is involved in research focused on immersive experiences, both digital and nondigital for wellness and mental health. Having noticed a need in her clients for gentle support in addition to therapy and healing work she had co-founded Embodied Inc. in 2014. The first app for reprogramming habit patterns was called Worry Bubble (Apple app store) and was born in the same year. In 2015, she created Corereboot and brought out StarflightVR, a mobile Virtual Reality experience to support deep and lasting habit change. FlowforbreathVR the next VR experience she created supports meditative breath training and its benefits for stress relief and mental health. Both

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apps focus on a gentle, non invasive and intuitive approach to transformation and habit change and are used as psychotherapeutic support tools. Her background includes complementary medicine practices, interpersonal neurobiology, a Master of Clinical Hypnosis, spiritual practices and psychology as well as a Master in International Management. She is currently doing her PhD in Psychology and researches the most efficacious links for psychophysiological transformation. She loves the connection between neuroplasticity, human behavior, spiritual transformation and the possibilities available for us to change our patterning and habits through somatic and visual experiences. She is fluent in English, German, French and Spanish. She believes in the healing rhythms of poetry and the power of neuroaesthetics.

Saskia Wilson-Brown co-directed the Silver Lake Film Festival and ran international filmmaker outreach at Al Gore’s Current TV while producing initiatives around new models in the arts. In 2012, her interest in transmedia practices led her to create The Institute for Art and Olfaction, a non-profit devoted to experimentation and access in perfumery. Through the IAO, she has launched projects with institutions such as Pulitzer Foundation, Getty Institute, Danish Film Institute, National Media Museum UK, Hammer Museum, Wallace Collection, New Mexico Highlands University, and many more. In 2013, she launched the Art and Olfaction Awards, an international awards mechanism for independent perfumers. She recently served as a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art in London. Her current interests relate to the creation of open source mechanisms for the perfume industry.

Li Zheng is an associate professor in the Animation department, Shandong University of Arts, P. R. China. She is also a visiting scholar at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute between Feb 2018 and Sep 2019. Li Zheng received an M.A. in Visual Communication from Birmingham City University, United Kingdom. Her primary research interest is game design and interactive narrative.

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