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Program Schedule

December 3-6, 2020

All-day Events & Experiences


* = Free to public

HTC Vive 360° Cinema Experience*

(10AM-5PM, Thurs-Sun @ State Library of WA – North West Room)

Games & Experience Emporium & Exhibition floor*

(10AM-5PM, Thurs-Sun @ Art Gallery of WA – Centenary Galleries)

Installation: On Exactitude in Science*

(10AM-8PM, Thurs-Sat, 10AM-5PM Sun @ PICA Performance Space)

Revelation Academic Conference

(10AM-7.30PM, Fri-Sat, 10AM-5PM Sun @ Art Gallery of WA – Theatrette)

Schedule

Expand All +

  • Day 1

    Thursday 3 December, 2020

  • Free event

    PANELISTS

    Peter “Willie” Rowe: CEO, ScreenWest
    Alyssa Orvis: Development Manager, Screen Australia
    Marty Cunningham: Director of Investment, Research and Policy at the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC)
    + more TBA

    One thing we’ve found in our discussions with industry this year is the ongoing question of  a “breakthrough” mindset and leading in the development of technology, business culture, funding and risk taking. 

    As the 1st cab off the rank at this year’s XR:WA event, we’re turning the blowtorch on local and national funding agencies as we discover how they’re working with the XR, games and immersive technology sectors in the development of all corners of the various sectors from science, art and entertainment, heavy industry, engineering, architecture and education and training. 

    This interactive panel discussion brings together representatives of key funding agencies to discuss strategies, approaches, ways of working with industry and how government and semi-government bodies are thinking and working with industry.

    Panel: People with Money and What They Are Doing
    Date: Thursday December 3
    Time: 10-11AM
    Location: State Library of WA - Theatre
    Perth Cultural Centre, Perth, Western Australia
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Business
    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    Panel
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Online Event

    MENTORS & SPEAKERS INCLUDE

    THU Dec 3rd 10AM - Caitlin Cronin & Cherie Davidson - Designers & Producers, Mountains (MEL)
    FRI Dec 4th 10AM - James Hill - CEO, Singular Health
    SAT Dec 5th 3:45PM - John Romero (USA) - Game Designer

    Over the three days of the event, we’ll be offering delegates the opportunity to participate in a professional development hot-house with conference guests and speakers.

    This side-bar will consist of two closed 1 hour sessions per day made up of selected delegates with national and international guests working at the top of their fields.

    This represents a unique opportunity for participants, with topics including working with specific software packages across a variety of applications, narrative strategies, working across business sectors, applying digital technologies for on-set VFX and a range of other topics. Selected delegates will be the same group across the three days.

    Developing the Developers (Intensive Hot-House)

    Mentors & Speakers Include:
    THU Dec 3rd 10AM - Caitlin Cronin & Cherie Davidson - Designers & Producers, Mountains (MEL)
    FRI Dec 4th 10AM - James Hill - CEO, Singular Health
    SAT Dec 5th 3:45PM - John Romero (USA) - Game Designer

    Date: December 3-5, 2020
    Location: Online
    REGISTER FOR SESSION SERIES

    Business
    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    Games
    Online Event
    Workshop
    Where
    Online


  • Free Event
    PANELISTS

    Doug Bester: Managing Director at Sentient Computing
    Natalie Marinho: Founder & Creative Director at Voyant Augmented Reality and Chair of Immerse Australia
    Justin McArdle: Managing Director & Senior Producer at Frame VR
    Andrew Woods: Associate Professor at HIVE, Curtin University

    Countries around the world are making significant investment in the XR sector to create jobs, support their local economy and encourage investment. The XR industry in WA is filled with award-winning studios, world-class education institutions, a diverse pool of talented professionals and fresh graduates eager to join the sector. But what do we need to stimulate exponential growth? What role can we play? Join committee members from Immerse Australia in a lively panel discussion followed by a Q&A where we welcome ideas and feedback from the audience.

