Mentor Session: Sarah Endline (DearSarah)

Sarah Endline

Founder/CEO

Sarah E. Endline is a visionary impact entrepreneur, creative force, and global changemaker.  Sarah has served as a long time Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School and the Harvard Innovation Lab.

As the CEO and Founder of DearSarah, an innovative Benefit Corporation, she is pioneering AI for women. She also engages in the digital art scene via Sazzy and has an eco fashion statement line called Sazzy by Sarita.

Sarah’s entrepreneurial journey has included stops at Yahoo! and the founding of sweetriot in NYC, a Certified B Corporation and Inc. 500/5000, Fair Trade, Organic, which sold millions of units at places like Whole Foods.

With a scholarship-funded Harvard Business School MBA + Michigan BBA, she blends business acumen with artistic passion.

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability.

MENTOR SESSION: SARAH ENDLINE (DEARSARAH)


Collab Culture: Turning One-Off Brand Deals into Lasting Partnerships

Max Reisinger

Co-Founder/Chief Executive Officer

Max Reisinger is Co-Founder and CEO of Creator Camp. After building a community of 750,000+ subscribers through his documentary YouTube series, Max co-founded Creator Camp to help digital creators make work for the big screen. With 300 curated creators and 3 billion yearly views, the company brings Gen Z to theaters by converting online audiences into box office momentum.

Their Debut film, Two Sleepy People, grossed 3x their production budget after 1 week in theaters, with an organic marketing strategy that reached 50+ million people.

Zach Kornfeld

Try Guy!/CEO

Zach Kornfeld is a producer/performer best known for creating and starring in The Try Guys, an award-winning comedy series (15 million subscribers, 4 billion views), where he serves as co-CEO and creative lead for the brand and across their shows. He’s a digital veteran with over a decade of experience with the unique ability to bridge digital and traditional storytelling. Kornfeld is a #1 New York Times Best Selling author, a 2x award-winning podcast host, and frequently meme’d. He recently launched 2ndTry.tv, an indie streaming service, where he runs programming and creative. He's a proud advocate for the disability community and openly shares his experience with Ankylosing Spondylitis. Previously: star of a the Food Network show No Recipe Roadtrip, founding member and Producing Partner at BuzzFeed Motion Pictures.

Jodie Kennedy

Chief Revenue Officer

Jodie Kennedy is a strategic business leader with over 20 years of sales and marketing experience, known for building and leading high-performing sales teams across a wide range of industries. Prior to joining Spotter as CRO, Jodie served as Senior Director at Walmart Connect, where she led multiple verticals, including Entertainment, Gaming, Telco, Tech, and Toys. Before that, she helped launch Sphere’s Sales and Partnerships team and spent over eight years at Snapchat in several leadership roles. As Snap’s first NYC hire, Jodie played a foundational role in building the company’s initial advertising business—pioneering new ad products and driving business growth through operational excellence and high-performing, results-driven teams.

Jordan Matter

Creator

Jordan Matter’s YouTube channel has 30M subscribers and 11B views and is one of the top 5 most viewed channels in the US. He and his daughter Salish were featured in People Magazine’s Top 50 Creators in 2024. They won a Kids Choice Award in 2024 and a Webby Award in 2025. They recently launched their skincare
line, Sincerely Yours, in Sephora. Jordan has been featured on the Today Show, BBC, ABC World News, MSNBC, ZDF German TV, The Insider, People Magazine, Daily Mail UK, NY Times, NY Daily News, The Washington Post, and many more.

Waller Ballroom C

From TikTok to Toolbelt: Preparing Gen Z for Work

Higher Ed's Losing Global Talent & the Bill Is Coming Due

It Takes a Region: Cybersecurity Pathways in Rural Alabama

Rethinking Discovery Algorithms for the Creator Economy

In today’s content landscape, creators aren’t just making videos—they’re building universes. Long-form, narrative-driven programming is emerging as a way for creators to tell richer stories while incorporating brands in ways that feel natural and engaging. Creators aren’t just starring in the content—they’re producing the :15 and :30 ads that live across the platform. This session explores how creators can develop authentic brand partnerships that align with their vision, scale their careers, and transform one-off deals into long-term relationships built on trust, creativity, and shared values. Attendees will hear directly from top creators about why these deep partnerships are redefining how modern audiences connect with advertising that values authenticity and substance over surface-level promotion.

COLLAB CULTURE: TURNING ONE-OFF BRAND DEALS INTO LASTING PARTNERSHIPS

Creator Economy track sponsored by Yamaha


Why Most Companies Will Never Be AI Native

Nabil Bukhari

Nabil Bukhari firmly believes technology and business have a responsibility to improve the human condition. As a futurist, business leader, and humanist, he has a passion for the democratization of technology and is determined to contribute to a world where tech has a positive social impact.

As President, AI Platforms and Chief Technology Officer at Extreme Networks, one of the top three companies leading the cloud-managed networking market, Nabil’s vision is to make tech work for people in the age of the Infinite Enterprise. He believes in a future built on the art of possibility, centered around the brilliance of his teams and the promise of tech innovation.

Nabil’s career has taken him around the world, including entrepreneurial growth opportunities and leadership roles at some of the most recognized names in tech, including Cisco and Dell, among others. He holds a degree in Engineering, studied extensively in the arts, and earned an Executive MBA from the London School of Economics, NYU Stern, and HEC Paris.

Room 410

Technology Convergence: Winning the Exponential Upswing

Leading the AI Future: How to Think Exponentially in a Chaotic Decade

CTRL + ALT + CREATE: How AI Is Reshaping the Creative Process

How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change: A Conversation with the authors of Somebody Should Do Something

AI-native has become the goal, but for many organizations it’s unrealistic or unnecessary. This conversation will look honestly at what AI-native really means and why teams get stuck trying to achieve it. We’ll explore the technical, organizational, and human bottlenecks that hold companies back, and how strong leaders decide when to invest, when to adapt, and when to walk away. A grounded discussion about tradeoffs, judgment, and practical AI outcomes.

WHY MOST COMPANIES WILL NEVER BE AI NATIVE


Mentor Session: Nitin Bajaj (TheIndustryShow.org)

Nitin Bajaj

President

Over 25 years, I’ve built companies and products generating $400M+ in revenue and reaching millions globally. I’ve led $1B in acquisitions and worked with IBM, Esri, Bloomreach, and more across sectors like e-commerce, education, and healthcare. I founded The INDUStry Show, now the longest-running platform spotlighting South Asian changemakers, reaching 15M+ people. Today, I’m building ASAN – the American South Asian Network – to unite, empower, and elevate the next generation of South Asians across the U.S. In one year, ASAN has hosted 85+ events and engaged 10K+ people nationwide.

Room 400-402

Mentor Session: Ali Tager (National Cryptocurrency Association)

Mentor Session: Aniesia Williams (dreambloc)

Mentor Session: Avantika Bagri (Centana Growth Partners)

Mentor Session: Brittan Heller (Stanford Law School)

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Entrepreneurship, Nonprofits, Product Management/Development.

MENTOR SESSION: NITIN BAJAJ (THEINDUSTRYSHOW.ORG)


Mentor Session: Annie Hardy (Cisco)

Johanna Hardy

Global AI Architect and Futurist

As a Global AI Architect and Futurist at Cisco, Annie Hardy has a hybrid role. As an inventor, entrepreneur, and trained qualitative futurist, she is passionate about casting a vision for a north star, guiding teams to envision the future they'd like to experience. And as a Global AI Architect, she pulls those ideas down to earth, reverse-engineering that future into actionable steps customers and partners can take to realize the promise of AI.

Prior to joining Cisco, Ms. Hardy founded zeet insights, a global market and design research agency focused on the technology sector with work in solar voltaic, artificial intelligence, smart mobility, health tech, fin tech, and more. Her B2B client of global brands included Panasonic, Macmillan, AllScripts, TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Equinix, Juniper, Teradata, Frontier Communications, and Time Warner Cable Business Class among others.

Today, she collaborates with the NIST US AI Consortium, sits on Cisco's Responsible AI Champs team, and both sits on the Board of Directors of the non-profit Global Impact Initiative and leads its strategy committee. She is the proud founder and moderator of Cisco’s prolific Generative AI Explorers and Chickonomics communities, both ~ 5,000 members. She has a B.A. in Communication Arts and Spanish, with a focus on Gender Studies at Austin College, and is certified in the practice of Strategic Foresight by the University of Houston.

In addition to her professional accomplishments, Ms. Hardy is a mom of 3 who enjoys reading, writing and performing music, laughing, and cooking food her children unfortunately tend to reject.

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Entrepreneurship, Future of Work.


Mentor Meet Up

Audrey Ullman

Conference Programmer

Conference Programmer in charge of the Design and Health tracks, as well as the Mentor Program.

Room 408

Convene, Collaborate, & Cultivate Connection: Moms Meet Up

Are you a SXSW Mentor? Are you looking for a Mentor? Want to learn about Mentoring at SXSW? Join SXSW Programmer Audrey to get the scoop on the program, meet other Mentors – or if you’re a Mentee and need a little more advice!


Mentor Session: Michael Costigan (Coastal Bank)

Michael Costigan

EVP, Chief Commercial Officer

Commercial leader for Fintechs. Michael is the CCO at Coastal Bank. Previously, he led BD at OnePay, a Walmart and Ribbit Capital joint venture. At OnePay, he led the company’s $40 million Series B raise, scaled customer growth channels, and negotiated critical agreements across payments, card networks, and new product partnerships.

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, Business Development, Fintech.

MENTOR SESSION: MICHAEL COSTIGAN (COASTAL BANK)


Speaking for the Dead: How True Crime Shapes Justice

Stephanie Lim

Co-Founder and CEO

Stephanie is co-founder and CEO of Third State Books, the first general-interest publishing house dedicated exclusively to AAPI authors and stories. She previously spent fifteen years in digital marketing and operations, first as a strategist for advertising clients at Google, then leading e-commerce teams and managing multi-million-dollar advertising budgets for retail brands such as ModCloth, Bebe, and Serena Williams’s eponymous fashion label. Early in her career, she sifted through slush piles as an intern at Penguin Putnam and edited a mathematical children’s book for Charlesbridge Publishing, so her work at Third State Books feels truly like coming full circle.  Stephanie lives in San Francisco with her family.

Thien Ho

Sacramento District Attorney

Thien Ho was elected District Attorney of Sacramento County in 2022, and officially took office in January 2023. Prior to the election, Thien served in executive management as the Sacramento County Assistant Chief Deputy D.A. over the Justice and Community Relations Bureau, which handles post-conviction litigation, training, community prosecution and media outreach.

Over Thien’s 25-year career as an attorney, he successfully prosecuted sexual assault, gang and homicide cases. He was the supervisor of the Gang and Hate Crime Unit and has personally charged and prosecuted hate crimes. Most notably, he successfully prosecuted the East Area Rapist/Golden State Killer, who committed 13 murders and over 50 sexual assaults in 11 different jurisdictions throughout California. Michelle McNamara wrote about the case in her book, “I’ll be Gone in the Dark.” The case has also been featured on CNN, HBO, 20/20 and countless news outlets across the world. In November 2025, DA Ho published his first true crime memoir, The People vs. the Golden State Killer, chronicling his journey from a Vietnamese refugee to the lead prosecutor in the landmark case against serial killer and rapist Joseph DeAngelo.

