DOK Exchange XR
DOK Exchange XR takes place during the festival week.
In 2024, our programme focused on:
- Evolving art of crafting spatial audio narratives, the power of 3D soundscape, diverse immersive sonic worlds;
- Spatial audio in documentaries and XR, sound design psychology, 3D audio tools for XR, film and communication in Metaverse, exhibition curation.
- Spatial audio storytelling beyond XR, including radio, podcasts, sound walks and performance art;
- Ethical considerations of AI in sound and voice creation
The DOK Exchange XR Conference is a hybrid event exploring various aspects of XR development. This year delves into spatial audio’s role in creative practices across various media, focusing on its impact on storytelling in XR, radio, podcasts, and performance art. We’ll examine how spatial audio influences design, production, and distribution, aiming for innovative and sustainable practices.
Each keynote will be followed by Q&A. If you’re interested in how spatial audio can transform storytelling across different media and its impact on XR design, production, distribution – join us.
Keynote Speakers
Spatial Audio in Immersive Storytelling
What is Spatial Audio and why is it the future of Immersive Storytelling? What defines Auditory Immersion? We’ll look at the latest case studies, cutting-edge tools, methodologies and distribution platforms along with associated challenges and creative opportunities.
Oliver Kadel is a multi-award winning, Emmy & Golden Reel nominated supervising sound editor, sound designer, recording and mixing engineer. Since founding 1.618 Digital in 2014 Oliver and his team have worked on over 200 immersive projects delivering spatial and interactive audio for new-generation VR, MR, AR and 360 media for platforms such as Meta, Apple, Google, Dolby and Magic Leap, covering a broad range of sectors such as films and gaming, virtual training, brand content and location-based installations.
Technical Intro to Spatial Audio and Psychoacoustic – How It Conveys Emotion and Impacts Perception
What is spatial audio, and how does binaural audio recreate natural sound perception? Delivering immersive, well-textured soundscapes is key for audiovisual consistency and enhancing user engagement. Yet, creating realistic spatial audio poses challenges, from perceptual accuracy to minimising computational demands.
He is an expert in spatial audio and immersive technology, with a research focus on perceptually-optimised binaural audio that has earned numerous publications, citations, and awards, advancing the field of low-footprint, high-quality spatial audio. With atmoky, he committed to pushing the boundaries of innovative spatial audio for gaming, XR, and web applications, with the goal of enhancing user immersion and engagement. His blend of scientific and industrial experience offers a comprehensive perspective on spatial audio. Markus is eager to discuss topics such as binaural rendering, room acoustics, and perceptual evaluation and quality criteria. His passion for spatial audio drives his mission to make this technology both accessible and impactful.
The Best Practices for Integrating Immersive Audio in Film, XR, Interactive Media, and Storytelling
Begins 15:20
He is an expert in spatial audio and immersive technology, with a research focus on perceptually-optimised binaural audio that has earned numerous publications, citations, and awards, advancing the field of low-footprint, high-quality spatial audio. With atmoky, he committed to pushing the boundaries of innovative spatial audio for gaming, XR, and web applications, with the goal of enhancing user immersion and engagement. His blend of scientific and industrial experience offers a comprehensive perspective on spatial audio. Markus is eager to discuss topics such as binaural rendering, room acoustics, and perceptual evaluation and quality criteria. His passion for spatial audio drives his mission to make this technology both accessible and impactful.
Panellists
Anan Fries (they/them) is a transdisciplinary artist based in Berlin and Basel. Anan Fries’ artistic practice is located at the intersection of digital & performing arts. Their work is inspired by posthuman and xeno-feminist discourse and revolves around themes such as reproduction, techno-spirituality and the entanglements of nature and technology. Their VR-essay on non-normative pregnant bodies, [Posthuman Wombs], was presented at IDFA DocLab Amsterdam, DOK Leipzig, GIFF Geneva, MSU Zagreb and HEK Basel among other places. Fries was awarded the 3rd prize of the VR Art Prize in 2023.
