People

Scott Fisher is Professor in Media Arts + Practice, former Dean of Research, and founding Chair of the Interactive Media Division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He is a media artist and interaction designer whose work focuses primarily on interactive environments and technologies of presence. He is well known for his pioneering work in the field of Virtual Reality at NASA. Fisher’s media industry experience includes Atari, Paramount, and his own companies Telepresence Research and Telepresence Media. A graduate of MIT’s Architecture Machine Group (now Media Lab), he has taught at MIT, UCLA, UCSD, and Keio University in Japan. His work has been recognized internationally through numerous invited presentations, professional publications and in the popular media. In addition, he has been an Artist in Residence at MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies and his stereoscopic imagery and artwork has been exhibited in the US, Japan and Europe.   

Mark Bolas is a research scientist, artist, and designer exploring perception, agency, and intelligence. His work focuses on creating virtual environments and transducers that fully engage one’s perception and cognition and create a visceral memory of the experience. Amongst his courses at the undergraduate and graduate level are the design for interactive media and the business of interactive media. Bolas’ 1988-89 thesis work “Design and Virtual Environments” was among the first efforts to map the breadth of virtual reality as a new medium. He has been a professor at Stanford University and KEIO University and is chairman of Fakespace Labs in Mountain View, California, which he co-founded in 1989 with Ian McDowall and Eric Lorimer to build instrumentation for research labs to explore virtual reality and grow the emerging field.

Spencer is a master's student studying Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science as well as a minor in Immersive Media from USC. As a dedicated researcher and developer, he is actively engaged in preservation efforts of XR history with the Mobile & Environmental Media Lab (MEML) as well as researching the emerging use cases of XR synergized with AI-powered Socially Interactive Agents (SIAs) at the MxR Lab within USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies.  Spencer, being a history buff and avid tinkerer, loves to use his XR development talents to recreate seminal XR works on modern hardware.

Michael Wahba is a Game Developer from Calgary, Canada. His credits include being the Lead Writer on Atrio: The Dark Wild, and Creative Director of Egregore. He is currently a Software Engineer at Electronic Arts Maxis.

Katrina Xiao, a USC student double majoring in Architecture and Media Arts + Practice with a minor in Game Design, blends her diverse academic background to innovate in immersive XR. Her expertise in spatial design fuels her passion for using environments to craft impactful stories. Katrina's work focuses on transcending traditional boundaries through sensory engagement, transforming static spaces into dynamic, experiential vignettes that shape emotional experiences.

Zeynep is an artist, researcher and educator from Istanbul, Turkey. She studied film and interactive media at Emerson College, later getting her start at LACMA’s Art+Tech lab creating AR installations. She then worked at the Sundance Film Festival's New Frontier Exhibitions and is a recent graduate of UCLA’s Design Media Arts MFA program.  She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Media Arts and Practice program at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She primarily works with archived photography, video, photogrammetry and immersive media. Her subjects revolve around identity, history, and loss of memory. She is in pursuit of exploring the role artists play in preserving memories to navigate the struggle and alienation that arise from changing social environments and shifting identities.

Nathan Fairchild is a VR filmmaker and immersive media designer.  He recently completed an MFA at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.  His work focuses on bringing real people, places, and things into the virtual world to create visceral experiences of presence.  Coming from a background in filmmaking and sound, he became fascinated with the possibilities of immersive media and virtual reality to remove the frame from visual media and enable expanded cinematic experiences. His interests and production experience include neural radiance fields, virtual production, volumetric capture, photogrammetry, and integrating traditional live-action cinematography/characters with immersive 3D worlds inside Unreal Engine and Unity.

Tyler White is a senior in the USC Media Arts + Practice Program. He is project manager for MEML's ChinatownAR project. 

Flint Dille has been given many titles throughout his career: Transmediologist, World Builder, ARGonaut, Gamifyer, Narrative Alchemist, and Game Designer, to name a few. He has led the development of multiple storyworlds, served as the showrunner on the original Transformers animated series, inspired Dilios in Frank Miller’s 300, and is currently Creative Lead on Niantic’s geo-mobile alternate reality game, Ingress. Flint is also working on Transportopia, and keeping his hand in the film business has his novel Agent 13 in development with Universal and the Sean Daniels company.