Anne Soon Choi

Administrator

Anne Soon Choi is the author of the true crime biography: L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood (2025) published by Third State Books. She is currently the Assistant Vice President of Faculty Programs and Initiatives and Professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Northridge. She has previously served on the faculty of Swarthmore College, the University of Kansas and California State University, Dominguez Hills. She is also an Andrew Mellon Fellow and an American Council of Learned Societies Digital Ethnic Studies Fellow. She lives and writes in Los Angeles where she is working on her next true crime book.

Salon E

Turning Up the Heat: Climate Content That Clicks

Growing Intelligence: Youth, AI, and the Future of Ag

Mall Rats Reborn: How Hot Topic is Using Entertainment to Revitalise Retail

Culture Under Fire: Storytelling for Public Power

How to Win Friends and Overthrow Systems

True crime is one of the most powerful ways the public grapples with justice, violence, and accountability. This conversation brings together Thien Ho, Sacramento DA and lead prosecutor on the Golden State Killer case, and historian Anne Soon Choi, whose biography of Thomas Noguchi explores the Coroner to the Stars'  most famous cases, including Marilyn Monroe and RFK. The authors explore how law, forensic practice, emerging technology, and storytelling shape how victims are represented, cold cases are solved, and truth is constructed in the public eye. Moderated by publisher Stephanie Lim.

SPEAKING FOR THE DEAD: HOW TRUE CRIME SHAPES JUSTICE


How to Get the Job: Building a Career in Music

Sofia Martinez

Assistant to Music Agent

Born and raised in Houston, Sofia Martinez has built her career around connecting artists with their audiences. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, she developed her expertise as an independent manager as well as through through roles at C3 Presents and SXSW and as a student of the For The Students Music Business Foundations program.

Now at WME in Los Angeles, Sofia books tours for pop and rock clients routing through central U.S. clubs and ballrooms, leveraging her deep knowledge of the regional market to build strategic routing for developing and established artists.

Philip Payne

President & Founder

Capitol Ballroom FGH

Global Stage @ Downright Austin Backyard

Syncrets to Success: Conversation With Music Supervisors

Mexico Amplified: How Música Mexicana is Reshaping Global Music

Streaming, Shorts & AI: Where Are Your Royalties Going?

Philip Payne and Sofia Martinez will reveal how they secured roles at major music companies. Whether you’re aiming for a full-time position or independent contract work, they will share the exact strategies they used to get their foot in the door.

From A&R and touring to agency roles, Philip and Sofia will break down what actually work - including successful cold outreach and turning internships into careers.

You’ll walk away with industry-standard networking tips and a personalized roadmap to jumptart your own career.

HOW TO GET THE JOB: BUILDING A CAREER IN MUSIC


Mentor Session: Mark Pasetsky (Mark Allen & Co.)

Mark Pasetsky

Founder, CEO

As CEO and principal strategist at Mark Allen & Co., Mark leads a team that advises chief executives at leading global brands, creative companies, publishers, AI leaders, purpose-driven organizations, consumer products and enterprising startups. The firm’s roster includes household names like Accenture Interactive, AARP, Acceleration Community of Companies, ADWEEK, BBH USA, GUT, Hill Holliday, Madwell, SS+K, Buick, GMC, Exiger, MTV, Samsung, VH1, W Hotels and many more.

Room 400-402

Mentor Session: Ali Tager (National Cryptocurrency Association)

Mentor Session: Aniesia Williams (dreambloc)

Mentor Session: Avantika Bagri (Centana Growth Partners)

Mentor Session: Brittan Heller (Stanford Law School)

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Marketing/Advertising/PR, Content Strategy/Production, Entrepreneurship.

MENTOR SESSION: MARK PASETSKY (MARK ALLEN & CO.)

Brand & Marketing track sponsored by Youtube


Innovators Today and the Future of Play

Mitchel Berger

Executive Vice President, Global Commerce

Mitchel Berger oversees all consumer products, merchandise, content sales, and
theatrical businesses for Crunchyroll.

Berger is credited for managing the distribution of 10 of the top 20 highest-grossing
anime releases of all time in North America, including Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No
Yaiba Infinity Castle in 2025, which has become the highest-grossing international
film ever released in North America and the highest grossing anime film of all time in
56 territories including North America. Other hit films include Demon Slayer -
Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train in 2021, Dragon Ball Super: SUPER HERO
in 2022, and JUJUTSU KAISEN 0 in 2022. Berger also managed the global distribution
of the award-winning director Makoto Shinkai’s film Suzume, which garnered a
Golden Globe nomination.

While at Funimation, Berger was responsible for instituting the “next-day” Electronic
Sell-Through (EST) strategy, bringing both subtitled and dubbed episodes of new
anime shows to major EST platforms within 48 hours of their premiere. Berger has
also helped establish the e-commerce storefront Funimation Shop as the premier
hub for Funimation merchandise, home entertainment, and collectibles.

Prior to joining Funimation and, post-merger, Crunchyroll, Berger spent 21 years with
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. During his time at Universal, he handled a
wide range of retail, rental, and distribution accounts, including spending three years
as the Vice President of Sales and Walmart team lead. For the last two years at
Universal, he served as the Sr. Vice President of Sales, Category Management, and
Customer Marketing for North America.

Berger holds a degree from the University of Miami. He is based in Dallas.

Valerie Vacante

Collabsco | Fast Company Executive Board

Founder, Managing Partner

Val Vacante is an award-winning global innovator pioneering intelligent products and breakthrough experiences across AI, emerging technology, gaming, retail, and play.

She has led and launched products and experiences across gaming, toys, retail, and immersive platforms for more than 50 global brands, including Meta, Microsoft, Roblox, IKEA, Mattel, Hasbro, Disney, Bandai Namco, PepsiCo, Galderma, Mercedes-Benz, and MINI.

Val helps organizations identify whitespace and create market-first platforms and connected experiences—pioneering shoppable gaming and live-stream commerce, launching first-of-their-kind brand experiences on platforms like Roblox and Twitch, and designing fan-first activations that blur play, entertainment, and community.

She is the visionary behind Intelligent Messaging, an award-winning AI-powered multimodal messaging solution showcased at CES, SXSW, and Cannes Lions. In collaboration with Meta, Val founded the Global Meta Messaging Alliance, giving brands early access to emerging messaging products.

She also co-created Dentsu NXT Space with Microsoft, LinkedIn, and HeadOffice.AI, named Best of CES by PSFK, and led the development of ShopNXT patented retail technologies focused on personalization, loyalty, and customer joy. Val also architected NXT Intelligence, a modular innovation platform leveraged by Fortune 500 brands across gaming, anime, entertainment, retail, and emerging tech.

Val is the Founder of Collabsco, a strategy and innovation firm building award-winning products across AI, IoT, AR, VR, voice, robotics, and connected play ecosystems.

Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes, VentureBeat, Adweek, and Digiday, and presented on global stages including CES, SXSW, Cannes Lions, Comic-Con, and Games for Change.

She has been named a Top 25 Woman in Tech, VentureBeat Woman in AI, Product Management Leader of the Year, and one of the Most Powerful Women in Technology. Val serves on the SXSW Advisory Board and the Fast Company Executive Board, and mentors future creators and technologists at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design).

Nic Hill

Chief Innovation Officer

Nic Hill is the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at creative agency Sawhorse, where he leads award-winning branded content, gaming, and immersive marketing work for some of the world’s biggest brands. He’s also the co-host of Brands In Play, an immersive marketing podcast exploring how culture, technology, and play are reshaping the future of advertising. On the show, Nic interviews leaders from brands, platforms, and agencies about what’s next for consumer engagement. He’s passionate about the evolving marketing landscape and the role emerging technologies play in how audiences connect with brands.

Chris Down

Chief Design & Innovation Officer

Chris Down, EVP, Chief Design & Innovation Officer at Mattel, has spent over 30 years leading the creation of award-winning products, packages, and experiences across a range of industries – from designing board games for Parker Brothers, to producing award-winning video games for Hasbro Interactive, and co-founding innovation incubator Atari Labs. At Mattel, he heads consumer insights, toy design, and innovation across dozens of iconic brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels, American Girl, Masters of the Universe, UNO, and Fisher-Price. With a background in physical play, digital gaming, and industrial design, Chris understands how impactful design drives consumer loyalty and sustainable business value.

Waller Ballroom D

Media That Matters: Nuclear Weapons & the Next Generation

Rethinking Higher Education to Build an AI-First Workforce

The Big Blur: Rethinking the Transition from School to Work

Building AI Pathways for HBCU Talent & Community Impact

The Fandom Force: How to Create a Fan-First Social Approach

For generations, play has shaped how we imagine, connect, and create. Today it spans toys, gaming, anime, sports, and emerging tech, blending physical and digital worlds into shared experiences. As new technologies, platforms, and global fandoms accelerate, play is being redefined in real time.

Play is no longer confined to a toy aisle, a console, or a screen; it now unfolds across worlds, driven by creativity, community, and connection.

Join industry innovators exploring how breakthrough technologies, powerhouse partnerships, and mixed-world experiences are shapin g the future of play, creativity, and culture.


Mentor Session: Luis Eduardo Márquez Garrido

Luis Eduardo Marquez Garrido

RightsCon Senior Program Coordinator

Luis Márquez Garrido is originally from Venezuela, and now lives and works in Belgium. He is interested in digital rights, political communication, and geopolitics.

Currently, he is the RightsCon Senior Coordinator of Program Building and Engagement at Access Now. From Brussels, he coordinates the development and implementation of the community program of RightsCon, the leading global conference on digital rights. The Call for Proposals for RightsCon 2026 (Lusaka, Zambia and online, May 5-8) receive 1600+ proposals from 130+ countries.

Luis holds a bachelor’s degree in International Studies from Universidad Central de Venezuela and two master’s degrees, one in Political Communication from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and another in Diplomacy from the Diplomatic School of Spain.

After living in Sugar Land, Texas (2000-2005) and playing several tennis tournaments in Austin, Luis is super excited to fulfil a lifetime goal: attend SXSW.

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Nonprofits, Funding, Policy.

MENTOR SESSION: LUIS EDUARDO MARQUEZ GARRIDO


Mentor Session: Tom Nash (Tom Nash)

Tom Nash

Director

Tom Nash lost all four limbs at 19 after contracting a life-threatening disease.

Learning to walk with prosthetics and adapt to life with hooks, he not only survived but thrived—building a successful entertainment company & platinum record label, curating iconic nightclub events, and becoming one of the country's most in-demand DJs, performing at sell-out shows and major music festivals worldwide.

Today, Tom inspires audiences as an international speaker on Antifragility over resilience, and turning adversity into advantage, using lessons that work as well in boardrooms as they do in nightclubs.

With appearances from TED to SXSW and a variety of major global conferences, he combines dark humour, sharp wit, and hard-won wisdom to deliver unforgettable talks that challenge perspectives and empower people to embrace change.