    Panel: Secret Sauce: How do we rapidly grow the XR industry in WA?
    Date: Thursday December 3
    Time: 11:30-1PM AWST
    Location: State Library of WA - Theatre
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    AR
    Free to Public
    Panel
    VR
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Event

    SPEAKERS

    Ben Bauert (CEO, Facilitate)
    Phillip Seiler (Psychology and Human Factors Lead, Facilitate)

    The power and reach of VR in industry and business is rapidly being realised and the choice for organisations to be part of Workforce 4.0 is clearly on the table. It’s also clear that if you miss a stepping stone, the distance between you and the next is just that little bit further. 

    To close that gap and give you the opportunity to explore what VR has to offer for your business, this session aims to provide a practical and informative VR training 101, aimed at training functions in medium to larger organisations. 

    The session will answer the below questions as well as provide an opportunity to view different types of VR training content. It will allow you to explore:

    • What are the signs that VR and virtual training will suit my organisation?
    • What does a VR training solution look like?
    • What VR training technology options are available to my organisation?
    • What VR content options exist and what is suitable for my use case?
    • Key questions to ask vendors if you’re considering VR training.

    Talk: Choose Your Weapon: Integrating VR for Medium to Larger Organisations
    Date: Thursday December 3
    Time: 11:30-1PM
    Location: Art Gallery of WA - Theatrette
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Business
    Free to Public
    Training & Education
    VR
    Where
    Art Gallery of WA - Theatrette


  • Free Event

    PANELISTS

    Mario di Castro: Head of Robotics CERN
    Jeremy Burton: Product Manager, Digital, St John Ambulance
    James Brandwood: WA Emergency Services
    Adrian Web: Future Simulation Technology Officer, ADF

    Moderator - Adam Geohegan

    Immersive technology and robotics are reshaping the world of medicine in the field and in the hospital, as well as our ability to react to emergency response and hazard assessment. From robots the size of mosquitos, to  diagnosis and surgery that can be controlled in the field from a different country, to assessing real emergencies in virtual spaces, the sifts are seismic.

    Join our panel of emergency responders, robotic experts and people working in the most hazardous of worlds, as we discuss these live-saving applications, their software, their hardware and the systems and people that build them.

    Panel: Search & Rescue: Visualising Disaster
    Date: Thursday December 3
    Time: 1:45-3:15PM AWST
    Location: State Library of WA - Theatre
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    AR
    Free to Public
    Health & Medical
    Training & Education
    VR
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Event

    PANELISTS

    Tristan Morgan (National Design Technology Innovation Lead of COX Architecture)
    Prof Marina Ciccarelli (Curtin University)
    Julius Jeppe (CEO Viewport)
    Andrew Templar (Unity Technology)

    Immersive technology or otherwise, the shape of professions has utterly changed in the Workforce 4.0 environment. Some of these changes have been hastened by COVID-19, but what are the impacts on the way we work in professions that have traditionally been 2-Dimensionally oriented?

    Panel: The Future of Professions
    Date: Thursday December 3
    Time: 1:45-3:15PM AWST
    Location: Art Gallery of WA - Theatrette
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Business
    Free to Public
    Panel
    Training & Education
    Where
    Art Gallery of WA - Theatrette


  • Free Event

    PANELISTS

    Caitlin Lomax: XR producer and developer
    Briege Whitehead: Producer & Director, White Spark Pictures
    Natalie Marhino: Founder & Creative Director, Voyant Augmented Reality

    One of the most interesting things about working in the immersive and games sectors aside from just how fascinating it is, is that it’s uncluttered by established ways of doing things, established pathways and established career paths.

    This freshness however, can meet head-on with old ways of doing and approaching business in established industries and firms as well as old creative structures that may have been in the control of established players, systems and structures for a very long time.

    In this session we bring together a panel of people who are carving out their own way, creating their own opportunities and working with multiple sectors, in multiple forms with multiple aims.

