Disability Justice, Technology & Access
Hello! Hope 2023 is treating you with both kindness and inspiration so far.
The Immerse winter (for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere at least) issue centers disability innovation in documentary and emerging tech — presenting perspectives from artists, activists, scholars and technologists at the vanguard of storytelling and disability justice. It’s inspired by existing efforts from our collaborators at the Access and Disability Innovation Working Group at MIT Open Doc Lab and Co-Creation Studio.
Read more about the issue from our Managing Editor Julie Fukunaga and dig into the articles:
Accessibility, iteration and lessons learned from Director Sacha Wares and team of the IDFA-award winning Museum of Austerity. - Joanna Wright
A day-in-the-life of you, a blind person in 2040, assisted by a pair of high-tech augmented reality glasses called Specs. - Dylan Fox
How Innovation Sets Me Backwards: Tech that could be enabling me is impairing me instead. - Aubrie Lee
How Can Art Reach Out and Touch Us?: A primer on haptic tech innovation and new possibilities for access in dance. - Laurel Lawson
An interview with artist, scholar, musician Frank Mondelli and their subversive re-imagining of the hearing exam. - Julie Fukunaga
VR Beyond Sight: How the Blind Burners collective opened pathways for non-visual access to virtual reality from Burning Man to beyond. - Harsha Balasubramanian and Chris Hainsworth
An interview with multisensory artist Salima Punjani on fostering intimate connection in immersive art installations. - seeley quest
On disability, access and Apple’s ad “The Greatest” - Leora Fridman
What we’re reading and watching
Niantic’s Tom Emrich takes a look back at Augmented Reality in 2022.
Matthew Ball on why VR/AR seems to get further away as it comes into focus. This is a very measured take on the incredible opportunities of both VR and AR and why it is so hard to realize them.
Brett Davidson from the International Resource for Impact and Storytelling (IRIS) on why we need new ways of thinking about narrative change work.
The architects designing surreal worlds with AI.
WolfBrown’s new community of practice is designed to support nonprofit arts organizations as they navigate the complex programmatic space of augmented, immersive, and virtual experiences.
Canada Media Fund’s 2023 Annual Trends Report: Inspirations for a collaborative future.
Was this written by a robot? These tools help detect AI-generated text.
Why the AI explosion has huge implications for the Metaverse.
Yejin Choi, an A.I. pioneer, on what we should really fear.
Projects we’re eyeballing
You can’t go wrong with Lance Weiler’s 2022 list of 50+ Immersive Things that mix storytelling, performance, play, design & code. You’re bound to discover projects here you were not aware of and it is always an inspiring look back to the year that was.
The role-playing game “On the Plane” simulates xenophobia to foster greater understanding and reflection via virtual experiences.
Do you know your Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) from your old-school photogrammetry? Check out some of the jaw-dropping projects and effects people like Karen X. Cheng and Hugues Bruyère are creating with NeRF technology.
Coming up
Festivals, Courses, and Events
Never Alone: Video Games and Other Interactive Design on at MoMA until July 16, 2023. While you are there you can also check out Refik Anadol’s Unsupervised.
Transmediale is on through Feburary 5. In-person in Berlin and with a livestream.
Electric Dreams is happening again during the Adelaide Fringe Festival 17 February - 19 March.
Horizons VR is on at Phi Centre in Montreal till March 5 so catch it while you can.
transformé is now on at Oasis immersion in Montreal. For the first time, a complete walking immersive experience has been developed from works originally designed for virtual reality headsets. I am longing to see this in person!
SXSW is taking place March 10 - 19 and there are lots of exciting new XR projects to discover. You may also be interested in Kent Bye’s session The Ultimate Potential of VR: Promises & Perils.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s TECHS-MECHS: A Survey of Mexican Technological Culture is on at Gray Area in San Francisco from March 16 - May 31.
An open group call with Australia’s The Unquiet Collective for all your questions on impact producing - February 14th and April 4th.
Submission deadlines
Sheffield Doc/Fest Alternate Realities deadline is TODAY, February 3!
U.S.-based Native American, Native Hawaiian, Alaskan Native creatives will have the opportunity to participate as a delegates at MIT for an incubator focused on Immersive and/or Interactive projects. Deadline extended to February 8.
Sunshine Cinema has partnered with the University of Cape Town to launch an online course in grassroots media facilitation. Apply by March.
Immerse is an initiative of MIT Open DocLab and Dot Connector Studio, and receives funding from Just Films | Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. The Gotham Film & Media Institute is our fiscal sponsor. Learn more about Immerse here. We are committed to exploring and showcasing emerging nonfiction projects that push the boundaries of media and tackle issues of social justice — and rely on friends like you to sustain ourselves and grow. Join us by making a gift today.
Publisher: Jessica Clark (Dot Connector Studio)
Managing Editor: Julie Fukunaga
Associate Editor: Omar El-Sabrout
Editorial Collective: Kat Cizek (MIT Open DocLab), Ingrid Kopp (Electric South), Sarah Wolozin (MIT Open DocLab)