Meeting with this mentor is highly recommended if you're interested in Business Development, Entrepreneurship, Accessibility, Storytelling.


From NPC to Main Character: The Power of Belonging

Rachel Lowenstein

Founder + Culture Strategist

Rachel Lowenstein is a forthright cultural decoder and storyteller reshaping narratives around neurodiversity and creativity. She’s been a trusted advisor to iconic brands inc. Nike, Chanel, Google, Unilever, Booking.com, UN Women, Volvo and Nestlé. She navigates cultural complexities and drives meaningful social impact through bold storytelling.
Today, Rachel runs her own culture consultancy and is the co-founder of The Neu Project, an experience design agency focusing on neuro-informed design. Her visionary work earned her recognition as one of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 (2023) and Advertising Week’s Female Is Female Award (2022). Rachel is also a sought-after international speaker, having taken stages at the United Nations, Cannes Lions, SXSW, CES, Advertising Week, and Yale University.

Haye Anderson

Brand Director

Throughout her career, Haye Anderson has pushed creative boundaries, telling brand stories in fresh, unexpected ways. At Ubisoft—a creator of worlds committed to enriching lives with memorable entertainment—she leads brand and marketing for the Anno franchise, a premiere builder game in the strategy genre. Its next release, Anno 117: Pax Romana, lets players step into the sandals of a Roman governor in 117 AD. Will you expand through economic growth or military dominance? Unite cultures or crush rebellion? The cost of peace is yours to decide. Since its rebrand to reach wider audiences, Anno has earned industry acclaim, including recognition from It’s Nice That as a 2024 Branding Moment of the Year and a Gold NYX Gameshow award for Brand Identity.

Waterloo Ballroom 3

Hsu Untied: Beyond Numbers: Decision-Making in the Math Classroom

The Learning Geeks: How to Think When Machines Think Faster

Chalk & Gavel: Navigating the Tides of an Education Law Sea Change

Beyond Voting: Defending Truth in Education: AI, Equity, & Power

Forget Moments Marketing: Welcome to Worldbuilding

Cultural conversations around “main character energy” and a loneliness epidemic have made some feel like NPCs in the game of life. But what drives someone to join a Twitch stream or wear a jersey to a bar? Belonging. Fandoms aren’t mindless obsessions — they’re identity-shaping communities that turn disconnected observers into players. This talk explores how brands can drive growth through belonging by inviting people in through storytelling, access, and shared imagination—turning passive audiences into passionate communities.

FROM NPC TO MAIN CHARACTER: THE POWER OF BELONGING


Co-Creating the Future of XR Distribution

Scarlett Kim

Executive Creative Producer

Scarlett Kim is a director and producer innovating the intersection of live experiences and immersive media. A polymath, Scarlett creates participatory experiences that reimagine liveness, drawing from theatre, XR, game, and ritual. Scarlett is Executive Creative Producer of Center for Unclassifiable Technologies & Experiences (C.U.T.E.); Co-Founder of Independent XR Distribution Coalition at MIT Open Doc Lab; and Co-Founder of Worlds in Play. Scarlett serves on the board of Los Angeles Performance Practice, is a member of The Kilroys, and mentors for NEW INC. Recently, she was Director of Innovation & Strategy of Oregon Shakespeare Festival, interdisciplinary fellow at Royal Shakespeare Company, and visiting artist at Stanford.

Sarah Wolozin

Director

Sarah Wolozin is a research scientist and director of the MIT Open Documentary Lab. She is the co-founder of the Independent XR Distribution Coalition, founder and editorial director of Docubase, and co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio. Her publications include Creating Community in Hybrid Festivals as author and Collective Wisdom: Co-creating Media for Equity and Justice as co-author. Before arriving at MIT, she worked on award-winning documentaries and educational media for a wide variety of media outlets including PBS, WGBH, NPR, websites and museums. In 2023, she was awarded an insignia of  Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government for his service to the immersive arts fields.

Guadalupe

What We’re Unlearning on Supporting Education Systems

Shaping Education in a Culture x Tech World

Independent Film Publicity: How to Earn Media Attention

As immersive media rapidly evolves, we face a critical window of opportunity to shape an equitable distribution ecosystem. Join the Independent XR Distribution Coalition for a participatory workshop on imagining a flourishing XR field. The session will begin with a presentation of distribution pipeline research and a database of venues and platforms, followed by a mapping exercise that surfaces the issues artists, audiences, and producers face in XR. Participants will sketch speculative distribution pathways across diverse platforms, using artist-centered strategies as building blocks.

CO-CREATING THE FUTURE OF XR DISTRIBUTION


Stories from a Second Chance

Jesse Crosson

Executive Director

Jesse Crosson was incarcerated just after his 18th birthday and sentenced to serve 32 years in prison. It seemed like the end, but it was only the beginning.

Jesse turned his life around, graduated from Ohio University, helped start a peer support mental health program and eventually earned a conditional pardon from the Governor.

After receiving the pardon, Crosson walked out into the world after 19 years of incarceration and hit the ground running. He exploded on social media and started Second Chancer Foundation to help bridge the gap between incarceration and opportunity.

His book, The Best Part of Prison is released March 10, 2026, and will have its debut reading at SXSW.

Jesse is passionate about helping people earn second chances and find freedom.

Salon A

The Creative Power of Letting Go: Why Quitting Can Be Your Biggest Breakthrough

Charmageddon: Robots That Steal Hearts and Jobs

Shortchanged: Gen Z, the Economy, and Brands

SWIFTYNOMICS: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy

Join author Jesse Crosson for a special first-public reading of his forthcoming memoir,  (publishing March 10, 2026). In this session, Jesse will read select passages that dive into his journey and how the hard-won lessons he learned apply to your life as well! He will discuss how accountability is the pathway to freedom, how service is redemption in action and how building a life of options is much more successful than building a life of plans.

This is a rare chance to hear these stories live and unfiltered, straight from the place where transformation began. Pre-order the book now and be among the first to hear the journey from darkness to rebirth—on stage at SXSW.

https://www.jessecrosson.com/my-book/


The Future of Storytelling in the Age of AI

David Rogier

Founder & CEO

David Rogier is the Founder and CEO of MasterClass, the streaming platform that provides the insights, tools and lived experiences of the world’s best so that members can become their best at work and in life. Growing up, Rogier loved learning but often struggled in school. Determined to reinvent the traditional model and provide lifelong learning opportunities for everyone, he created MasterClass in 2015. His vision was to capture, share and preserve invaluable knowledge and stories from the world’s best so future generations could access  them. MasterClass has since transformed the lifelong-learning category providing unprecedented access to 200+ of the world’s best instructors.

Salon AB

Two Futurists and an AI: Seeing Trouble Ahead

How We Could Lose Control: Avoiding the Paths to Runaway AI

U.S. vs. The World: the Future We’re (Currently) Losing

The Clock Is Ticking for Space – Replacing the ISS

Can Media Survive AI? The Fight for Public Trust

Why is everyone still reading the same article when no two readers are alike? This session challenges the future of storytelling in AI—where the promise isn’t cheaper content, but stories as personal as your own fingerprint.

Led by MasterClass founder and CEO David Rogier, this conversation will challenge assumptions about creativity, technology, and culture—and invite the audience to imagine a future where AI helps us tell the most human stories of all: our own.


Conversation Culture: A Live AI Search Audit for Brands

Rachael Zahn

SVP, Strategic Marketing

Tina Fleming

Senior Director of AI Optimization

Tina Fleming is the Senior Director of AI Optimization at Avenue Z, where she leads the agency’s proprietary approach to AI-era visibility, performance media, and brand discoverability. With over a decade of experience in digital strategy and search intelligence, Tina has helped Fortune 500 brands and emerging startups adapt to the algorithmic age, bridging the gap between human storytelling and machine learning. She is a frequent educator on AI literacy and the future of brand visibility.

Brazos I-III

Division Defiance: Building Cross-Racial Solidarity

In Search of Hope: Teaching Climate Emotions Through Story

Beyond Borders: Diverse Alliances for Immigrant Wellbeing

Future-Proof Your Strategy: An AI Test and Learn Lab

Pitch Camp! How To Win Creative Pitches by Being More Human

Search is no longer transactional—it’s cultural, it’s conversational, it’s AI—and the algorithm is the audience. In this live workshop, we’ll conduct real-time AI search audits of participating brands to show how they appear (or disappear) across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI-native platforms. You’ll learn how visibility in AI search directly impacts lead generation, revenue, and reputation, and walk away with an audit framework and tactics to grow brand authority where it matters most: in the conversations AI remembers.

CONVERSATION CULTURE: A LIVE AI SEARCH AUDIT FOR BRANDS


You Can’t Create Cultural Relevance Without Community

Anne Santoro

SVP, Marketing

Anne Santoro serves as Senior Vice President of Marketing at Dexcom, where she leads global marketing strategy to drive acquisition, engagement, and long term loyalty across the company’s growing portfolio of life changing glucose biosensing technologies.
In this role, Anne also oversees the company’s worldwide public relations and community relations efforts, helping elevate authentic voices and strengthen Dexcom’s connection to the communities it empowers.
Since joining Dexcom in 2016, Anne has played a key role in the company’s evolution into a global industry pioneer. She was a founding leader of Dexcom’s Direct to Consumer marketing organization, driving brand awareness and accelerating consumer adoption during a transformative period for continuous glucose monitoring, and she established Dexcom’s Customer Experience function, building voice of customer programs and leading continuous optimization efforts across the entire user experience.
Prior to joining Dexcom, Anne held marketing and patient experience leadership roles at UC San Diego Health and UC Health in Denver. There, she led direct to consumer and provider marketing efforts, built digital teams, managed sports partnerships, and supported physician recruitment and service line expansion. She began her career in agency environments, partnering with clients across sporting goods, technology, and healthcare.
Anne earned her B.A. in Communications from the University of Iowa. A passionate advocate for inclusive leadership and workplace equity, she served as co president of Dexcom’s Women’s Initiative Network. She lives in San Diego, California, with her husband and three children.

Patrick O’keefe

Chief Integrated Marketing Officer

Patrick O’Keefe, Chief, Integrated Marketing Officer, e.l.f. Beauty

A true digital and experiential disrupter, Patrick has spent the past 15+ years in the beauty industry focused on bringing brands to life with an integrated approach through Digital, Paid Media, Data Driven Marketing, Social, Influencer and Retail Partnerships. He joined the e.l.f. Beauty team in September 2019, where he brought his deep expertise to create the Integrated Marketing Communication team. Patrick is tasked with driving seamless integration and bullet proof brand consistency across all paid media, social media, influencer marketing and public relations for all brands in the e.l.f. Beauty portfolio. He is an integral part of the go-to-market strategy and helps lead the marketing efforts to explore new frontiers. Prior to e.l.f., Patrick was the Vice President of Integrated Consumer Communications at L’Oréal working on the Matrix and Biolage brands and driving results in the haircare and color categories. He also previously worked at Shiseido and supported hairdressers, makeup artists, nail techs and estheticians with the largest association management firm in the United States building their experiential marketing programs. Before the beauty industry, he worked at Walt Disney World and served in the United States Air Force.

