DOK Exchange XR

DOK Exchange XR

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DOK Exchange XR is DOK Leipzig’s networking and inspiration programme on interactive and immersive storytelling with a focus on XR works and the sustainable development of the international community of XR creators, producers and distributors.
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About

DOK Exchange XR took place in a hybrid form on 13 October 2023.

The programme focused on: 

  • generative AI and its impact on human creativity and society;
  • opportunities and threats associated with using AI tools in the film industry and XR;
  • behavioral data in XR storytelling and programming;
  • the future of AR within the context of gaming and the development of site-specific documentary storytelling;
  • and AI-user generated content and assets for XR prototyping
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Mehrere Personen sitzen auf Stühlen in einem Raum und hören einem Vortrag von einer Person zu, die vorne vor einer Leinwand steht. Auf der Leinwand sind mehrere Bilder von einer Person auf einem Pferd, darüber steht: The next evolution of AI.
Susann Bargas Gomez
XR Conference

DOK Exchange XR Conference was a hybrid event with speakers presenting an in-depth look at the various aspects of XR development. We will critically looked at and analyzed new directions for XR and storytelling in the context of generative AI to better understand and take sustainable decisions on design, production and distribution processes.

Keynote Speakers
DOK Leipzig Logo

Portrait Mads Damsbo
Portrait Mads Damsbo
Mads Damsbo

 

Prompting a new language for cinema

“While developing the first ever feature documentary, entirely written by an AI trained to be Werner Herzog, an artificial editing assistant “Kaspar” was born. In this I will reflect on the creative collaboration between humans and machines and question AI’s role in filmmaking.”

Creative producer/director focused on developing powerful narratives, utilizing new technology. The founder of Makropol where from he produced 10+ ambitious artistic immersive experiences and started several new companies, including the app startup Recho that won the prestigious Venture Cup in 2015. CEO and creative producer at Kaspar AI – a company focused on using AI to co-create AV storytelling. Producer of “The Shadow and End Of Night”, which won for “best Immersive Narrative” in Venice. Currently he is producing the world's first feature film “About a Hero” written by an AI. Head of Studies at the European Creators’ Lab. He gives lectures, leads workshops and teaches masterclasses all around the world.

In collaboration with the European Creators’ Lab – Prototyping Lab

Website Makropol

Photo: Tobias Markussen
Portrait Anna Giralt Gris
Portrait Anna Giralt Gris
Anna Giralt Gris

 

Generative AI: The birth of a new medium or the next evolution of tools

“This technology carries a great responsibility. We need to understand its workings and what is at stake, while also fostering artistic experimentation to uncover new creative opportunities.”

Anna Giralt Gris is a filmmaker and researcher. She is the co-founder of the film production company GusanoFilms and the interdisciplinary center for creation and research Artefacto, which investigates the intersections between technology, cinema, and politics. She has directed and produced films that have been selected and awarded at festivals such as CPH:DOX, Visions du Réel, HotDocs, SXSW, and IDFA, among others.  She co-directs the FEST section of the +RAIN Film Festival, the first European film festival for AI-generated films, coordinates the course "Cinema, Algorithms, and AI" at the UAB and is an associate professor at the UPF in Barcelona.

Website Artefacto Films

Photo: Óscar Fernández Orengo
Portrait Joanna frota Kurkowska
Portrait Joanna frota Kurkowska
Joanna frota Kurkowska

 

Playing with AI for Creativity: The future of digital assets for games, XR and Web3 in the context of the marketplace

“Digital assets are still in the mids of the transformation period, with new formats and use cases flooding the market almost constantly. The question remains about the distribution methods and marketplace strategies that can be implemented now and in the future.”

Her work at G2A focuses on researching topics connected to Digital Trade (trends etc.), Digital Assets (NFTs, in-game items etc.), internet communities (meme creators etc.), and gaming as an experience/entertainment and a metaversal platform. Previously at Outlier Ventures, she supported early-stage founders building gaming-related products within the Web3/Metaverse ecosystems. Her background includes e-commerce, entertainment, marketing, and media. Joanna uses her spare time to write about digital culture (focusing on the intersection of Web3, AI, and digital culture and trade) on her Digital Data Glitch blog and used to co-host Metagame podcast – both in her native Polish language.