Shervin Saremi is a musician and audio-engineer, working in fields such as sonic computing, immersive audio and production. Collaborating with artist Marc Lee, their work has been featured at events and venues such as Akademie der Künste (Berlin) Chengdu Tianfu Art Museum, HeK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste Basel), International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Künstlerhaus Halle, MONOM, Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning, Synthesis Gallery, Transmediale/CTM among others. He is the co-founder of the School of Sonic Arts-Tehran, an independent institute dedicated to advancing sonic arts with an emphasis on fostering creativity within the adolescent age group.
Oliver Kadel is a multi-award winning, Emmy & Golden Reel nominated supervising sound editor, sound designer, recording and mixing engineer. Since founding 1.618 Digital in 2014 Oliver and his team have worked on over 200 immersive projects delivering spatial and interactive audio for new-generation VR, MR, AR and 360 media for platforms such as Meta, Apple, Google, Dolby and Magic Leap, covering a broad range of sectors such as films and gaming, virtual training, brand content and location-based installations.
Keynote Speakers
The Purpose of the Ears is to Point the Eyes
Sound is half of the experience, yet it’s often an afterthought. In immersive media, spatial audio is the key to delivering powerful emotion and critical information. Neglecting sound from the start leaves your audience with only half the magic.
Ana Monte is a leading expert in spatial audio, co-founder, and sound designer at DELTA Soundworks. Ana specialises in creating immersive audio content that places listeners inside the story across formats like XR, Fulldome, and Themed Attractions. She draws inspiration for authentic soundscapes from her deep interest in different cultures and her experience as a sound recordist and sound designer for documentaries.
Embracing the Evolving World of Immersive Sound Curation
This talk will look to share the current research and development of a new exhibition due to open at the Barbican Centre in 2025, before embarking on an international tour. With a focus on Sound and Music in the immersive space, it will aim to share the possibilities, but also the potential pitfalls of creating an exhibition experience of this kind in a huge reverberant brutalist concrete building.
Luke is Head of Creative Programme for Barbican Immersive and a Curator at the Barbican Centre, London. Immersive have developed some of the most successful exhibitions in Barbican Centre’s history, launching in the UK and then touring internationally. Immersive will launch next year with a new exhibition experience about our unique relationship with music. Previous productions at Barbican include leading on the co-curation and development of Our Time on Earth (2022) and AI: More than Human (2019) and their tours. Prior to the Barbican Luke worked with galleries and organisations internationally to develop programming including for the Venice Biennale and The Armory Art Fair amongst others.
The Power of Podcasts – How Documentary is Growing New Audiences and Finding the Money
In this talk I’ll be exploring how and what type of podcasts are finding the biggest audiences for documentary and revealing new sources of funding.
Jane Mote supports emerging documentary-makers for The Whickers across audio and film. A former BBC Radio documentarian she’s a regular on the Mid Atlantic Core podcast. The Whickers Podcast Pitch awards £15,000 and £5,000 to a winner and runner up.
Innerworlds in VR-Opera
A case study of VR-opera “Songs for a Passerby”, winner of the Venice Immersive Grand Prize 2023, is giving us insight into a new, poetic form of storytelling, in which the audience takes centre stage.
Celine Daemen (1995, The Netherlands) is a director of transdisciplinary art and founder of Studio Nergens. Her work develops at the interface of theatre, music, the visual arts and technology. Thematically, questions about "being" are central. Celine aims to create sensory experiences that invite the individuals of the audience to introspection. This journey into their inner world takes them to a place where personal associations arise in response to universal philosophical questions. For “Songs for a Passerby”, she was awarded the Venice Immersive Grand Prize for best immersive experience at the 2023 Venice Biennale.
Spatial Audio as a Vehicle for Collaboration
From soundscapes that promote presence and social interaction to unique audio features that give users communication superpowers, spatial sound is the missing ingredient to many successful XR experiences.