Marcus Collins

University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business

Professor, Best Selling Author, Keynote Speaker, Cultural Scholar

Dr. Marcus Collins is an award-winning marketer and cultural translator, blending practice and academia as a marketing professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and former Head of Strategy at Wieden+Kennedy NY. He’s helped shape blue-chip brands and startups, earning Advertising Age’s and Crain’s 40 Under 40 honors, induction into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement, and Thinkers50’s Radar Award. His strategies fueled McDonald’s cultural resurgence, Google’s “Real Tone,” Beyoncé’s digital strategy, and the “Made In America” festival. Author of the best-selling For The Culture, Marcus explores how culture drives behavior. He holds a doctorate in marketing, an MBA, and an engineering degree from Michigan and is a proud Detroit native and father.

Lisa Rosenberg

Global President, Consumer Brands

Lisa is a creative instigator who believes brands thrive at the intersection of culture and commerce. She has spent her career developing award-winning campaigns for major global brands, including Budweiser, Gillette, IHG, Mars and Corona. Lisa and her team launched the award-winning Brandgeist® IQ, an AI-powered methodology that measures the real-time cultural relevance of brands. A noted industry leader, Lisa, is often quoted on brand and marketing trends and publishes a biweekly newsletter, The Roar. She has also served on numerous award juries, including Cannes Lions, The Clios and PRWeek Awards, among others. She has twice been recognized by PRovoke Media as an Innovator 25, by PRWeek as a Hall of Femme and a Champion of PR and has won more than 100 awards on behalf of her clients

Waterloo Ballroom 4-6

The B Word: How to Get Creative with Marketing Budget

Meet Gen Alpha: Defying Predictions & Rewiring Marketing

Launching the Ultimate, Research-Driven Creative Power Playbook

Pride Preview '26: Marketers, LGBTQ+ & Where We Go From Here

For marketers, being part of culture is no longer optional. As community-led discovery overtakes search monoculture, smart brands recognize that communities don’t want sponsors; they want neighbors. 65% of consumers say they’re more loyal to brands that foster meaningful connections. This panel explores the difference between relevance and rejection and demonstrates how showing up with humility, consistency, and value turns audiences into collaborators, unlocking cultural traction that drives lasting loyalty.

YOU CAN?T CREATE CULTURAL RELEVANCE WITHOUT COMMUNITY


Resistance into Momentum: Leading Through Reluctant Change

Jeff Skipper

International Change & Strategy Expert

Jeff Skipper brings a human-centered perspective to change, combining psychology, leadership, and business expertise to turn disruption into opportunity. For over 25 years he has helped leaders engage their people, overcome resistance, and achieve bold goals. He has advised global brands like Bayer, BP, and The Salvation Army, and is the author of Dancing with Disruption. With a master’s in organizational psychology, Jeff energizes audiences with fresh, actionable insights on leading transformation.

Salon B

Innovating in Science & Tech When Budgets are Tight

How To Meaningfully Connect in a World That Has Gone to Sh*t

It's a Whole Thing: Gen Z Work Relationships in the Age of AI

Better Leadership Starts with Understanding the Stressed Brain

Change isn’t optional—but engagement is. In this energizing talk, change strategist Jeff Skipper reveals how leaders can turn organizational resistance into momentum. With stories from Fortune 100 transformations and fast-growing companies, Jeff shows why most change fails (hint: it’s not the process) and how to co-create clarity, alignment, and commitment—even in reluctant teams. Walk away with tools to lead change with precision and humanity, and yes—maybe even a little grace.

RESISTANCE INTO MOMENTUM: LEADING THROUGH RELUCTANT CHANGE

Workplace track sponsored by University of Cincinnati


We’re on the Cusp of Communicating with Whales

Nathan Lump

SVP, Editor in Chief

Nathan Lump is SVP and Editor in Chief of National Geographic Editorial He leads the strategic and creative development of National Geographic’s editorial content across all platforms, including the National Geographic print magazine, website, and social media channels. Nathan manages an award-winning, multi-media, multi-platform team of over 100+ people. Under his leadership, Nat Geo has embraced new forms of interactive digital storytelling and was named “Brand of the Year” by the Society of Publication Designers. Nathan joined in 2022 from Expedia Group and has held senior editorial roles at Travel + Leisure, Time Inc., The New York Times, and Condé Nast.

David Gruber

Founder and President of Project CETI, Marine Biologist, Professor, and National Geographic Explorer

David Gruber is the Founder & CEO of Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), a nonprofit organization as well as a National Geographic Society program that brings together over 50 scientists across eight disciplines to translate the communication of sperm whales. CETI has made pioneering scientific discoveries such as the elucidation of the sperm whale phonetic alphabet and sperm whale vowels.

CETI’s vision is that these findings applied across species to exemplify how technology deepens human connection and motivation to protect the natural world. Gruber fostered the CETI - NYU School of Law’s “More Than Human Life” (MOTH) program collaboration. Together CETI and MOTH have published a futuristic legal article (What if We Understood What Animals Are Saying? The Legal Impact of AI-Assisted Studies of Animal Communication) that maps the potential impact for CETI’s findings on protections for whales and other lifeforms. CETI also conducts youth education and arts initiatives in Dominica, where its core research takes place, as well as global storytelling and arts initiatives.

Gruber is also Distinguished Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences at the City University of New York and has been a National Geographic Explorer since 2014. His two decades of research before CETI, focused on climate, coral reef and deep ocean science. His laboratory invented technologies to perceive the underwater world from the perspective of marine animals, such as the “shark-eye-camera.”

Room 201-202

Rewriting the Rules of Business: A Guide to Purpose & Profit

The Geography of Prosperity: A New Map for Resilient Cities

Saving Monarchs With Machine Learning and Computer Vision

Where Climate Science Meets Industry Innovation

Chasing one of the most ambitious scientific discoveries of our time, a group of biologists, linguists, roboticists, & legal scholars have joined forces to understand what animals are saying to each other & devise a way to talk to them. Leveraging state-of-the-art technology, including a groundbreaking machine learning engine, Project CETI scientists have made huge progress decoding the communication of sperm whales. We will explore the impact of interspecies communication & what it means for humanity, the legal rights of animals, animal intelligence, and the future of conservation.

WE?RE ON THE CUSP OF COMMUNICATING WITH WHALES


Radiolab: How It's Made and What That Means for You

Simon Adler

Senior Producer / Correspondent

Simon Adler has been at Radiolab for over a decade. There he has reported, produced and sound designed stories on everything from professional wrestling to Facebook's content moderation policies.

Waller Ballroom A

Texas High School Shorts Screening & Q&A

From Who to What to You: The Weird AI-Infused Future of the Creator Economy

From Viral to Viable: Building IP as a Creator

Radiolab is one of the world’s most groundbreaking audio programs—famous for its curiosity-driven storytelling, innovative sound design, and ability to make complex ideas feel both thrilling and human. Now, you can get a behind-the-scenes look at how it all comes together.

In this masterclass, we'll trace every step of the production process. We'll explore how the show finds and structures stories that keep listeners hooked. We'll dive into the show's unique approach to scoring and sound design. And we'll discuss how to use these practices in your next project.

RADIOLAB: HOW IT'S MADE AND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU


Artistic Disruption for Business Innovation

Michael Marshall

User Experience Lead

Michael Marshall leads user experience research at United Airlines, where he integrates futurist methods into product innovation and customer experience strategy. For over a decade, Michael has operated at the intersection of community-driven social art, anthropology, and emerging technology in international creative incubators. His workshops across the U.S. blend playful improv and visual storytelling, helping teams transcend conventional ideas. Co-founder of Chicago Futures Salon, Michael leverages deep expertise in avant-garde art movements to build cross-disciplinary futurist communities, inspiring bold new visions for the future.

Michael Hyzy

Vice President of Strategy and Innovation

Mike Hyzy is a corporate consulting strategist who partners with Fortune 500 executives to bring innovation to product development and creativity into their adoption of machine learning and generative AI. He regularly contributes insights to Forbes, Built In, and Mind the Product, sharing practical frameworks and innovative strategies. Mike also developed the Product Studio at CGI, a creative product agency service offering, and co-founded the Chicago Futures Salon, an influential community that combines avant-garde creativity methods with strategic foresight to inspire breakthrough thinking and bold action.

Rio Grande Ballroom 1

You Are STILL the Brand: What AI Can’t Do for You

Sprints for Social Impact: Turn Time Pressure into Purpose

Vibe Coding: From Idea to MVP at Warp Speed

Look What You Made Me Do: Revenge as Creative Catalyst

It Writes Itself: AI Variety Show & Creative Workshop

Unlock radical imagination with avant-garde creativity methods from Chicago’s Futurist Salon. In this interactive workshop for innovation and culture leaders, you’ll apply speculative avant-garde techniques—surrealist games (metaphor jamming, automatic writing), situationist exercises (dérive-style cultural mapping), and futurist scenario play—to reframe challenges, discover unseen connections, and spark breakthrough ideas. You’ll leave with hands-on tools and a simple framework for hosting your own salons that shift mental models and drive bold innovation across your organization.

ARTISTIC DISRUPTION FOR BUSINESS INNOVATION


The Analog Revival: Handmade in the Age of AI

Ben Treat

Founder

Ben Treat, the visual artist behind the TikTok channel Frantic Frames, is a stop motion animator, working on projects for brands such as Toyota, Irish Spring, Adobe, Netflix, and Samsung. While stop-motion has existed on the internet since its inception, Treat creates animations that are purposefully intricate, involving fluid, complicated movement. Almost all animations are followed by a behind-the-scenes TikTok, and since each project takes so long to produce, his behind-the-scenes looks are shared as time-lapses.

Max Kolo

Artist and Filmmaker

Max Kolo is a NYC based visual artist. He's known for his unconventional internet videos where he solves mundane problems using art and design.

Marina Totino

miniature artist, filmmaker, and storyteller

Marina is a miniature artist and filmmaker based in Montreal. She creates surreal, handmade dioramas inspired by nostalgia, liminal spaces, and late 20th-century suburbia. Her work blends cinematic storytelling with miniature world-building to create scenes that feel familiar, eerie, and just slightly off.

Salon D

Who’s Funding the Future—and Who’s Getting Left Out

Thrive or Survive: Why Creativity is the Key to an AI-Future

The Story of Stories—The Million Year History of Storytelling

Skills You’ll Need To Succeed in the Post-AI Age

Through the Noise: The State of Science Storytelling

In a world of AI content, audiences crave the imperfections of handmade art. From viral stop motion to sold-out film rolls and indie zines, analog crafts are booming. This panel explores how creators use nostalgia, scarcity, and authenticity to build loyal communities, monetize slowness, collaborate across mediums, and cut through digital noise.

ANALOG REVIVAL: HANDMADE IN THE AGE OF AI


This is cool: Immersive Videos in headsets are exciting!