    Panel: Levelling Up: Diversity in Immersive & Games
    Date: Thursday December 3, 2020
    Time: 3:45PM AWST
    Location: Art Gallery of WA - Theatrette, Perth Cultural Centre
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Business
    Ethics
    Free to Public
    Panel
    Where
    Art Gallery of WA - Theatrette

  • Free Event incl. Live Q&A (John appears via Zoom)

    CHAIR

    Gianfranco Di Giovanni

    As co-founders of id Software, John Romero and John Carmack created the code behind the company's seminal titles. The principles they defined through experience in id’s earliest days built upon one another to produce a unique methodology and a constantly shippable codebase. In this talk, John Romero discusses id software’s early days, these programming principles and the events and games that led to their creation. (30 min talk with 30 mins for questions <— there are ALWAYS tons of questions.)

    Keynote: The Early Days of id Software: Programming Principles with John Romero (USA)
    Date: Thursday December 3
    Time: 3:45PM AWST
    Location: State Library of WA - Theatre
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    AR
    Free to Public
    Games
    Keynote
    VR
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre

  • Day 2

    Friday 4 December, 2020


  • Free Online Event

    MENTORS & SPEAKERS INCLUDE

    THU Dec 3rd 10AM - Caitlin Cronin & Cherie Davidson - Designers & Producers, Mountains (MEL)
    FRI Dec 4th 10AM - James Hill - CEO, Singular Health
    SAT Dec 5th 3:45PM - John Romero (USA) - Game Designer

    Over the three days of the event, we’ll be offering delegates the opportunity to participate in a professional development hot-house with conference guests and speakers.

    This side-bar will consist of two closed 1 hour sessions per day made up of selected delegates with national and international guests working at the top of their fields.

    This represents a unique opportunity for participants, with topics including working with specific software packages across a variety of applications, narrative strategies, working across business sectors, applying digital technologies for on-set VFX and a range of other topics. Selected delegates will be the same group across the three days.

    Developing the Developers (Intensive Hot-House)

    Mentors & Speakers Include:
    THU Dec 3rd 10AM - Caitlin Cronin & Cherie Davidson - Designers & Producers, Mountains (MEL)
    FRI Dec 4th 10AM - James Hill - CEO, Singular Health
    SAT Dec 5th 3:45PM - John Romero (USA) - Game Designer

    Date: December 3-5, 2020
    Location: Online
    REGISTER FOR SESSION SERIES

    Business
    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    Games
    Online Event
    Workshop
    Where
    Online


  • Free Event incl. Live Q&A

    When we don the next generation of AR ‘mirrorshades’, the world will reveal its inner ‘digital depth’. For the first time, the world will speak for itself; its content and context will shape our passage through it. But at what cost? By design, augmented reality is a technology of “hypersurveillance”, requiring millions to wear head-mounted cameras, orientation sensors and eye gaze detectors. Who collects this rich stream of highly personal sensor data? How is it used - and whose purposes will it serve? These questions lie before us as we cross the threshold of what will surely be the “augmented decade”.

    Keynote: The AR Dilemma
    Date: Friday December 4
    Time: 10:15-11AM AWST
    Location: State Library of WA - Theatre
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    AR
    Ethics
    Free to Public
    Keynote
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Online Event

    SPEAKER

    Adam Single (Field Engineer, Unity)

    Virtual reality, as a tool, is starting to hit its stride. But creating VR applications is still hard. With Unity, and our XR Interaction Toolkit, you can very quickly and easily incorporate interactions into your real time 3D environments. 

    Learn how to integrate the XR Interaction Toolkit with your Unity VR projects. We'll cover adding locomotion, grabbable objects, socket interactions, haptics, activation events and UI in this half day workshop.