Blog Data Glitch

Photo: Daria Szczygieł
Portrait Oliver Kadel
Portrait Oliver Kadel
Oliver Kadel

 

Audio for Augmented Reality

“How to approach sound design for AR? We’ll look at the authoring for hardware device playback vs binaural audio on headphones, balancing the sense of realism and authenticity with the entertainment factor and mitigating the differences in scale between the visuals and sound.”

Oliver Kadel is a multi-award-winning 3D sound designer, recording and mixing engineer based in London. Since 2014 he’s worked on over 200 projects delivering spatial and interactive audio for immersive media including VR, MR, AR and 360, covering a broad range of sectors from virtual training and branded content to documentary films, gaming,  and location-based installations. Oliver has published papers for the AES and SAGE Publications on Spatial and Interactive Audio for XR media. He is currently undertaking a PhD program at the AudioLab, doing research in Spatial Psychoacoustics, assessing the impact of spatial and interactive audio on cognitive load and information retention.

Website 1.618 Sound Studio 
Website Immersive Audio Podcast

Photo: Tony Rees, 1.618 Digital
Portrait Baran Szász
Portrait Baran Szász
Barna Szász

 

Changing spaces and minds through AR

“While VR made headlines and captured imaginations, AR quietly built its foundation. Now, with giants like Apple leading the charge, AR is setting the stage for something big: hybrid reality storytelling.”

XR storyteller & filmmaker splitting his time between Budapest & San Francisco, interested in what XR can do for documentary and humanity. He is a graduate of Stanford University, where he also lectures on XR storytelling. Barna’s documentary work has been acquired by The Guardian and PBS, screened at DOC NYC, DOK Leipzig. His XR projects have been part of IDFA & NewImages markets; as a CPH:LAB fellow he’s developed Kvöldvaka, a multi-sensory AR doc that aims to redefine our relationship with nature, and If These Streets Could Talk, a pan-European site-specific Mixed Reality experience that changes how we perceive our cities and - hopefully - AR storytelling in general.

Website

Photo: Zsofia Heisler
Portrait Anna Pompermaier
Portrait Anna Pompermaier
Anna Pompermaier
Me AndOther Me

 

AI & XR: Architecture as Inhabitable Hybrid Media Object
(Keynote together with Denk Güzelis)

“AI and new media are seamlessly becoming an integral part of our every spatial experiences and interactions. What implications does this hold for the future of our habitable domains?”

Anna Pompermaier is an architect and media artist, researcher, and lecturer at the ./studio3, Institute for Experimental Architecture of Innsbruck University. She co-founded Me AndOther Me, a new media-driven artistic and architectural research studio exploring the future of our spatial experiences and communication through practical applications of social mixed reality experiences focused on online culture, post-human critique, and the spatial web. Me AndOther Me investigate how social media and the internet have evolved to accommodate online communities in networked virtual spaces that have become alternative places to practice social and cultural activities, and how these virtual spaces affect the architecture of our social lives and social selves.

Website

Portrait Cenk Güzelis
Portrait Cenk Güzelis
Cenk Güzelis
Me AndOther Me

 

AI & XR: Architecture as Inhabitable Hybrid Media Object 
(Keynote together with Anna Pompermaier)

“In merging digital data with physical realms, we unlock the potential for a spatial milieu, crafting a blended socio-spatial odyssey.”

Cenk Güzelis is a creative technologist and new media artist. He researches and educates at the ./studio3, Institute for Experimental Architecture of Innsbruck University, co-founded Me AndOther Me, a new media-driven artistic and architectural research studio exploring the future of our spatial experiences and communication through practical applications of social mixed reality experiences focused on online culture, post-human critique, and the spatial web. He is a board member of the CSC Immersive Arts. A Centre for The Expanded Moving Image – the Immersive Arts Department of the National Film School of Italy.

Website meandother.me 
Website Cenk Güzelis

A person sits on a chair and wears a VR head set.
Sophie Mahler
XR Showcase

XR creators presented their cutting-edge projects in development in front of an online audience, followed by feedback by around 20 experts from the fields of research, funding, distribution, art and technology. We focused on building openness and equality in the process of knowledge exchange. A great opportunity to develop fresh ideas and build a bridge between the creators and the community of XR experts.