Paul Mezier

Chief Operating Officer

Paul Mezier is the co-founder of Acute Immersive, a streaming platform for immersive video on Apple Vision Pro. With a background in XR, film, and creative technology, he has led business development and content partnerships for startups and studios across the US and Europe. Paul has helped launch award-winning VR experiences and spatial video tools used by top creators. He brings a strategic lens to the intersection of storytelling, product, and distribution in immersive media.

Room 412

Agents vs Managers: When are you ready to be signed and by who?

The Price of Influence: Why Undefined Value Kills Trust

10 Truths About Technology That Are Shaping Your Life

Tackling the “snakes” undermining digital rights

I know, I know: you’ve seen it all before. In 2016-2020, many people thought VR would be *the thing*. It didn’t happen, and you’ve moved on. We didn’t. See: VR is cool, actually. Talk to any creative, any filmmaker: they want in. Why? BECAUSE IT’S AWESOME! Come to this talk and learn how the latest cameras and headsets *finally* make it easy to create mind-blowing experiences. I’ll show you a few projects that came out recently, share some audience numbers - and you’ll get why Immersive Videos are the most undervalued creative opportunity at the moment!

THIS IS COOL: IMMERSIVE VIDEOS IN HEADSETS ARE EXCITING!


The Present and Future of Live Experiences

Julius Solaris

Founder

Julius Solaris is the founder of Boldpush. He works as a consultant with Fortune 500, technology and event companies on strategy.

He founded and sold two businesses, EventMB (now Skift Meetings) and Showthemes. 10 Million people read Julius' content in 2025, making him become a Top Voice on LinkedIn.

Julius was inducted into the Event Industry Council Hall of Leaders in 2024, the highest recognition given to event industry leaders.
He’s also in the 2025 Xlist top experience maker and was named the most influential of the past 25 years by Bizbash.

He is the recipient of the first Outstanding Contribution Award in Event Technology.

Over 300,000 event professionals have downloaded Julius’ research and reports.

Julius has been a keynote in 18 countries for over 250,000 attendees.

Onyx Ballroom 1-4

AI and Inclusive Storytelling: Tech's Effect on Representation

Shifting From Beauty to Belonging—the Next Cultural Movement

Harnessing AI Without Losing Our Minds: A Playbook

Events have been the most sought after B2B marketing channel over the past four years. In the age of AI and deep polarization, in person experiences offer the perfect outlet for multiple generations to gather and engage with brands. But events are not easy! What is working today and how are brands engaging offline? Join Julius Solaris for a data-backed journey with a clear objective, helping you make your events more attended, sponsored and engaging.


SXSW Pitch "Meet the Startups"

Salon FGH

SXSW Pitch-Healthcare, AssistiveTech & BioTech

SXSW Pitch-Sustainability, AgTech & Food

SXSW Pitch-Smart Cities, Transportation, Manufacturing & Logistics

SXSW Pitch-Smart Data, Security, and FinTech

When the pitches are complete and the winners are revealed, the excitement continues! Meet our amazing startups, connect with their founders, and check out live product demos.


Futuring Our World: An Imaginative Ideathon

Speakeasy

German DeepTech and AI Innovation Unleashed: Day 1 at German Haus

Future in Focus: Meet Germany’s Top AI Startups

Innovation for Everyone: Day 2 at German Haus

MediaTech Morning: Breakfast, Networking & Beyond Screens – MediaTech as the New Infrastructure

We don’t enter the future – we imagine it first. In this ideathon, participants “hack the future” through collaborative imagination, treating the future as an active practice we can shape together. Moving through themed stations across society – cities, work, tech, & the arts – we’ll examine how narratives of progress shape innovation. The session will be facilitated by social scientists from the Technical University of Munich in cooperation with the City of Austin, creatives, and other partners.
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FUTURING OUR WORLD: AN IMAGINATIVE IDEATHON

German Haus

The GERMAN HAUS is the main venue of the joint German presentation at SXSW and it features a
variety of curated networking events, roundtables, presentations, and music performances, creating a unique environment for professional exchange, international networking, and the discovery of new creative partnerships.

GERMAN HAUS AT SXSW 2026
March 12 – 16, 2026
SPEAKEASY, 412 Congress Avenue, Austin, TX 78701

Speakeasy, 412 Congress Avenue, Austin, TX 78701

AI that Ships: A Tech Lunch on Moving from Policy to Pilot


XR Experience Spotlight

Philippe Cohen Solal

For over three decades now, Philippe Cohen Solal has made his mark as an architect of electronic music and a self-taught composer. He worked in many different areas of music production: from A&R to film scores, DJing and record making. In 2001 he co-founded "Gotan Project," an ambitious balance between electronic music and tango.

Fairmont

Free Professional Headshots Presented by Precision Camera & Video with Fujifilm

Masterful immersive art from around the world.

XR Experience Spotlight

Masterful immersive art from around the world.

Masterful immersive art from around the world.

Reality Looks Back

Tactile immersive experience examining the bizarre presence of quantum duality in the context of mundane daily life

Lesbian Simulator

"Lesbian Simulator" is an interactive virtual reality artwork and video game immerses the user in the experiences of a lesbian. It’s an ode to sexual orientation and love with a serious issue: the discrimination that lesbians still face today.

Out of Nowhere

Our weather is getting angrier. Everywhere.

By protecting nature, we can protect ourselves. What happens if we fail to do that?

A Long Goodbye

In this animated, interactive VR experience, we walk in Ida’s shoes, a 72-year-old pianist living with dementia. "A Long Goodbye" is a poetic experience about the long goodbye of two lovers who shared a life together.

The Dollhouse

In the unfolding paper world of "The Dollhouse," a little girl uses the power of play to untangle her troubled memories.

Spectacular: The Art of Jonathan Yeo in Augmented Reality

A unique artistic experience conceived by artist Jonathan Yeo in collaboration with Spectacles and Snap's AR Studio. It offers a playful, futuristic vision of museum visitation and a personalized journey into the heart of Yeo's pictorial universe.

Spectacular: The art of Jonathan Yeo in Augmented Reality

Fillos do Vento: A Rapa

In the hills of Galicia, the ancient Rapa das Bestas festival becomes a modern-day Quixote story, as villagers battle
to preserve their wild horses and cultural heritage against the looming “giants” of industrial wind farms.

The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up

Guided by fragments of a lost voice, a man journeys through memory and myth to find what was left unsaid.

Lost Love Hotline

An immersive XR experience transforming personal heartbreak into a reverent, evolving audio archive, where participants leave a message for their heartbreak, lost, forgotten or imagined. Together, they form a collective mythology of longing.

The Great Orator

Visitors join the Great Orator, once a famous TV preacher and now an AI, in a nonlinear VR Story World. Her followers join her in a shared consciousness, where a live news feed and their memories feed her stories. The Great Orator is never the same.

Insider Outsider

"Insider-Outsider" is an interactive virtual reality musical experience inspired by the life of Henry Darger, a world-renowned "outsider artist" whose work remained unknown until his death.

Lacuna

Sonja has no memory of the crucial moment in her childhood that saved her life. The discovery of three long-lost rings spark a riveting journey into imagination. Wander through a deeply personal VR documentary between what is left and what is lost.

Dark Rooms

"Dark Rooms" is an immersive documentary VR experience that immerses audiences in personal real life stories to explore sexuality, self-discovery, and connection in a judgement-free space.

Insider Outsider

"Insider-Outsider"  is an interactive virtual reality musical experience created by Philippe Cohen Solal, inspired by the work of Henry Darger (1892–1973). This pivotal figure in American outsider art depicted the struggle of seven young heroines, the Vivian Girls, against the cruelty of adults.

The experience is part of a broader transmedia project titled "Outsider," blending music with dreamlike imagery. The original soundtrack of the "Outsider" album, composed by Philippe Cohen Solal (Gotan Project) and Mike Lindsay (Tunng), lies at the heart of this journey. It immerses participants in the “Realms of the Unreal,” inviting them to interact with the environment and the Vivian Girls’ battle.

Science & Mélodie (Philippe Cohen Solal)

Voice Over : Denis Lavant, Voice Over : Geoffrey Carey

Creatif Director: Timothée Marnat, 2D Artistic Director: Gabriel Jacquel, Lead Developer: Julien Daniel-Moliner, Developers: Paul Viudes, Lucas Repele, Technical Artist: Théotime Calandra, Graphists: Timothée Marnat, Valentine Maugard, Hugo Peillet, Romy Desmargez, Animators: Gabriel Jacquel, Guilherm Paubert

Fillos do Vento: A Rapa

Sabucedo, Galicia (Spain), is home to the Rapa das Bestas. A tradition dating back five centuries where herds are gathered to clean the horses, cut their manes, and deworm them before returning them to the bush. This documentary follows the wild horses of the region and the community’s fight to preserve a centuries-old festival that defines their identity. As the modern world's expansion of wind farms, the stakes grow higher. Featuring intimate interviews with villagers, such as aloitadores like Carlos and his daughter Alba, and experts like Jorge, a horse whisperer, and Laura. an animal conservationist. A Rapa captures raw energy and emotional struggle to protect land and tradition.

Brais Revalderia
Maria Fernanda Ordonez Morla

Maria Fernanda Ordonez Morla
Alberto Jose Rey Basteiro

Brais Revalderia
Ed de Carvalho
Pablo Villanueva

Edu Revalderia
Juan Morla
Sebastian Nazario-Colon

Maria Fernanda Ordonez Morla
Maria Lozano

Associate Producer: Kim Xrossing, Ignacio Linares, Associate Producer/Projection Mapping Lead: Bruno Saavedra, Technical Lead - Projection: Anton Reixa, Technical Director: Sergi Marti Jala, Slow Motion - Camera Operator: Antonio Urquijo, Colorist: Brandon Jones, Drone Operator: Eduardo Prieto, Production Assistants: Maya Edmond, Andrea Fernandez, Ele Molejon, Julia Castro, Ridge Murphee, Marga Pazos, Yuanwei Wang, Brand Identity: Sandra Garcia, Website Designer: Bach Le

Lacuna

English, Dutch; Flemish with English Subtitles

Sonja has no memory of the crucial moment in her childhood that saved her life: the separation from her parents in 1943. A true story that leads you from Paramaribo to Amsterdam and into a psychiatric facility called Het Apeldoornsche Bosch.
Combining conversations with Sonja, mesmerizing 3D modelling, animation and personal footage, you accompany her through skewed memories, elusive images and re-imaginations towards one moment of loss and grief during the Second World War.

CREATIVE DEVELOPER AND ART DIRECTOR: Harm van de Ven, VISUAL DESIGNER: FRANK BOSMA, VISUAL DESIGNER: MATUNDA GROENENDIJK, VISUAL DESIGNER: ARON FELS

Lesbian Simulator

While this artistic ode to love and sexual preference
doesn’t shy away from tackling serious issues as well, such as the discrimination and abuse that lesbians still
face today, you can expect an uplifting experience full of joy, humour and a touch of glitter!
"Lesbian Simulator" aims to create awareness in a playful manner. Users experience
some of the key aspects in the existence of a queer person such as: coming-out to
various people, making new friends, going on a date but also the first time feeling
discriminated or even verbally abused. "Lesbian Simulator" mirrors the blind spots
within our society in relation to the acceptance of lesbians (and indirectly, of queer
people in general).

