The Body is Along for the Ride: The power and considerations of embodiment in constructing extended reality stories
Nonny de la Peña, PhD, will discuss some of the key considerations about the experience of the body in constructing extended reality stories including the embodied edit, duality of presence, and spatial narratives. Looking back at her early career as a journalist, she will discuss how journalism’s best practices informed her thinking throughout her decade-long virtual and augmented reality career. She will also demo Emblematic’s groundbreaking new project, REACH.love, a platform built using WebVR/AR technology, designed to help scale volumetric content authorship and distribution.
Nonny de la Peña, founder of Emblematic Group, was named WSJ Technology Innovator of the Year and one of CNET’s 20 most influential Latinos for her pioneering work using cutting edge technologies to tell important stories. A Yale Poynter Media Fellow and a former correspondent for Newsweek, de la Peña is widely credited with pioneering the genre of immersive journalism. She was selected by Wired Magazine as a #MakeTechHuman Agent of Change and has been called “The Godmother of Virtual Reality” by Engadget and The Guardian. Additionally, Fast Company named her “One of the People Who Made the World More Creative” for her work in immersive storytelling. At Emblematic Group, she uses cutting edge technologies to tell important stories—both news-based and fictional—that create intense, empathic engagement on the part of viewers. Her latest endeavor, REACH.love, intends to empower anyone to create and distribute AR/VR stories straight in the browser.