Aili Niimura is a spatial audio designer and engineer dedicated to pushing the boundaries of spatial audio and AR/VR. Currently working on spatial audio prototyping as a Meta contractor, formerly driving Metaverse voice experiences at Microsoft Mesh, and spatial audio experiences and devices at Bang & Olufsen. Her focus revolves around end-to-end spatial design, aiming to bridge the gap between art and technology in these areas: Voices in the Metaverse, Spatial Audio Prototyping, Immersive Sound Design, Tuning Spatial Audio Algorithms, Audio Tooling for creators and Spatial Audio to enhance human interactions. Beyond the tech world, you might catch her performing with the Seattle Symphony Chorale or jamming at jazz jam.
De-territorialized Listenings: Spatial Audio Narratives for Site-Specific Artistic Interventions
In this keynote we will offer insights on how narratively driven immersive soundwalks can be used for site-specific artistic interventions, re-establishing forgotten or abandoned sites within local communities.
The New Liquidity is an interdisciplinary research platform and collective for artistic and curatorial practices.
Anders Ehlin (SWE), based in Berlin, is an awarded composer, sound artist and researcher, mainly working in the fields of stage performance, cinema/installation art and art in public space. He has a BA in Cinema Studies (The University of Stockholm) and an MA in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts (UdK, Berlin). In 2021 Ehlin finalised the protest opera Wem gehört Lauratibor, a calling out of the aggressive gentrification of Berlin, premiered in public space in Berlin-Kreuzberg and subsequently performed at The Copenhagen Opera Festival the same year. In parallel to his compositional projects Ehlin conducts ongoing artistic research around language, narratives, cognitive dissonance, feedback systems and resonating bodies.
Selma Boskailo (BA) is a Berlin based curator, researcher and artist. She graduated in Art History and Comparative Literature at Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo and completed the Post-Master International Curatorial Program École du Magasin (Grenoble, France). In 2015 she was awarded a Master of Excellence Scholarship in Media Arts Cultures, a program conducted by four international universities in Austria, Denmark, Poland and Hong Kong. She has worked as a curator, curatorial assistant, researcher with various institutions, festivals, galleries and contemporary art spaces across Europe. She currently works as a curator for synthesis gallery in Berlin focusing on new media and digital art practices.
AFTERLIFE: Post-Digital Storytelling Techniques and the Game Engine as a Stage Medium
ONLY SLIME will present their latest stage piece, AFTERLIFE, which is an operatic, game-inspired saga following two existentially lost characters into a 3D underworld. The presentation explores post-digital storytelling techniques, such as live auto-tune operatic vocals, gamified audio aesthetics and real-time motion capture and the use of a game engine on stage.
Transgressive and interdisciplinary by nature, ONLY SLIME evades labels and genres in their search for new forms of expression and storytelling in the contemporary music, performance and arts scene. Combining their background in punk, classical music, computer games, free jazz, acrobatics, hyperpop, experimental theater, electronic music production and film, the duo seeks a playful limitlessness through vastly different mediums and artistic modes of expressions.
ONLY SLIME consists of Claudia Cox, also known under her hyperpop moniker Peri Winkle, who, in addition to her work as an artist and vocalist, opened Wiener Festwochen as a violinist and acrobat. The other member is Tobi Pfeil, who has worked on everything from immersive VR-experiences at the Venice Biennale, to creating award-winning sound installations in abandoned factory halls.
Lessons from Audience Testing and the Importance of Feedback in the Prototyping Process
Begins 15:20
Weronika M Lewandowska is the coordinator of DOK Exchange XR, a spoken word poet and performer with a PhD in cultural studies. She experiments with interdisciplinary forms of poetry, and her work has been published internationally and exhibited eg. at The Palais de Tokyo in Paris. She co-directed, wrote, and produced the VR experience “Nightsss”, which premiered at Sundance. She has served as an expert for the Committee for Innovative Film Projects at the National Film Institute Poland (2021) and mentors the Climate Challenge XR project for the European Space Agency. She curates innovative XR showcases, such as the “Embodied Realms” festival focused on XR and performance art in Poland, “XRossspace Showcase” in BFI London (2023). She writes and researches XR climate games for the Guest XR (AI RL Agent) research project.