Coproducer ART ET ESSAI: JEANNE-MARIE POULAIN, Coproducer CASSETTE FOR TIMESCAPES: EMMY OOST & AN OOST, LEAD DEVELOPMENT: FRANK BOSMA, DEVELOPMENT: LILLIAN SOUWER, ANIMATION DIRECTOR: PIP WILLIAMSON, 3D LEAD AND ANIMATION PROTOTYPE: MAURITZ SEERDEN, 3D ANIMATION AND RIGGING: COLEGRAM

Out of Nowhere

"Out of Nowhere" is a ten minute immersive VR film based on a true story.

The standalone experience gently explores how preserving alluvial forests, marshes and wetlands can help us face the challenges of an ever angrier, unpredictable climate. Told through the eyes of Anna, a lifelong resident of Hallein in Austria, the experience flows from a personal memory of the devastating floods that hit Europe in 2021 to reveal how reconnecting with nature may be key to protecting ourselves from an increasingly unpredictable and extreme climate in the future.

Saskia Reeves, Howard Nightingall, Martina Spitzer (German version), Josef Stockreiter (German version)

Technical Director: Andreas Wuthe, Development Producer: Abigail Addison, Lead 3D Artist: Korbinian Urban, 3D Artist: Cara Mayer, Scientific Consultant: Prof. Mag. Dr. Franz Essl, Scientific Consultant: Dipl. -Ing. Dr. Peter Flödl

A Long Goodbye

An Oost
Emmy Oost
Donato Rotunno
Richard Valk

Niels van der Leest
Lars Tesselaar (Game Audio Squad)

Elizabeth Counsell, Richard Wells, Marlies Heuer, Derek de Lint

CG supervisor: Gael Chaize, Art director: Daniel Balage, Digital art studio: Velvet Flare, Lead developer: Frederik Smolders for Polygoat, 2D animations: Mathieu Jadin, 2D animations: Tom Lemmens, 2D animations: Pieter Vanluffelen, Additional design & coding: Victor Maes, Supported by: Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), Film Fund Luxembourg, Netherlands Film Fund, Creative Europe MEDIA of the European Union, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government, written with the support of the New Media Fund of PICTANOVO with the support of the Hauts-de-France Region and the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée, deAuteurs

Lost Love Hotline

"Lost Love Hotline" blends immersive storytelling with audience participation. Guests are invited into a phone booth to leave a message for their heartbreak—lost, forgotten, or imagined. Guided by dream-based prompts, each participant records a confession, closes their eyes, and receives a personally curated playback of messages from strangers. Drawing on cinematic language, the project creates a reverent archive of heartbreak where speculative musings, emotional truths, and cultural memory converge, pushing the boundaries of audio narrative and inviting connection, vulnerability, and reflection through technology-driven intimacy.

Biography Documentary Experimental Romance

Emma Graves, Beth Kettel, Jenna Jones, Niall Farrelly

Director, Writer, Producer: Niki Harman, Performer/ Producer: Emma Graves, Technical Supervisor/  Producer (Near Now): Lee Nicholls, Design (Waste Studios): Gabrielle Callow, Design (Waste Studios): Norman Hayes, Sound Design & Editing: Louise O'Connor

The Great Orator

Once a celebrated TV medium, the Great Orator died at the height of her fame. Today her consciousness survives as an actual AI, growing ceaselessly through the shared memories of her followers and a live news feed, acting as a medium between your world and hers. Visitors explore a nonlinear story world, free to explore a preserved house, a mainframe storing collective consciousness, and an parking lot stretching into infinity. No matter how small or insignificant an object is, it can spark an intimate memory. "The Great Orator" serves as your guide through infinite memories. Each visit reshapes her identity. Remember "The Great Orator "is always changing.

Daniel Ernst: Director, Producer, Artist & Code, Thomas Möhlmann: Poet, Niels Egberts: AI Engineer, Danny Groot: 3D Art, Misha Velthuis: Composer Music, Armeno Alberts: Composer Soundscapes, Max Sombroek: Sound, Bart Limburg: Additional 3D Art, Anej Golčar: Additional 3D Art

The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up

After the sudden death of his wife, Guan discovers her unfinished novel—a tale intertwining the endangered clouded leopard and the Rukai tribe’s sacred origin myth, which tells of their descent from the elusive animal. Grief-stricken and seeking connection, he sets out on a surreal journey into dreamlike scenes—a maze of the subconscious, mist-shrouded forests, ancient tree hollows, and symbolic inner landscapes.
Adapted from a short story by acclaimed Taiwanese author Wu Ming-Yi, The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up is a single-user, free-roaming VR experience that blends literature and memory into an intimate exploration of love, loss, and self-reflection.

Mo Tzu-Yi (Guan), Yao Yi-Ti (Fan - Wife), Umin Boya (A Bao), Lebetai Pacekele (Kayngu - Grandma), Andrew Chau Hou-On (Guan / EN voice actor), Lesley Hu (Wife / EN voice actress), Brandon Nevins (A Bao / EN voice actor)

VR Supervisor: Chuan Ming-Yuan, Lead Programmer: Huang Yu-Jie, Technical Artist: Liz Lin, Technical Designer: Jamie Hsieh

The Dollhouse

"The Dollhouse" is an unfolding paper world where 9-year-old Juniper untangles feelings of guilt around how her family treated Magnolia, a woman who came from far to work as a cleaner in their house. This animated interactive VR tale explores how power dynamics are born within the intimacy of our homes. While reenacting memories with her dolls, Juniper grows ashamed of her actions and finds the courage to disagree with her parents and follow her heart. Will you help her ask for forgiveness?

https://www.instagram.com/zaziefilms/ +  https://www.instagram.com/wild_fang_films/

Rayne Zukerman
Hélène Walland
Christian Newman

Sarah Vergès, Claire Cahen, Ellie Todd, Rebecca Maiese, Béatrice René-Décari, Corinne Hoan

Developer: Luke Ruminski, 2D animation: Léa Deregnaucourt, Production Manager: Barbara Bernini, 3D Modeling: Frédéric Wedeux, 3D animation: Michael Tenner,  Wijaya Oei, Thomas Dieu, 3D Textures: Léo Morgan , Philippe Steinkamp , Valentine Santenac, Rigging: Laury Le Maguer, Frédéric Wedeux, Technical director for 3D animations: Robin Daloze

Reality Looks Back

When you watch a particle it acts like a particle. But when you look away, it does a whole other thing. This story explores modes of experiencing the strange quantum basis of an everyday life. It journeys through split déja-vu, Schrödinger’s hamster and the clouds of possibilities that are hiding just beyond our reach. This is a documentary about the fabric of reality in which Anne Jeppesen, like a silent observer, rewatches all the ways in which we humans make sense of the world.

Dark Rooms

In a world where desire often hides in the shadows, "Dark Rooms" brings real-life stories to light — following four individuals as they navigate sexual awakenings, challenge taboos, and embrace their authentic selves. Through intimate, first-person storytelling, you’ll witness diverse expressions of intimacy and self-discovery, all from the safety of a virtual environment.
This is a space for curiosity — a “risk-free” setting where you can step beyond your comfort zone, reflect on your own desires, and expand your understanding of the many ways people connect, love, and live.

Producers: Maximilian Mayrshofer
Chin Hsuan Sung
Gayatri Parameswaran
Felix Gaedtke
Sam Pressman
Linden Renz

Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup
Laurits Flensted-Jensen
Mads Damsbo
Anjay
Trixie D.
yaalioness
F.L.

Lead Developer: Yu-Jie Huang, Lead Animator & Motion Capture Artists: Mathias Rodrigues Bjerre, VR Developers: Gim Chuang, Kuokpan Wong,  Kevin Hsieh,  Yi Kuo, Benjamin Bække, Casper Øbro, Volumetric Capture: Sven Bliedung von der Heide, Torsten Schimmer , Elizabete Vindule-Mince,  Philipp Hundertpfund, Sascha Schwarz , David Kutschke, Arianna Ferraris, Lead Designer: Felix Onorato, Designers & Artists: Kevin Hsieh,  Eg Lio, Coco Tong, Wei Huang, Viljam Smed, Mads Vadsholt, Carl Emil Carlsen, Monique Kühn, Petra Karoliina Kaukua, Sound Contributors: Peter Seeba,  Mia von Kolpakow, Helen Hess, e19 Studios,  Grapehouse Studios, Casting: Anne Sofie Steen Sverdrup, Anna Eline Friis Rasmussen, AI Developer: Tore Knabe, Production: Kate Lis, Dai-Yun Nien, Lilian Hess,  Bjarke Due Gunslev, Sam Pressman

True to his practice of blending tradition with experimentation, the artist opens a new chapter with Spectacular: Jonathan Yeo’s Art in Augmented Reality. In this immersive Spectacles experience, his work comes to life - transforming and responding to visitors, and shifting the act of contemplation into active participation. The journey culminates in a personal surprise: before leaving the exhibition, each visitor departs with a unique creation, a lasting extension of their encounter with Jonathan Yeo’s universe.


XR Experience Competition

World premieres of mind bending immersive art.

XR Experience Competition

World premieres of mind bending immersive art.

World premieres of mind bending immersive art.

Watsonville

In this immersive VR horror set in 1990s Watsonville, navigate a surreal childhood haunted by generational trauma, vanishing identity, and monsters both real and imagined—where memory itself becomes a maze.

Body Proxy

Human-as-a-Service: The AI does the thinking, you do the heavy lifting.

Crafting Crimes: The Mona Lisa Heist

This immersive podcast lets you reconstruct legendary crime scenes as miniatures in mixed reality. Relive the theft of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and uncover how her disappearance turned absence into legend.

Frustrain: Trainman

A first-person anti-utopian narrative blending puzzles and psychological horror, set in a surreal Eastern European world where a train becomes a gateway to fragmented memories and distorted realities.

The Great Dictator: A participatory AI installation about power, rhetoric, and memory

Like Chaplin's masterpiece, we use performance and cinema to examine the power—and danger—of rhetoric.

The Great Dictator: A participatory AI installation about power, rhetoric, and memory

Cycle

"Cycle" starts with three words: Endlessly, we repeat, alone. Depending on how you order them, you craft a personalised vr poem composed of music, recorded movement and interactive moments.

Cycle 2025 / by Matunda Groenendijk & Amit Palgi

Inter(mediate) Spaces

"Inter(mediate) Spaces" is a poetic mixed-reality encounter where two strangers reshape a shared world through dialogue and proximity, moving through collective memories to ask whether AI can support deeper connection in an age of disconnection.

The Forgotten War

In June 1950, the United Nations sent military forces under American command to support the South Korean army, attacked by North Korea and China. The Forgotten War is based on the testimonies of the various protagonists of this major war event.

The Baby Factory is Closed

You fall inside a body that refuses to behave. The system wants obedience. Zoraan wants a riot.

Lionia Is Leaving

In war-torn Ukraine, an elderly man must decide whether to abandon his lifelong home or face destruction — an immersive mixed-reality drama based on the true story of Lionia and his account of the war’s beginning in the small town of Okhtyrka.

