Yesica Duarte (she/her)
Yesica is the creator of Pinch to Awaken XR. As an artist, VR developer and researcher at Electronic Arts, dually based in Buenos Aires and Montreal, she delves into the immersive realms of VR and wearable interfaces, with a particular focus on biosensor technology and Soma Design. Her exploration extends to the convergence of performance and XR installations, where she investigates the role of performance as a crucial component of immersive experiences.
With exhibitions of her work in residencies in Montreal and exhibitions on various Latin American platforms, Yesica has gained local recognition for her research-creation thesis. Currently, she is honing her skills through a Specialization in HCI Technology, Design and Evaluation at UNLP, Argentina. In addition, Yesica enriches the academic field as a professor of VR Experience Design at UADE, Argentina.
Kay Wasil (they/them)
Kay is an artist and creative technologist living in Brooklyn, and is currently pursuing a masters degree at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. They’ve been a drag performer, producer, and costume designer in New York for the past 5+ years, and their creative interests include wearables, fashion, costume design, performance, interactive technology, and community building!
Lee Wilkins (they/them)
Lee is an artist, cyborg and researcher.
Lee’s project explores non visual VR experiences through haptic sensations embedded in silicon prosthetics. Their work focuses on how immersive spaces can be made that centre a variety of senses, in order to re-focus an existing popular fixation on vision.
Lee is working with a sighted collaborator, Kyle Chisholm, who is creating sight-oriented peripherals. Together, their work puts emphasis on multiple ways to traverse virtual and immersive spaces.
Olivia Prior (she/they)
Olivia Prior is an educator, artist, and service designer, currently based in Treaty 13 (Toronto ON). Their practice is interdisciplinary and always evolving, but is always drawn back to exploring habitual embodied actions through objects and clothing. For the last four years, Olivia has taught physical computing, new media, and e-textile/wearable courses at various universities in the GTA. Her focus in teaching is to get students playing as soon as possible.
Shalaka Jadhav (they/she)
Shalaka Jadhav is based between Block 2 of the Haldimand Tract (Kitchener, ON) and Treaty 1 (Winnipeg, MB). Trained as an urban planner, they took the advice of an aptitude test to pursue curatorial studies, and currently practice as an independent curator, writer, and service designer. Shalaka curates projects and works in an editorial role for Textile, a hyperlocal project on the Haldimand Tract. They are currently a Visiting Curator at the University of Manitoba’s School of Art Gallery, and hold roles at OCAD University, and more recently, at the Blackwood.
Max Lander (he/they)
Maxwell Lander is a gamemaker, photographer and interactive media artist. They have been winning awards and exhibiting internationally since 2007 and, after publishing a book of photography exploring queerness and sci-fi aesthetics in 2016, they took a brief hiatus from photography to delve into game design, interactive media and immersive technology.
In May of 2019, they completed their Master of Design in the Digital Futures program at OCAD University, where they explored technology’s engagement with the body through custom controller design and the use of VR tech outside of the headset. Passionate about empowering other queer + trans creators, they now teaches VR, game design and volumetric video in and outside of established educational institutions.
They were lead-developer on Night of the Living Dead VR, an immersive homage to the classic film and have exhibited as a part of the Gladstone Hotel’s annual design exhibition, Come Up To My Room. Most recently, they have released several tabletop roleplaying games including one of Gizmodo’s best RPGs of 2022, Himbos of Myth & Mettle, and are starting to work in the creative space between analog and digital games.
Linh My Truong (she/her)
Linh My Truong is an Detroit-based interdisciplinary artist and educator working with textiles, video, and electronics. Through her exploration of the Japanese marbling art of suminagashi and her penchant for hard geometric forms, her work finds a place between chaos theory and an ordered universe. She often incorporates found footage into multi-layered videos to produce non-linear narratives about society, culture, and memory.
Her application of technology uses light to create immersive art installations, bringing traditional art forms into the 21st century. She has exhibited work across the United States and in Asia and is a 2023 recipient of the Knight Foundation’s New Work Art & Technology grant.
Michelle Kaatz (she/her)
Michelle is a Toronto-based publisher, confectionery artist, and XR developer working on strange and silly multi-sensory immersive experiences in VR with an emphasis on sound and environment design. Her work incorporates theatricality and humour and explores the nature of comfort vs. discomfort using elements of both cozy and horror genres.