Academic
I am a lecturer, researcher and practitioner in the cultural and creative industries, working across performance, film and interactive and immersive media.
I am currently a Research Fellow in Cultural Value at the Centre for Cultural Value and co-director of the Bradford Digital Arts Lab for emerging digital artists in Bradford. Recently, I have been a Teaching Fellow at the University of Leeds (2023-4) and a researcher with the AKO Storytelling Institute at the University of the Arts London (2023). Previously, I was a Research Fellow with the BFI and XR Stories at the University of York (2022-3) and taught on the Virtual and Extended Realities MA at the University of the West of England (2021-2).
My PhD on the use of AR headsets for interactive documentary storytelling was practice-based at UWE Bristol, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council through the 3D3 Centre for Doctoral Training.
Since 2016, I have spoken at numerous academic conferences and symposia and given public-facing talks on my research internationally. I apply my area experience and specialisation in my roles as an ‘industry expert’ at Sheffield DocFest and DOK Leipzig, consulting with XR companies and funders and as a panel speaker at SXSW 2022.
Peer-reviewed
publications
WALK THIS WAY: The role of the artist from creative placemaking to communitas. Performance Research: On Social Imaginaries. 29(2). 2024.
Augmented reality as a Thirdspace: Simultaneous experience of the physical and virtual. In: Villa, D., Zuccoli, F. (eds) Proceedings of the 3rd International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Image and Imagination. IMG 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 631. Springer, Cham.
Multisensory Ethnography Through Emplaced Augmented Reality Anthrovision [Online], Vol. 8.2 | 2020, Online since 31 August 2022.
Questioning “what makes us human”: how audiences react to an AI-driven show (2021) Lead author. Co-authors Rik Lander and Phil D Hall. Cognitive Computation and Systems. 3(2), 91–99 (2021).
Other published work and talks
Major report on storytelling for social change: Impact Storytelling: the Ecosystem, the Evidence and Possible Futures (2024). Co-authored with A. Mirzoyants and H. Sewell for the AKO Storytelling Institute, UAL.
A Creative Future (2022) co-authored as part of XR Stories and SIGN. Evidence submitted to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee
Part of ‘Meet the Researchers’, SXSW 2021, UK House
Delivered Pervasive Media Studio Friday Lunchtime Talk, ‘Making through Failing’ (5 Feb 2021)
‘Moving Layers’ R&D with National Dance Company Wales
(Blogpost 2020)
Academic activities
Selected for the 2020 New Scholars fellowship scheme, Bristol+Bath Creative R+D Creative Ecologies pathfinder, funded by Creative Industries Clusters Programme
Selected to be part of the inaugural cohort of the 2018 TV PhD scheme at the Edinburgh TV Festival, supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council
Being Human Festival of the Humanities (2018) – ‘End of Gender?’ – ran public engagement event to share my research with new audiences
PhD thesis
Through the Wardrobe: Exploring the potential of headset augmented reality to provide a Thirdspace immersive media experience (2022, UWE Bristol)
My PhD research in the field of immersive and interactive documentary studies investigated the use of AR headsets for location-based experiences. Intertwining theory and methods from gender studies, visual anthropology, phenomenology and geography, my thesis argued that AR headsets can facilitate a hybrid experience of virtual/physical space. When incorporating the voices of the marginalised from the periphery of society, this constitutes a ‘Thirdspace’, a term I adapted from geographer Edward Soja to describe the concurrent blend of physical and virtual space with the potential for challenging cultural hegemonies.
Supervised by Professor Mandy Rose and Dr Gillian Swanson
Dr Rob Eagle 