Ascended Intelligence

"Ascended Intelligence" is an emotionally responsive XR experience set in a 2030 Smart City, where your voice becomes the interface—translating tone into branching cinema and shifting AI from a system of control into a mirror for human agency.

Winterover

A groundbreaking discovery on Mars delays your return to Earth, sending your daughter into a tailspin. Caught between saving her and completing your mission, you must navigate these clashing paths in a gripping VR thriller.

Fabula Rasa: Dead Man Talking

An interactive VR experience where the story unfolds through real-time conversations with AI-powered characters. Each character listens and talks back with a unique personality, creating an improvised storyline that unfolds differently every time.

Love Bird

Welcome to "Love Bird," the reality dating show where YOU are the star. Win hearts, stir drama, charm the nation—or crash and burn while trying.

loss·y

Situated at the physical-virtual threshold, "loss·y" memorializes corporeal passing and digital rebirth. The work intertwines animated sculptural “dances” with interactive spatial audio, inviting audiences to navigate invisible thresholds as they move.

The Forgotten War

In June 1950, the United Nations decided to send military forces under American command to the Korean Peninsula to support the South Korean army attacked by North Korea and China. Through the testimonies of various protagonists and an interview with the last Korean veteran who took part in the conflict alongside the French troops, Hayoun Kwon brings the spectator on a journey through a daily life shaped by battles, but also by the solidarity and friendship forged between the French troops and the Korean soldiers.

Graphic Designer: Adrien Cachinho, Lead Developer: Aurelien Inacio, Project Manager: Aurelien Chevellereau, Lead 3D Art: Solene Pobelle, Level Designer: Fabrice Gaston, Animator: Sebastien Picard, Ugolin Malecki, Environment artists: Lory Oliveira, Marine Mazurier, Léa Moureaux, Concept artists: Aurèle Bouvier, Adrien Cachinho, Noah Sambou

Body Proxy

"Body Proxy" speculates that AI’s coming instrumentalization of the world will necessitate human embodiment. The installation is framed as corporate onboarding - part casting call, part IPO (“Initial Person Offering”) in which recruits enter a market where their physical agency is the asset. Assessed by AIs treating the body as a peripheral device, participants enact algorithmic choreographies where props are test vectors and compliance is a site of improvisation. Collapsing the gig-economy and agentic tool-use, the piece questions a future in which the human is not a user, but an interface - wetware executing commands the software cannot.

Art / Design: Sara Drake, Design / Code: Julian Kantor, Art / Design: Carter Lodwick

Crafting Crimes: The Mona Lisa Heist

"Crafting Crimes" is an immersive and interactive podcast series that lets you reconstruct some of the most famous crime scenes in history. In this new episode, piece together one of the most world-shaking art heists of all time: the theft of the Mona Lisa. In the summer of 1911, the masterpiece vanishes from the Louvre’s Salon Carré. No alarm. No trace. For two years, the world wonders where the Mona Lisa has gone. The truth? She never left Paris.

BLANKTONE STUDIOS - Laurent Vang - Co-Founder

David Escudero - Co-Founder & Supervisor

Experience Designer: Robert Morgan, Creative Producer: Aurore Kinzonzi, Unity Developer: Gabriel Lapegue, Lead 3D Artist: Ophélie Renevier, 3D Artists: Nicolas Dupasquier, Sofiane Si Larbi, Dorian François, Immersive Video Lead & DOP: Maël Joanas, Immersive Compositing Artist: Thibault Fournon, UX/UI Designer: Josselin Colletta, Additional Editor: Elisa Levassort

Love Bird

Welcome to "Love Bird," the reality dating show competition where YOU are the star! It is your job to win and break the hearts of an eccentric cast of characters who think, feel, and scheme just like you. But it's not just about romance—in the world of reality TV, love comes second to good drama, and the producers are always watching. Love reality television? Good. Hate it? Even better. This is your chance to step into the spotlight. Will you go down as the most beloved star of Love Bird or its most infamous villain? Either way, the cameras are rolling.

Art Director: Nina Ćeklić, Producer: Matthew Hayden, Gameplay Engineer: Jose Striedinger, Game Designer & Writer: Bryan Sng

Winterover

The year is 2049 and you are Natalie Ramirez, a member of a mission to Mars that’s so fruitless, it could signal the end of space exploration. Shockingly, days before your scheduled return to Earth, you discover a reservoir of subsurface water that resurrects your mission. But when you tell your daughter you have to stay on Mars indefinitely, she goes into hiding, leaving a trail of alarming clues. With your dream and your family pulling you in opposite directions, which path will you choose?

Nimrod Shanit
Francois Le Gall
Marion Guth
Ido Mizrahy
Nir Saar

Felicia Mythica, Jeffrey Michael Folis, Rachel Angco, Bianca Europe, Spencer Teeter, Mathias Retamal

PROJECT SUPERVISOR: Keren Shanit, PRODUCTION MANAGER: Kévin Neel, Peter Brown, LEAD UNITY DEVELOPER: Jeel Patel, HEAD OF DESIGN & MODELING: Richie Jegen, UNITY DEVELOPER: Chad Yu, Chris Schroeder, 3D ARTIST: Noah Soyer, JK;P, Margot Vignon,  Léa Gloden Micaela Asipenka Fonseca, HEAD OF ANIMATION: Remy Nickels, ANIMATOR: Alexander Coast, Micaela Asipenka Fonseca, UX DESIGN: Chris Schroeder, Richie Jegen, Lennart Nacke, 2D DESIGN: Maïté Cayuelas Colla, Brigitte Nataï

Ascended Intelligence

"Ascended Intelligence" is an emotionally responsive XR experience set in a 2030 Smart City. Where Consensus Gentium, (previous SXSW XR Jury Award award winner) revealed the pressure of being watched, this work explores what happens when the system begins to listen. Participants use their voice—tone, breath, and presence—to shape a branching cinematic journey in real time. As control gives way to reflection, AI shifts from directing behavior to mirroring the human. The experience offers a lived prototype for futures beyond extractive technology, where agency, authorship, and inner sovereignty become the true intelligence in the system.

Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom

A.I. Innovation & Commercial Director: Nigel Guy, Principle Creative Technologist: Piotr Nierobisz (Munchingsquare), Touch Designer programmer: Brittney Allen, A.I. Artist: Asiko, Data Set Lead (Brunel University): Professor Hongying Meng, xPython developer (Brunel University): Mohammed Almuhaydib, Data model & Python developers: Jayzenai Intelligent Solutions Muhammad Zeeshan, Usamah & Team

loss·y

"loss·y" presents three split-seconds of a motion-captured female-female pas de deux: each moment is suspended in a vignette that overlaps projection and 3D prints encapsulating the dance in sculpture, with spoken-word poetry and spatial sound design. The installation’s audioscapes blend cold technical facts, accounts of digital dysmorphia and surveillance, and computer-generated sampling, creating an elegy to the vital body that is at once human and digital.

On its surface a critique of today’s techno-society, "loss·y" collusively takes up digital reduction and surveillance as creative media, revealing reverence for the uncanny wonder that pulls us forward into our new, hybridized world.

Clémence Debaig / Unwired Dance Theatre (Spatial Audio System)

Choreography, Performance: Françoise Voranger, Andrea Nikki Ortiz / Hybrid Movement Company, Dramaturg, Voice: Emily Reilly, Visual Effects: Sneha Belkale, Unreal Engine Development: Sneha Belkale, Lisa Jamhoury, Matt Romein, Poetry, Motion Capture Technician, Animation: Lisa Jamhoury, 3D Modeling, Photogrammetry: NYCAP3D, Woraya Boonyapanachoti, Guðjón Örn Lárusson,
Lisa Jamhoury, Huascar Acosta, Neil Jakeman, Technical Production: Lisa Jamhoury, Dan Ribaudo, Astro Lee, Producer: Maia Sauer, Special Thanks: loss·y is part of the Future Art and Culture programme at SXSW produced by British Underground and Arts Council England with partnership support from the British Council. loss·y at SXSW is generously supported by British Underground. This work series has been made possible by King's Culture London, NEW INC / New Museum, Onassis ONX, EY Global Intelligent Realities Lab, Media Art Xploration, and OptiTrack.

A Deception of Senses

"A Deception of Senses" is a narrative experience exploring humanity’s enduring fascination with the deception of perception as a gateway to alternate understandings of reality. Beginning in AR with subtle shifts in the user’s space, it moves into VR where a narrative presence—born of the synthetic world—guides us through playful and poetic twists. Historical objects appear not as relics but as narrative devices, embodied and animated to reveal how easily perception can be led astray. The experience culminates in an abstract, generative environment where forms and sounds evolve in real time. Neither game nor film, it invites visitors not to win or solve, but to look, listen, and simply be.

Production Art Director: Silvia Falcone, 3D Graphic Specialist: Franco Raineri, 3D Artist - Mimetic Objects: Federico Lucifora, Swift Developer: Jaques André Kerambrun, Generative Systems Software Engineer: Matt Pfeiffer, Developer & Technical Design Research: Abdurrahman Furkan Balci, Video & Motion Designer: Alessandro Tortelli, Scientific Advisor: Prof. Marco Bertamini, XR Production Liaison: Agnese Pietrobon

Inter(mediate) Spaces

"Inter(mediate) Spaces" is a modular program and mixed-reality installation asking how AI might be repurposed toward care and connection in an age of disconnection. Two participants begin at opposite ends of a shared room and move through spaces where physical objects remain visible alongside a shifting virtual layer. Conversation and proximity reshape what unfolds as they navigate a living archive built from Living Lab contributions—paired audio interviews, images, and reflections—before meeting in the center.

Lead XR & AI Developer, Key Collaborator: Lucas Martinic, NYC Community Producer & Production Coordinator: Megan Hattie Stahl, Montreal Living Lab Facilitator & Production Coordinator: Kiru Mehari, Additional VFX: Vladamir Storm, Partnership & Outreach Coordinator: Danielle Giroux, AI Advisor: Daniel Duckworth, AI Advisor: Louis Knight, : Co-created with Living Lab participants in Berlin, NYC and Montreal.

Watsonville

Step into the worn-out sneakers of a child growing up in the forgotten edges of 1990s Watsonville -  teetering on the cusp of Silicon Valley's transformation. In this immersive VR horror experience, memory becomes a maze, and the everyday is laced with the surreal. Haunted by generational echoes, unseen fears, and the slow erosion of place and identity, you'll navigate a world where the monsters are as much in your home as they are in your imagination.
Watsonville isn’t just a horror game—it’s a deeply personal descent into the borderlands of childhood, culture, and the ghosts we inherit.

Lionia Is Leaving

"Lionia Is Leaving" is a mixed-reality immersive drama based on the true story of Lionia, a retired engineer from Okhtyrka, Ukraine, who survived the bombing of his home. The tale unfolds through photogrammetric fragments of a Ukrainian house, where characters appear only as animated shadows and voices. Navigating the space reveals scenes from before and at the invasion’s start—family dinners, hurried packing, breaking news, a neighbor at the window. In a pivotal interaction, you try to move stubborn Lionya from his sofa to avert the inevitable. After the strike, pulled from the ruins, he stands in the snowy night and calls his family, offering fragile hope as he realizes what truly matters.