Moderator
Portrait Brigid O’Shea
Portrait Brigid O’Shea
Brigid O’Shea

Brigid O’Shea started at the Berlin International Film Festival, working for various departments including Berlinale Talents, Berlinale Co-Pro Market and the EFM. She went to DOK Leipzig in 2010 and was appointed head of DOK Industry in 2014. She left in 2021 to establish the Documentary Association of Europe. She freelances for many documentary institutions in Europe and production companies and tutors across the globe on international co-financing and pitching as well as festival strategies and cultural management. She moderates and curates programmes on non-fiction filmmaking as an internationally-respected consultant with a wide and diverse network. She serves on the advisory boards of B2B Doc, Dokufest and Circle: Women Doc Accelerator, and is a programmer at Docs Barcelona.

Website DAE

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Experts
DOK Leipzig Logo

Portrait Jutta Brendemühl
Portrait Jutta Brendemühl
Jutta Brendemühl

 

Jutta Brendemühl is an international arts programmer & writer. Engagements: Goethe-Institut; EU Film Festival Toronto; Toronto Arab Film; North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative; Toronto Cultural Leaders Lab. Juries & mentoring incl. Toronto Jewish Film Festival; DOK Leipzig; Kassel Documentary Festival; ArtworxTO.

Instagram

Portrait Ana Brzezinska
Portrait Ana Brzezinska
Ana Brzezińska

 

XR Curator and Producer currently responsible for Immersive programming at Tribeca Festival. In 2020-22 Head of Studio at Kaleidoscope. She collaborates with public funds (Creative Europe MEDIA), NGO, universities and business. Former Discovery Group Producer and Director, and Multimedia Lead at the Grand Theatre–National Opera in Warsaw. The author of awarded documentary and VR projects.

LinkedIn

Portrait Beata Calińska
Portrait Beata Calińska
Beata Calińska

 

Awarded experimental creator and producer based in Los Angeles. Since 2019, she’s been a part of Sundance Institute, acting as Program Manager of New Frontier Story Lab, before taking on the same role for New Frontier Festival. For the 2022 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, she produced and hosted the immersive platform, “The Spaceship,” which won a Webby Award in the best in Arts and Culture category.

LinkedIn

Photo: Julian Sosa
Portrait Tom C. Hall
Portrait Tom C. Hall
Tom C. Hall

 

Tom C. Hall is an award-winning producer and virtual-reality filmmaker. He creatively produced “The Choice,” a VR documentary which won the Audience Award at SXSW 2022, Best XR for Impact at Games For Change 2022 and was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award. He is currently co-producing a DEI VR experience with Johns Hopkins University and a new interactive documentary experience about the Holocaust.

Website

Portrait Gabs Chihan
Portrait Gabs Chihan
Gabs Chihan

 

Gabriella (Gabs) is cofounder & CCO of the award-winning Austrian applied immersive entertainment studio vrisch, the founder of the XR community XRVienna, Austrian Ambassador of Women in Immersive Tech EU, and a South American momtrepreneur, as well as one of Forbes’s 2018 top 20 EU Women Founders.

Website

Portrait Viviana Hochstätter
Portrait Viviana Hochstätter
Viviana Hochstätter

 

Creative XR Producer specializes in transmedia projects and multimedia performance that deal with interactive media such as VR, AR and Games. She works as a freelancer for national & international companies, contributing to production of projects like “Cabinets of Wonder VR”, “Urania Culture Palace”, “Dans Drauganna” (VR Experience WIP). She is currently working for Reynard Film and Yaga Studio in Leipzig.

LinkedIn

Portrait Rob Eagle
Portrait Rob Eagle
Rob Eagle

 

Dr Rob Eagle is a lecturer, researcher and artist, working across performance, film and interactive and immersive media. Rob is currently a Teaching Fellow in Cultural and Creative Industries at the University of Leeds. Previously, they were a Research Fellow with the British Film Institute and XR Stories (University of York) and lecturer in virtual and extended realities at the University of the West of England.