    Workshop: Bringing interaction to your VR with Unity's XR Interaction Toolkit
    Date: Friday December 4
    Time: 11:30-1PM & 1:45-3:15PM (Note: this workshop comprises of 2 x 90min sessions)
    Location: Online
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION SERIES

    AR
    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    Games
    Online Event
    Training & Education
    VR
    Workshop
    Where
    Online


  • Free Screening

    Official Selection: Visions du Réel
    Official Selection: CPH:DOX
    Official Selection: Hot Docs
    Official Selection: NZ Architecture & Design Festival
    Official Selection: Sheffield DocFest
    Official Selection: IDFA

    A funny and fascinating exploration of our relationship with a rapidly developing technology, Hi AI asks: How will artificial intelligence impact our most personal and intimate lives, what will we win and what will we lose, and what will this seemingly unimaginable world of the future look like?

    Humanoid robots are the new creatures on our planet. They work at the reception, in shopping malls or as chefs, and they already have relationships with people.

    Hi AI follows Chuck, a Californian searching for love and happiness, as he picks up his new companion robot Harmony and embarks on a road trip through the United States unlike anything we have ever seen.  

    At the other end of the world, in Tokyo, grandma Sakurai receives the cute robot, Pepper, from her son. But Pepper turns out to be a rogue, with grandmother’s topics of conversation of little interest to her new robot friend. Pepper prefers to flirt with other members of the family.

    While Harmony and Chuck search for love, and Pepper and Grandma kill time, the question increasingly arises: how will we live with artificial intelligence? What will we win, what will we lose? And who are the main characters of this beautiful, new world?

    Screening: Hi, A.I
    Dates: Friday December 4 @ 11:30AM | Sunday December 6 @ 10AM
    Location: State Library of WA
    GET TICKETS

    Film Screening
    Free to Public
    Public Access
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Online Event

    PRESENTERS

    Darren Vukasinovic (CEO) | Sara Grayson (Producer) | Zoe Hogan (Executive Producer)

    Virtually every modern industry is going through rapid change triggered by technological disruption, with most modern corporates building digital teams and embarking on talent and culture initiatives. At the same time the media industry has also gone through massive disruption, with rapid changes in how consumers access content radically shifting how creatives conceptualize, produce and reach their audiences. 

    In this focused discussion we explore the symbiosis of the challenges filmmakers face reaching their audience with the challenges corporates face with reaching their customers. With the imminent convergence of XR technology on both landscapes, we deep dive how traditional screen storytelling skills can readily adapt to the XR landscape and why creatives with these skills will be in critical demand for industries well beyond entertainment and media.

    Workshop: Disruption, Innovation and the Corporate Writers Room
    Date: Friday 4th December, 2020
    Time: 11:30-1PM AWST
    Location: Online
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Business
    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    Online Event
    Workshop
    Where
    Online


  • PANELISTS

    Brent Vanlelyveld
    Amanda Ainslie: Cox Architects
    Dr Andrew Stafford: Curtin University

    Moderator: Adam Geoghegan

    For large businesses, the cost and risk associated with new administration and creative systems is enormous. Once an investment that can take you well into the future is made and you’re locked into nebulous system subscription futures, there’s a lot at stake. This can place businesses firmly in the eye of the famous innovator’s dilemma where if you avoid the risk other may take advantage and if you accept it, you open yourself to technological redundancy and corporate strategies well outside of your control.

    Despite this, immersive technologies are revolutionising the worlds architecture, engineering and design for the companies and their clients. This session examines some of these giant creative leaps and balances them with some of the corporate and cultural challenges. 

    Join our panel of experts as we explore these areas of great speculation and opportunity.

    Panel: The Innovator's Dilemma: Reimagining Architecture & Engineering
    Delegate access
    Date: Friday December 4
    Time: 1:45-3:15PM
    Location: State Library of WA - Geographe Room
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Architecture
    Business
    Engineering
    Free to Public
    Panel
    Where
    State Library of WA - Geographe Room


  • Free Online Event

    SPEAKER

    Adam Single (Field Engineer, Unity)

    Virtual reality, as a tool, is starting to hit its stride. But creating VR applications is still hard. With Unity, and our XR Interaction Toolkit, you can very quickly and easily incorporate interactions into your real time 3D environments. 