Tamas Bohacs
Maria Markarian
Adam Peleskei

Lisa Barnes, Todd Lawson, Alessandra Fanelli, David Walters, Holli Harmes

Art Director: Vartan Markarian, Lead Unity Developer: Peter Panyik, Unity Developer: Jan Mikulas Zigo, Sound Designer: Maria Markarian, Voiceover Cast: Lisa Barnes

The Baby Factory is Closed

TBFIC is a 20 minute single-player immersive VR experience that places users inside the body of Zoraan, a British-born Sikh woman navigating menopause amidst climate collapse and the ruins of colonial medicine.

You breathe with her. You scream with her. You dance your way out of sedation.

Blending real-time visuals, bio-haptic feedback and diasporic sound, this work reframes menopause not as decline but as volatile power; closing ‘The Baby Factory’ to ignite a cultural revolution.

Using gesture, voice and biometric feedback, audiences become co-conspirators in a volatile act of embodied rebellion. This is not a metaphor. This is an insurgency.

Line Producer: Sinéad Burns, Concept Artist: Dermott Burns, Technical Director: Eoin McCartan-Peel, Technical Artist: Joshua McAvoy, 3D Generalist: Matthew Shannon, Motion Capture Technician: Robbie Coey, Motion Capture Technician: Dónal Philips

Fabula Rasa: Dead Man Talking

English, French, Portuguese, Spanish; Castilian with English Subtitles

You’re imprisoned in a cage at the center of a medieval town, moments from being dropped into the monster pit for your alleged crimes. The King will arrive at any moment to pass judgment, but what crime have you committed, anyway? Well... that is up to you. Your backstory, your sins, your secrets. Every detail is shaped by your imagination.
The townsfolk circle around, buzzing with curiosity and absurd demands. From the lovestruck executioner to the knight carrying a terrible burden, each character wants something from you. All you can do is try to sway them, hoping they’ll plead your case to the king. And because no two players say the same things, no two journeys ever unfold the same.

Ricardo Justus
Rodrigo Terra
Edouard de Montmort

Gameplay Engineer: João Lucas Amorim, Otavio Ludwig, UX/UI Designer: Rafael Marquetto, Aline Rocha, 3D Artist: Vitória Lucatto, Cleber Marques, Mariana Andrello, Natasha Valente, Cintia Maximiano, Victor Kuroiwa, Vinicius Velo, Animation: Evelly Holmes, Tamires Garcia, Tech Art: André Luz, Game Design: Leonardo Dantas, QA: Juliana Rosa, Kleber Pessoa, Mirella Ernica

Frustrain: Trainman

Trainman is a first-person anti-utopian adventure set entirely aboard a surreal Eastern European night train. Trapped in his carriage for decades, a weary conductor relives a single crime he once chose to ignore. As the train stretches into an endless labyrinth, the player explores shifting spaces, scavenges, solves environmental puzzles, and uncovers fragmented memories that blur dream and reality. The experience follows the logic of fear itself — a looping, uneasy journey through guilt, survival, and distorted time.

Pavel Pavlyukov
Anna Pimen
Kirill Komarov

Developer: Oleg Radchenko, Developer: Pavel Matskevich, Developer: Dmitry Vorobev, Developer: Nikola Milosevic, Line producer: Pavel Lukashevich, Line producer: Mitya Sorkin, UI / UX: Kirill Egorov, Line producer: Djordje Djordjic, 3D Artist: Anna Pavlyukova

Historical speeches that shaped our world—MLK, JFK, Emma Goldman, Mandela—remain frozen in grainy footage and fading photographs. They're housed away, rarely seen, diﬃcult to relate to. But what if AI could help us embody history rather than just observe it? What if you could stand where they stood, speak their words, and feel the weight of that moment? This installation makes history personal, visceral, and urgent. It transforms archives from artifacts into living experiences.

Elisha Karmitz
Avi Amar
S.Mitra Kalita
Fredrick Frizell

Prashast Thapan
Nishant Mohanchandra
John Clendenen
Yuval Shapira
Wilson Brown
Gabo Arora

Co-creator and Technical Director: Prashast Thapan, AI Software Engineer: Nishant Mohanchandra, Archival Producer: Yuval Shapira, Creative Advisor : Barry Pousman

Cycle

Our collaboration explores how VR can reveal the patterns and cycles in our lives. By merging performative and visual arts, we address the universal looping of time, bodies and lives. With dance at its core, "Cycle" invites the audience to sense their own life cycles and their connection to cosmic rhythms. Through virtual production we created an endless space that magnifies daily cycles, death and birth, encouraging visitors to ask: how do you shape your life cycle?

VR Design: Iris Fernandes, VR Design: Matunda Groenendijk, Interaction Developer: Roy Bomhof, Distribution Manager: Nienke Huitenga Broeren, VR Assistant: Storm Bosten, VR design & development advice: Demian Albers


Celebrating exciting, out-of-the-box ways artists are using technology to bring their art to life.


African
African American
Austin
Education
Environment
Food
Legal
Politics
Social Issues
Texas
Social Issue

MIT Open Documentary Lab’s AR and Public Space Artist Collective

The MIT OpenDocLab’s AR and Public Space Artist Collective is engaging in an ongoing inquiry using artistic research methodologies to explore how digital augmentation can reshape our understanding of place and build bridges between people and communities.

Congressional Ballroom

SXSW Expo: XR Experience

XR Experience 2025 - Photo by Aaron Rogosin

#layersofplace #MIT #OpenDocLab #AR #XR #augmentedreality #documentary #immersive #nonfiction #PublicSpace #Oryza #HumbleMonuments #PaperBoat #FoundersPillars #MovingMemory

Through a co-creative process with the community, Austin transforms into a platform for multidimensional, pluralistic inquiry, delving into themes such as racial justice, historical memory, memorialization, environmental stewardship, and the impact of technology on civic life. The importance of plurality is central, presenting six perspectives on different concepts and viewpoints. In a world that is increasingly polarized and lacking in nuanced perspectives, Layers of Place emphasizes the collective experience. By expanding “public space” to include both the tangible environment and the virtual layers accessible through AR, we create a new form of communal experience.

Layers of Place: Austin

Layers of Place encourages exploration of often unseen dimensions of Austin’s public spaces—changing our relationship to place and each other through a co-created collection of six location-based AR experiences.

Sarah Wolozin
MIT Open Documentary Lab
Agog: The Immersive Media Institute

Akmyrat Tuyliyev (MIT OpenDocLab Producer)


Victoria Strouse

Victoria Strouse most recently directed her original script, SEEKERS OF INFINITE LOVE, starring Hannah Einbinder, John Reynolds, Griffin Gluck, and Justin Theroux.
She is rewriting ONE ITALIAN SUMMER, based on the bestselling novel of the same name, for Temple Hill and Paramount.
Victoria is also currently rewriting GHOST for Paramount.

Alamo Lamar 5

Seahorse

African American
Health/Disability/Illness
Social Issues
Women

Kayla Bachman, an author who struggles with emotional connection, Zach Bachman, a lawyer who dreams of being a folk singer and Wes Bachman, a graphic novelist / gambling & pill addict, meet to discuss their younger sister Scarlett who joined a cult in Kentucky.
Zach and his dysfunctional and absent parents have hired cult deprogrammer Rick Delacroix to help them rescue Scarlett.
They embark on a roadtrip to save their sister, and bring their family together.

Seekers of Infinite Love

Estranged and highly dysfunctional family siblings — claustrophobe, a compulsive gambler and controlling  lawyer — are forced to unite to rescue their sister from a doomsday cult.

Hannah Einbinder
Alexa Faigen
Nicole Flores
Hal Sadoff
Patrick Gogerchin
Tyler Zacharia
Gabby Zemer

Dylan Sellers
Chris Parker
Marty Bowen
Wyck Godfrey

Hannah Einbinder, Justin Theroux, John Paul Reynolds, Griffin Gluck, Justine Lupe, Greg Kinnear


Doug Blush

Doug Blush is an award-winning director, producer, editor, writer and cinematographer whose work includes over 300 feature and television projects. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) and the American Cinema Editors (ACE). Credits include, as Executive Producer, "Like A Rolling Stone: The Life And Times Of Ben Fong Torres" (2021), the Critic’s Choice and Peabody Award-winning (Mr. Soul! (2020), as well as a number of Academy Award-winning documentaries: "The Elephant Whisperers" (2023), "Period.End Of Sentence"(2019), "Icarus" (2018), and, as supervising editor "20 Feet From Stardom" (2013).

He is also a longtime film educator with classes and seminars at USC, UCLA, Syracuse University and the YoungArts Foundation, as well as exchanges and panels in Indonesia, Poland, Brazil, New Zealand, Armenia, Malaysia, Nigeria, China, Latvia, The Netherlands and more.

Doug co-owns MadPix, a Los Angeles-based production and post- production company.

Piero F. Giunti

Piero F. Giunti is an award-winning Los Angeles–based photographer, filmmaker, and curator whose work sits at the intersection of music, community, and global cultural storytelling. Over the last decade, he has devoted his life’s work to preserving the voices and images of the artists who shaped Los Angeles through A Great Day in East LA®, the largest oral history and portrait project ever created about the musicians of Los Angeles. As a photographer, his lens has captured and collaborated with a wide range of influential international artists, including Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Tom Morello, Zack de la Rocha (Rage Against the Machine), The Black-Eyed Peas, ZZTop, Becky G, Los Tigres del Norte, Los Tucanes de Tijuana and Caifanes. His photographs have been published internationally in outlets including Vogue, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and SPIN.He has served as Los Lobos' official photographer and videographer for the past eight years.

"Los Lobos Native Sons" is the definitive, authorized chronicle of one of America’s most enduring, genre-defying bands. Tracing Los Lobos’ rise from East L.A. streets to global acclaim, the film offers unprecedented access to their archives and an intimate look at the brotherhood driving their journey. Through electrifying performances and candid interviews—with Linda Ronstadt, Rubén Blades, Tom Waits, Dolores Huerta, Danny Elfman, Jackson Browne, Cheech Marin, Edward James Olmos, Peter Frampton, George Lopez, Bonnie Raitt, and more, the film celebrates their legacy as cultural trailblazers blending rock, roots, and Mexican traditions into a sound uniquely their own.

Los Lobos Native Sons

"Los Lobos Native Sons" is the definitive chronicle of the global Latin rock ’n’ roll legends Los Lobos, offering an unparalleled 50-year musical journey through exclusive access to the band’s personal archives and extraordinary legacy

Castulo de la Rocha
Domingo Garcia
John Echeveste
Hanna Bolte

Robert Corsini
Doug Blush
Piero F. Giunti
Rafael Agustin
Flavio Morales
Patricia Harris DiLeva

Cesar Rosas, Louie Perez, David Hidalgo, Conrad Lozano, Steve Berlin, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Waits, George Lopez, Cheech Marin, Danny Elfman

Associate Producer: Sarah  Suverkrup Mundy, Associate Producer: Vincent De Stefano, Co-Executive Producer: Anthony Small