Website 
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Portrait Uta Eberhardt
Portrait Uta Eberhardt
Uta Eberhardt

 

Uta Eberhardt, professional experience includes production and distribution of film, games and new technologies. Following a Master’s Degree in European Media Politics she started working for Creative Europe MEDIA in 2005. The Creative Europe MEDIA Programme programme supports AV-projects with European dimension and encourages the use of innovative business models and new technologies.

Website

Portrait Anna Giralt Gris
Portrait Anna Giralt Gris
Anna Giralt Gris

 

Anna Giralt Gris is a filmmaker, producer  and researcher. She is the co-founder of the film production company GusanoFilms and the interdisciplinary center for creation and research Artefacto, which investigates the intersections between technology, cinema, and politics. She co-directs the FEST section of the +RAIN Film Festival, the first European film festival for AI-generated films.

Website

Photo: Óscar Fernández Orengo
Portrait Cenk Güzelis
Portrait Cenk Güzelis
Cenk Güzelis

 

Cenk Güzelis is a creative technologist and new media artist. He researches and educates at the ./studio3, Institute for Experimental Architecture of Innsbruck University, co-founded Me AndOther Me, a new media-driven artistic and architectural research studio exploring the future of our spatial experiences. He is a board member of the CSC Immersive Arts.

Website

Portrait Oliver Kadel
Portrait Oliver Kadel
Oliver Kadel

 

Oliver Kadel is an Emmy-nominated, multi-award-winning sound designer based in London. Since 2014 he’s worked on over 140 projects specialising in spatial and interactive audio for new generation immersive media for virtual training, 360 films, games and immersive location-based entertainment. Currently, Oliver is undertaking his PhD program at the AudioLab, University of York, doing research in Spatial Psychoacoustics focusing on assessing the impact of spatial and interactive audio on cognitive load and information retention in virtual training.

Website 
Podcast

Photo: Tony Rees, 1.618 Digital
Portrait Sönke Kirchhof
Portrait Sönke Kirchhof
Sönke Kirchhof

 

As the founder and CEO of INVR.SPACE GmbH and reallifefilm Sönke Kirchhof has been involved in more than 500 projects. Having worked in the field of documentary filmmaking and XR documentaries for more than a decade, Sönke has produced astonishing documentaries such as Kusunda, Ernst Grube, Blended Isolations and African Space Makers.

Website

Portrait Ellen Kuo
Portrait Ellen Kuo
Ellen Kuo

 

Ellen is the Head of XR Market at the NewImages Festival in Paris. She works closely with industry professionals to facilitate co-production and co-financing for immersive projects in development, as well as finished content for distribution. She is also an experienced XR producer and programmer, with a focus on exhibitions and art museums.

LinkedIn 
Website

Portrait Fabian Mrongowius
Portrait Fabian Mrongowius
Fabian Mrongowius
(Selection Committee)

 

Fabian Mrongowius is an independent producer for all things XR and new media. Through his career, Fabian has worked with many different formats such as VR, AR, volumetric video, metaverse and web3 experiences with diverse partners including content brands, creative agencies or cultural institutions.

Website

Portrait Michaela Pnacekova
Portrait Michaela Pnacekova
Michaela Pňaček

 

Born in former Czechoslovakia, Michaela Pňaček is an award-winning XR artist, producer, and a researcher. She is a PhD candidate and ELIA scholar at Cinema and Media Arts at York University, Toronto. Her focus lies in the ways emerging media impact the real through interaction with algorithmic processes and artificial intelligence.

Website

Portrait Anna Pompermaier
Portrait Anna Pompermaier
Anna Pompermaier

 

Anna Pompermaier is an architect, media artist, researcher, and lecturer at the ./studio3, Institute for Experimental Architecture of Innsbruck University. She co-founded Me AndOther Me, an artistic research studio exploring the future of our spatial experiences and its influence of online communities on social life and identity in the context of evolving internet and social media dynamics.

Website

Portrait Joanne Popinska
Portrait Joanne Popinska
Joanne Popinska

 

Dr. Joanne Popinska is an award-winning Polish-Canadian XR filmmaker. Her documentary, “The Choice”, premiered at IDFA and SXSW and has received the Audience Award at SXSW, Best XR for Impact at Games for Change, and many others. She is currently co-producing a DEI VR experience with Johns Hopkins University and working on a new interactive documentary experience about the Holocaust.