    Learn how to integrate the XR Interaction Toolkit with your Unity VR projects. We'll cover adding locomotion, grabbable objects, socket interactions, haptics, activation events and UI in this half day workshop.

    Workshop: Bringing interaction to your VR with Unity's XR Interaction Toolkit
    Date: Friday December 4
    Time: 11:30-1PM & 1:45-3:15PM (Note: this workshop comprises of 2 x 90min sessions)
    Location: Online
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION SERIES

    AR
    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    Games
    Online Event
    Training & Education
    VR
    Workshop
    Where
    Online


  • Free Online Event

    FACILITATOR

    Alexander Swords

    There are two sides to telling stories in virtual environments. The tales the space itself can tell, and those we choose to tell with the help of the player. That’s a lot of variables and all of them need to work together to bring meaning to the experience whether it's factual or entertainment. As storytellers in this environment it is your job to first clarify your own ideas and then convey them to your first audience - your development team. This session will introduce some very basic ways to concept and organise your story for a virtual environment and that flowcharts will always be your friend.

    This intensive workshop will provide writers of all screen forms, the tools to re-think narrative structures in games, cinema and moving image forms from the bottom up, from side to side, from the top down and inside out.

    Workshop: Writing 3 Dimensional Stories
    Delegate access
    Date: Friday December 6
    Time: 3:30-5PM AWST
    Location: Online
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    Online Event
    Workshop
    Where
    Online


  • Free Event

    PANELISTS

    Joao Pequenao (CERN)
    James Hill (Singular Health)
    Ali Fardinpour (Wise Realities)
    Mihy Won (Curtin University)

    It’s no exaggeration that new developments and new access to immersive technology has utterly shifted the worlds of how we discuss, examine, experience and explore science and medicine. Where only what seems like a few months ago, surgeon’s we confined to diagnosing patients via two-dimensional X-Rays, VR now provides them the opportunity to re-imagine the X-Ray and travel inside the human body. New generations of educators and researchers are literally able to walk through data, time and space and discuss their work which standing in it.

    With experts who are working with data visualisation from science, medicine and particle physics, this session explores how these new and powerful tools are re-shaping the way we understand these fields and the way we talk about them.

    Panel: Exploring the 3rd Eye: Visualising Science & Medicine (Panel)
    Date: Friday December 4
    Time: 3:45-5PM AWST
    Location: State Library of WA - Theatre
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Free to Public
    Health & Medical
    Panel
    Training & Education
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre

  • Day 3

    Saturday 5 December, 2020


  • SPEAKERS

    Lisa Andrews, CEO of WAVIA
    Christina Gerakiteys Co-CEO of SingularityU Australia

    For CEOs and Senior Leaders, Entrepreneurs or students. The session will cover our expectations of technologies that we will see in our daily lives in the next 10 years including; nanotechnology, bionics, robotics, artificial intelligence, networks, sensors, AR and VR. The convergence of these will show unprecedented opportunities for businesses and leaders to use technology to solve some of the world's biggest problems.

    Keynote: Technologies of the Future
    Date: Saturday December 5
    Time: 10AM AWST
    Location: State Library of WA - Theatre
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Business
    Free to Public
    Keynote
    Public Access
    Training & Education
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Hands on Workshop for Adults

    FACILTATED BY APPLE PROFESSIONAL SPECIALISTS

    Michelle Forrest
    Shane McGurk
    Paul Reid

    What if the line between your imagination and the real world didn’t exist? With augmented reality, not only is that possible, it’s here. Apple’s ARKit and RealityKit, Reality Convertor are cutting‑edge frameworks that make it easy for developers to create captivating augmented reality experiences for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Start making something to marvel at today. Reality Composer is a powerful tool that makes it easy for you to create interactive augmented reality experiences with no prior 3D experience. Reality Converter quickly converts your existing 3D models to USDZ so it works seamlessly in our tools and on all AR-enabled iPhone and iPad devices.

