DOK Industry Podcast
What Lasts: Building a Future for XR and Immersive Arts
What lasts in XR once the first rush of premieres and new devices settles? This podcast brings you straight into a sharp, inspiring conversation between leading creators, funders, and curators from the UK and Germany. Together they unpack the real challenges behind building a sustainable XR field: long-term funding, meaningful collaboration, institutional responsibility, and the skills needed for the next decade of immersive arts.
If you’re curious about where XR is going – and how you can help shape its future – this episode offers rare insights, honest reflections, and plenty of inspiration. Tune in and be part of the conversation that the immersive industry urgently needs.
This podcast is a recording of the live panel “What Lasts? Building a Future for XR and Immersive Arts”. It took place on 31 October in Leipzig during DOK Exchange XR, held in partnership with the British Council Germany. The episode also references the newest British Council report “Why Technology Needs Artists”.
Language: English
Length: 1:34:12
Recorded on 31 Oct, 2025
Sound Recording: Hein-Godehart Petschulat
Sound Design: Clemens Litschko
Music Composer: Marcus Lori
Intro/Outro Voice: Weronika M. Lewandowska
Producer of Episode 6: Weronika M. Lewandowska
Producer of DOK Industry Podcast Season 6: Anne Rethfeldt
This podcast episode is produced in partnership with The British Council
Ulrich Schrauth is one of the leading curators and creative directors in the field of immersive media, renowned for his innovative approach to the intersection of art and technology. As the Artistic Director of the UBS Digital Art Museum in Hamburg and founder of the VRHAM! Biennale, he is shaping new ways of presenting and experiencing digital art. Working between Hamburg and London, he also heads the Immersive Programme at the British Film Institute (BFI) and serves on the British Council’s Advisory Board for Arts and Creative Economy. In addition, he curates the digital section of Art Dubai, the premier international art fair for digital media. Ulrich is a jury member for prestigious awards such as the Lumen Prize and the Fedora Digital Art Prize, and is a regular speaker at major events including the Venice Biennale, SXSW, and the Cannes Film Festival.
Panellists
May Abdalla, an Emmy-nominated director and artist, is celebrated for her innovative work merging physical experience, technology, and storytelling. Through Anagram, the studio she co-founded in 2013, she explores contemporary issues using documentary, game-design, and speculative fiction. Anagram's projects range from Door Into The Dark, a blindfolded experience about being lost, to Messages to A Post Human Earth, an augmented reality exploration of plant intelligence. Her ongoing collaboration with Barry Gene Murphy utilizes immersive technologies to delve into first-person experiences of mental health conditions. Their series Playing With Reality, has received two Venice Lions.
Max Permantier is Funding Executive at FFF Bayern, where he oversees funding for Extended Reality (XR, VR, AR, MR and 3D sound). He works at the intersection of film, media and technology, supporting innovative projects and advancing Bavaria’s XR ecosystem. Trained at the ifs internationale filmschule cologne, he gained experience as a creative producer, screenwriter and production manager in film, series and transmedia. Max has served as jury member at the Luxembourg Film Award, DOK.digital Munich and the ArtTech Prize, and as speaker at Venice, NewImages Paris, DocSalon Berlin, VR Days Luxembourg and other platforms shaping XR’s role in culture and the creative industries.
Paul Hauptmeier is a composer and multimedia artist based in Leipzig. He studied composition in Weimar and in San Diego, California. Since 2009 he works as part of the artist duo Hauptmeier|Recker in the field of composition, sound and multimedia art. Paul is a founding member of the ZiMMT in Leipzig, where he conducts research in the field of spatial audio and augmented reality in the field of sound and multimedia art and organises workshops, panels, concerts and exhibitions on the subject. His works have been presented in festivals and institutions like: Sharjah Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, Venice Biennial, Venice Biennale Musica, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Ses Dotze Naus Ibiza, EMAF.
Sarah Ellis is an award-winning producer currently the Director of Creative Innovation and member of the senior leadership team for the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is currently Executive Producer for Lili, a video game adaptation of Macbeth and collaboration with INK Stories and Alambic Productions. It was the first video game ever presented at Cannes Film Festival in 2025. She is also pioneering research as Principle Investigator for the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Feasability study for a Future of Performance Institute. From 2019–2021 she was Project Director for the Audience of the Future Live Performance Demonstrator funded by Innovate UK.
DOK Industry Podcast 2025 is realised in partnership with POC2 Programmers of Colour Collective, What’s Up With Docs Podcast, and Talking Shorts, supported by film.macht.kritisch - The podcast about the *other* cinema.
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.
