For the fourth episode of ▶▶Fast Forward, we are joined by Alysha Naples, an immersive experience designer.

Alysha Naples has worked on the bleeding edge of both technology and design for nearly 2 decades. In her previous role as Magic Leap's Senior Director of User Experience and Interaction, Alysha shaped new interaction modalities for the next generation of VR and AR interfaces.

Alysha is currently the Chief Experience Officer at Tin Drum, a content collective working to push the boundaries of performance, storytelling, and education.

The talk was followed by a Q&A moderated by Joanna Pope from THE CATALYSTS.

▶▶ More about Alysha

Alysha has been collaborating with the artist Marina Abramović, and she designed the exhibition for “The Life” at the Serpentine Gallery.

In September 2017, Tin Drum premiered “Tartuffe,” the world’s first volumetric XR short, which features 15 volumetrically photographed characters.

As an international speaker, Alysha takes on challenging questions of future design, education, innovation, women in tech, and the role of experience in virtual and augmented realities.

Alysha’s core philosophy is that products are a reflection of the cultures in which they were created, and that transformative products require an investment in building and nurturing authentic and diverse work cultures.

As the upcoming paradigm shift away from screen-based interactions provides us a valuable opportunity to reassess the role of computing in our lives, Alysha works to raise awareness about the importance of designing experiences for individuals that allow them to achieve their goals in whichever reality they choose.

References, links and resources from Alysha’s talk

Kicking off the conversation, Alysha shared a range of inspiring examples and VR use cases:

▶▶ MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: THE LIFE, directed by Todd Eckert (USA)

▶▶ WE LIVE IN AN OCEAN OF AIR, created by: Marshmallow Laser Feast (UK)

▶▶ DAUGHTERS OF CHIBOK, directed by Joel Kachi Benson (Nigeria)

▶▶ THE KEY, directed by Celine Tricart (France/USA)

▶▶ A LINHA, directed by Ricardo Laganaro (Brasil)

▶▶ In “A Mile in My Shoes”, an exhibition staged by the Empathy Museum Olivia Rosane walked around in the literal shoes of British-East-Asian actress Julie Cheung Inhin while hearing Julie tell her own story of being a refugee:

▶▶ "I could imagine her pain, but I would never actually suffer it, and that made the experience of walking in her shoes feel more like consumption than communication." This is what happens when a perspective touches your brain but not your heart. Read Olivia Rosane’s text in The Real Life Mag.

▶▶ In the Q&A session, Aysha addresses the question of how games help push the adoption of VR. She also mentions other creative tools such as the 3-D painting platform Tilt Brush.