    Learn how to leverage the LiDAR Scanner, True Depth Front Facing camera and depth mapping of your face. Where do you go to develop your own Apps, Apple Pay integration and more.

    Workshop: Developing Augmented Reality (AR) immersive experiences in Apple's Reality Composer
    Date: Saturday December 5
    Time: 10-11:15AM
    Location: State Library of WA - Great Southern Room
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    AR
    Free to Public
    Public Access
    Training & Education
    Workshop
    Where
    State Library of WA - Great Southern Room


  • Free Hands on Workshop for Children 6-14

    FACILTATED BY APPLE PROFESSIONAL SPECIALISTS

    Michelle Forrest
    Shane McGurk
    Paul Reid

    What if the line between your imagination and the real world didn’t exist? With Augmented Reality, not only is that possible, it’s here. Lets have some fun with Augmented Reality. Would you like to have your robot walk and misbehave around the room, have a whale with a tail swim past you, save your Star Wars character, turn yourself into Harry Potter or maybe a Super Hero? Stand next to a fire breathing Dragon or giant T-Rex. What about your self into Super Mario or figuring out how to prototype your own mini gaming scene? What is real world occlusion and how do I incorporate a model and myself in the real world? Quick create your own 3D Model with moveable parts with no prior 3D Modelling experience required.

    Workshop: Bringing student learning & imagination to life in Augmented Reality with Apple
    Date: Sunday December 6
    Time: 11:30-1PM
    Location: State Library of WA - Great Southern Room
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    AR
    Free to Public
    Public Access
    Training & Education
    VR
    Workshop
    Where
    State Library of WA - Great Southern Room


  • Free Online Event

    SPEAKERS

    Katy Morrison (Frame Documentary)
    Alice Burgin (Frame Documentary)

    For over thirty-years, Australia has developed a strong reputation as a leader of emerging media practice, pioneering some of the world’s most creative works across the digital sector. From interactive documentaries to VR to motion capture labs, Australian creators have been celebrated around the world for their vision, creativity and imagination. But, do the models that aim to support this work help or hinder creators? Are the current avenues for creative funding enough to keep us competitive, or are we just setting people up to fail?

    In this session, Katy Morrison and Alice Burgin, co-founders of Frame Documentary, present a landscape analysis of the current creative sector, including findings from interviews and roundtables with creatives, funders and key stakeholders within the emerging media sector. The presentation will be followed by a roundtable with key organisations outside of the creative sector, to explore ideas of collaboration and co-creation that can help form a new type of frame for a new type of art.

    Talk: Bringing Industries Together to Support the AUS Emerging Media Sector
    Date: Saturday December 5
    Time: 11:30-1PM AWST
    Location: Online
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    AR
    Business
    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    Online Event
    VR
    Where
    Online


  • Free Online Event

    PANELISTS

    Aden Date
    Sabra Williams
    Natalie Marinho
    Stacey Fazackerley

    Moderator: Adam Geoghegan

    Games have a unique ability to delve deeply into history, culture, society, politics and human interaction. They can take audiences on personalised journeys through that can educate, stimulate and challenge covertly and overtly. 

    With the ability to reach international audiences and active participants of all ages, what role can games and the games community have in presenting or confronting issues around social justice, gender representation, politics and the environment?  

    Through case studies provided by the developers themselves and those studying the area, this panel examines the role games and associated technology has in contributing to discussion, debate and education.