Website

Portrait Mandy Rose
Portrait Mandy Rose
Mandy Rose

 

Mandy Rose is Professor of Documentary & Digital Cultures at UWE Bristol. Her research examines evolving documentary aesthetics, ethics, audiences. Mandy is Co-Investigator on the UKRI My World programme, she was Co-Investigator on the EPSRC Virtual Realities: Immersive Documentary Encounters project. She is Co-Convenor of i-Docs.

Website 
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Portrait Lars Rummel
Portrait Lars Rummel
Lars Rummel
(Selection Committee)

 

Lars is a queer curator, networker, and community builder for XR. Lars curates exhibitions (eg. Neuland/DOK Leipzig), conferences, and workshops for several international festivals and institutions. He focuses on XR and playful new media as democratic tools and contributes to the ethics behind it. He explores how XR exhibitions can be seen as new forms of cultural techniques.

DOK Neuland 
LinkedIn

Portrait Baran Szász
Portrait Baran Szász
Barna Szász

 

Barna is an XR storyteller & filmmaker splitting his time between Budapest & San Francisco, interested in what XR can do for documentary and humanity. He is a graduate of Stanford University, where he also lectures on XR storytelling. Barna’s work has been acquired by The Guardian and PBS, screened at DOC NYC, DOK Leipzig; as well as IDFA & NewImages markets, and CPH:LAB.

Website

Photo: Zsofia Heisler
Portrait Nim Shapira
Portrait Nim Shapira
Nim Shapira

 

Nim Shapira is a multidisciplinary artist and a creative director working at the intersection of storytelling and innovative technology. His innovative works were featured at TED 2023, Tribeca Film Festival, SIGGRAPH, Slamdance, and more. Over the past few years, he has been a research fellow at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, an alumni of NEWINC, and a graduate of Venice Biennale’s College Cinema. 

Website 
LinkedIn

Portrait Sara Tirelli
Portrait Sara Tirelli
Sara Tirelli
(Selection Committee)

 

Awarded artist and filmmaker with a focus on technology, the politics of media and immersivity. The Artistic Director and Co-Founder of CSC Immersive Arts. A Centre for The Expanded Moving Image – a new XR department of the National Film School of Italy. She held various panels on XR storytelling (“Bodies, Movement and AI in VR” at Goldsmiths, “Future Narrative” with Laurie Anderson at Film Festival Gothenburg). Co-founder of the VR Pavilion, an independent curatorial project.

Website

Portrait Ludovico Vignaga
Portrait Ludovico Vignaga
Ludovico Vignaga

 

Ludovico Vignaga is an entrepreneur, engineer and designer. He is founder of INTORNO LABS, a company specialized in immersive sound technology and spatial audio tools. He is member of the Academic Board for SAE Institute and post-master Fellow at Berklee College of Music.

Website

Photo: Sergio Albert
Portrait Pola Weiß
Portrait Pola Weiß
Pola Weiß

 

Pola Weiß works at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg’s New Media Funding division as Funding Executive for Innovative Audiovisual Content/ XR. Previously, she was a journalist, blogger and speaker specialized in immersive storytelling and wrote copy for companies revolving around tech and XR. She also worked for about 4 years as commissioning editor of award-winning interactive transmedia projects, documentaries and web-videos in television (SWR/arte, Deutsche Welle).

Website 
LinkedIn

Portrait Sarah Wolozin
Portrait Sarah Wolozin
Sarah Wolozin

 

Research scientist and founding director of the MIT Open Documentary Lab. She is the founder and editorial director of Docubase, co-founder and a member of the editorial collective of Immerse, 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. Wolozin has long had an interest in exploring new platforms for storytelling and social change.

Website

Archive

A female person with VR glasses is looking up.
Project Archive

Want to discover the projects that have been part of DOK Exchange XR in recent years from 2020?

Browse the Project Archive

Ein großer Kopfhörer mit Kabel liegt auf einem Schreibtisch, im Hintergrund sind unscharf die Umrisse eines Laptops zu sehen.
Re-Listen to DOK Exchange XR 2021

You can now re-listen to the radio show of our 2021 XR conference here:

Download “Spirituality Is All Around” (mp3)

 

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Partner of DOK Exchange XR 2023:

Co-Partner of DOK Exchange 2023:

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.

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