Panellists
Prototype: Revival Roadshow (NL)
Anne Fehres is a visual artist and an audiovisual designer based in the Netherlands. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Arts from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Ghent. Her interdisciplinary projects take form in photography, sound design, film, textile design and video art installations exploring themes of identity, memory and history. Fehres collaborates with Australian visual artist and sociologist Luke Conroy. Together they engage with social concerns, ecological issues and interdisciplinary innovation. Their work has been awarded and exhibited across Europe, Asia and Australia, supported by organisations including Creative Europe, Mondriaan Fonds, The Creative Industries Fund NL, Netherlands Film Fund, International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Goethe Institut.
Prototype: Revival Roadshow (NL)
Luke Conroy (1990, Tasmania) is an Australian artist, sociologist and educator based in the Netherlands. He graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Arts in 2012, and then went on to study for a Diploma of Teaching and Learning at the Charles Darwin University, specialising in art and media. He frequently collaborates with Dutch audiovisual designer and visual artist Anne Fehres. Together they engage with social concerns, ecological issues and interdisciplinary innovation. Their work has been awarded and exhibited across Europe, Asia and Australia, supported by organisations including Creative Europe, Mondriaan Fonds, The Creative Industries Fund.
Prototype: The Room of Resonance (DE)
Laurien Michiels is a digital creative from Belgium who pursued a master’s in Literature and Linguistics (English & Scandinavian Studies) at Ghent University, Belgium and second master in Digital Narratives at the International Filmschool in Cologne, Germany. Both degrees have been foundational in their development as an artist and a researcher, influencing their art on topics within Digital Humanities and New Media studies. Laurien aspires to further address problematic phenomena in social cyberspace, such as the emergence of echo chambers and its threat on critical thinking abilities. Through the use of immersive storytelling they aspire to reimagine traditional modes of storytelling, moreover how innovation and tradition can coexist instead of compete with each other.
The aim of the Prototyping Zone is to bridge creators with the community of XR experts, future audiences, and distributors. It enables the testing of interactive elements and narrative solutions, as well as onboarding and offboarding experiences in spatial conditions, refining XR projects before their finalisation. This process ultimately contributes to reducing production and distribution costs in later stages of development. The presentation of works during this phase offers a deeper understanding of user experience design, fostering productive discussions and gathering extensive feedback.
Language:
English
Access:
Guests with a Festival and Industry Accreditation or DOK Exchange XR Conference Pass (on-site) are welcome. Secure your slot. Limited capacity.
If you can’t book a convenient slot, feel free to drop by. We’ll try to fit you in, though there may be a wait.
XR creators will present their cutting-edge projects in development in front of an audience, followed by feedback by around 30 experts from the fields of research, funding, distribution, art and technology. We focus on building openness and equality in the process of knowledge exchange. It will be a great opportunity to develop fresh ideas and build a bridge between the creators and the community of XR experts.
Language:
English
Access:
Guests with a Festival and Industry Accreditation or DOK Exchange XR Conference Pass (on-site) are welcome. Pre-registration is required by 30 October. Limited capacity.
Dr. Joanna Popinska is an accomplished XR filmmaker, documentarian, and curator who has made a significant impact on the VR industry. Holds a Ph.D. in Film Directing from the Polish National Film School. Her critically acclaimed documentary “The Choice” premiered at IDFA and SXSW, winning the Audience Award, Best XR for Impact at Games for Change, nomination for the Canadian Screen Awards, and many others. She has been invited to give numerous talks at film and XR festivals, and to participate as a jury member, curator and mentor at events such as Canadian Screen Awards, AWE XR, SXSW, DokLeipzig, VIFF Immersed, ART*VR, Krakow Film Festival, and others. She is also the founder of “Embodied Realms”, a new festival exploring the fusion of physical and virtual spaces through XR performances.
Weronika Lewandowska
exchange [at] dok-leipzig [dot] de (exchange[at]dok-leipzig[dot]de)
Co-Partner of DOK Exchange XR:
DOK Industry is realised with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a Decision of the German Bundestag.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