Jen Stein is a design researcher examining the implications of ubiquitous technologies on the built environment. She completed her Ph.D. in Media Arts and Practice at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, where she combined theory and practice to speculate about near future scenarios for Interactive Architecture. Her research explored how the technologies now commonly embedded within architectural spaces could be used to create more personalized and enchanted experiences for inhabitants. Jen is currently Professor of Design Futures at the University of the West of England and a Resident at the Pervasive Media Studio at the Watershed in Bristol. Previously she was Research Assistant Professor in the Mobile and Environmental Media Lab and the Media Arts + Practice program at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Her research explores design for interactive architecture, ambient storytelling, and mobile experiences. She holds an M.A. in Media and Communication from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Behnaz Farahi is an interaction designer, architect, Annenberg Fellow and PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Media Arts and Practice at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she is exploring the potential of interactive systems using advanced computational technologies. She is interested in the exploration of the potential of interactive environments and their relation to the movement of the human body. In particular she is interested in the integrated application of material behavior, and implementation of emerging technologies in contemporary art/architecture practice. Behnaz Farahi has an Undergraduate and two Masters degrees in Architecture. Her work has been widely published and exhibited. It has been selected for ACADIA 2014, Skyline2014 in Downtown Los Angeles, ACADIA 2013 conference in Canada, ‘Sight+ Sound+ Space’ iMAP exhibition in 2013, ‘Design Intelligence: Advanced Computational Research’ exhibition in Beijing in 2013, ‘Interactive Shanghai’ exhibition of interactive design in Shanghai in 2013, ‘Encoding Architecture’ exhibition in Carnegie Mellon University in 2013. In 2013 she was awarded first prize for the Kinetic Art Organization international competition, and in 2014 first prize for student work at ACADIA annual international conference (Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture) Behnaz Farahi has also worked with Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis on two NASA funded research projects developing a robot to print structures on the Moon and Mars. http://www.behnazfarahi.com/

Ben Nicholson is a musician, writer, performer, and businessman. He holds undergraduate degrees in Electronic Writing and Electronic Music and Multimedia from Brown University (2011), as well as an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of Chicago (2017). He has also worked in Silicon Valley business development and international consulting. Ben is fond of developing interactive, performance-driven works that that often resemble closed systems or open business ventures. His practice and research interests include: the enunciative function as a world-building tactic, speculative capitalism as an unending alternate reality game, the role of 'art' in the human emancipation project, and the necessary denial of our knowledge of death.

Biayna Bogosian is an architect and interactive media designer researching perceptual and cognitive interaction design that highlight the relationship between environmental data and the built environment. Biayna is pursuing a Ph.D. in Media Arts & Practice in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. She holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University, and a Bachelors of Architecture from Woodbury University. Since 2011, Biayna has taught digital media and architectural design courses at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, USC School of Architecture, Tongji University in Shanghai, and American University in Armenia. Biayna is principal of Los Angeles-based studio Somewhere Something that works at the intersection of architecture, urban design, interaction design, and digital fabrication, in order to change the way we perceive and construct our cities. www.biaynabogosian.com

Clea T. Waite is an intermedia artist-scholar, and experimental filmmaker whose proprioceptive, cinematic works explore somatic montage through immersion, installation, and sensual interfaces -- as well as one inter-species collaboration with several hundred spiders. Her research bridges art and science, exploring the artifacts, materiality, and poetics that emerge from scientific practices. Her projects focus on particle physics, astronomy, climate change, water ecology, and the history of science, themes she juxtaposes with mythology, poetry, literature, and pop culture. She has been an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow, a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies Fellow, and a fellow at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, with numerous artist residencies internationally, including the CERN European Laboratory for Particle Physics. She has lectured and exhibited world-wide. Her art awards include, notably, the IBM Innovation Prize for Artistic Creation in Art and Technology and the grand prize at the Computer Graphics Grand Prix in Tokyo. Waite has been Associate Professor at the Academy of Film and Television Babelsberg, Germany, and has also held positions at Pratt Institute, New York, and the University of the Arts Berlin. She graduated from the MIT Media Laboratory and is currently an Annenberg Fellow at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts pursuing her PhD in Media Arts and Practice.

Fidelia Lam is an experimental media designer, artist and researcher exploring themes of persona, performativity, opacity and embodiment. In particular, she is interested in the intersection of space, movement and everyday performance, and the influence of transient spaces on the daily performance and perception of identity. Her practice utilizes interactive live performance and installation works to engage and invite participants to reflect on their role and experience within an environment. Fidelia holds an MA in Media Arts from the University of Michigan and a BMus from the University of British Columbia with a double Major in Piano and English Literature, and a Minor in Applied Music Technology.

Paisley Smith is a dynamic creative leader and experienced virtual reality filmmaker. She has been recognized as one of the “10 Filmmakers to Watch” by Independent Magazine, and has been nominated for an ADC Young Gun Award for her VR films. Her projects are driven by a passion for connecting with others and making a positive impact beyond the screen. Paisley is the creator of Homestay, an interactive VR documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada Interactive, with Jam3. Homestay has screened internationally at IDFA DocLab 2017, Expanded Realities at the Open City Doc Fest (London), Reel Asian International Film Festival (Toronto), and the Vancouver International Film Festival's Immersed 2018 where it received the B.C. Spotlight Audience Award at the inaugural VIFF Immersed Exhibition.

Perry Hoberman is an artist and educator who works with a wide variety of new and old technologies, ranging from the utterly obsolete to the state-of-the-art, from low-tech to high-tech and nearly everything in between. Often incorporating stereoscopic 3D media and virtual reality, his work has variously taken the form of installations, sculptures, multimedia, performances, concerts, plays and uncategorizable spectacles. Hoberman has exhibited internationally, with major shows throughout the USA and Europe. He has been the recipient of many awards and honors, including Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, as well as prizes from Prix Ars Electronica and the ICC Biennale. He has taught and lectured widely, with previous appointments at Cooper Union, the San Francisco Art Institute, the California Institute of the Arts, and the School of Visual Arts.