Illuminating Immersive Realities: Creating and Curating Virtual Worlds

Explore the overlooked impact of women in digital art at our Tuesday Talk at Gazelli Art House, coinciding with the GLOW: Illuminating Innovation exhibition.

The talk coincides with the exclusive opportunity to experience the large-scale projected version of Tamiko Thiel’s The Travels of Mariko Horo from 10:30 AM until 5:30 PM (on the day of the event) in the Gazelli Art House VR Library.

Featuring:

• Sarah Atkinson: Professor of Screen Media at King's College London, Editor of Routledge Resources Online: Screen Studies, and co-editor of Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. Sarah has published widely on the film, cinema, screen, and immersive technology industries. She is currently an Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Fellow and curator of GLOW: Illuminating Innovation, a new exhibition which showcases ground-breaking creativity by women in technology at various locations on Strand Aldwych, London. The exhibition stems from her forthcoming book with Vicki Callahan: Mixed Realities: Gender & Emergent Media (Wayne State University Press, 2025).
  
  
• Liz Rosenthal: Curator of Venice Biennale’s International Film Festival's Official Selection and Competition programme Venice Immersive. Liz is an Executive Producer of award-winning immersive content and helped found and lead accelerator programme, CreativeXR, managed by Arts Council England and Digital Catapult. Rosenthal is CEO & Founder of the trail-blazing innovation company Power to the Pixel. She has an extensive network and knowledge of international talent, financiers and distributors across the immersive entertainment and arts space. She is curator of the GLOW: Spotlight on VR programme.
  
  
• Alex Rühl: An award-winning virtual reality creator and Head of Immersive Technologies at PwC. Since starting her VR career in 2015, she’s written, directed and exec produced several original pieces including 360º romcom Keyed Alike, interactive VR thought experiment Playing God and her most recent piece Rock Paper Scissors which had its world premiere at Venice Film Festival in 2022 and which features in the GLOW: Spotlight on VR programme. Since joining PwC as the Head of Immersive Technologies in 2022, she is now working alongside the world’s biggest organisations to understand what the metaverse and spatial computing means for the future of work, entertainment, communication and commerce.