    Panel: Flow State: Games & XR for Social Impact
    Date: Saturday December 3
    Time: 11:30-1PM AWST
    Location: Online
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    AR
    Ethics
    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    Games
    Online Event
    VR
    Where
    Online


  • Free Screening

    One of the major challenges of our times is how the global community is going to deal with artificial intelligence (AI). Who will control this technology? Has the train left the station, never to be stopped? What sort of society do we want to create and live in? Who knows the destination we are heading to?

    With great access to influential voices on this subject, iHuman presents a wide range of views, from tech optimism in Jurgen Schmidhuber “the father of AI,” to more cautious voices like technology journalist Kara Swisher and human rights lawyer Philip Alston. Animated computer graphics visualize a polymorphous, self-developing structure with ever-greater autonomy guiding us forward.

    AI can infinitely increase our potential for great good but it is already capable of contributing towards total surveillance states and a distortion of truth. AI development is hurtling forward with tech companies affiliated to the defence industry and algorithms in law enforcement enhancing existing biases. Will we allow the use of such powerful technology to open an unchecked Pandora’s Box dictating our future?

    Directed by: Tonje Hessen Schei
    Year: 2019
    Country: Norway
    Duration: 99mins

    Screening: iHuman
    Date: Saturday December 5
    Time: 11.30-1PM
    Venue: State Library of WA - Theatre
    GET TICKETS

    Film Screening
    Free to Public
    Public Access
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Event

    PANELISTS

    Briege Whitehead (White Spark Pictures)
    Marion Burchell
    Scott Whiteley (Ready Team One)
    Adam Geoghegan (Immersia)

    Moderator: Richard Sowada

    Highly competitive, borderless in scope and constantly shape-shifting, building a business in the games and immersive environment can take serious personal and financial tolls.

    From dealing with ‘Imposter Syndrome’, tyranny of distance, ‘the crunch’, fragmented and siloed industry structures, erratic funding and speculative and untested models, there’s enormous pressure that can be placed on practitioners working in any part of the sector.

    This session provides practical personal and business tools, strategies and advice in building businesses and ideas from experts that have been there and done that.

    Panel: The Confidence to Create: Building a Resilient Business
    Date: Saturday December 5
    Time: 1:45PM-3:15PM
    Location: State Library of WA - Theatre
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Business
    Free to Public
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Online Event

    MENTORS & SPEAKERS INCLUDE

    THU Dec 3rd 10AM - Caitlin Cronin & Cherie Davidson - Designers & Producers, Mountains (MEL)
    FRI Dec 4th 10AM - James Hill - CEO, Singular Health
    SAT Dec 5th 3:45PM - John Romero (USA) - Game Designer

    Over the three days of the event, we’ll be offering delegates the opportunity to participate in a professional development hot-house with conference guests and speakers.

    This side-bar will consist of two closed 1 hour sessions per day made up of selected delegates with national and international guests working at the top of their fields.

    This represents a unique opportunity for participants, with topics including working with specific software packages across a variety of applications, narrative strategies, working across business sectors, applying digital technologies for on-set VFX and a range of other topics. Selected delegates will be the same group across the three days.

    Developing the Developers (Intensive Hot-House)

    Mentors & Speakers Include:
    THU Dec 3rd 10AM - Caitlin Cronin & Cherie Davidson - Designers & Producers, Mountains (MEL)
    FRI Dec 4th 10AM - James Hill - CEO, Singular Health
    SAT Dec 5th 3:45PM - John Romero (USA) - Game Designer

    Date: December 3-5, 2020
    Location: Online
    REGISTER FOR SESSION SERIES

    Business
    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    Games
    Online Event
    Workshop
    Where
    Online


  • Free Event

    SPEAKER

    Brad Nisbet

    This hands-on 3-hour workshop is a guided tour through Unreal Engine for absolute beginners in which you will learn to deploy a Virtual Camera, build a Virtual Set, create basic animations and VFX, and composite a 'live' feed for real-time on set VFX.

    The instructor has transitioned to Virtual Production from traditional filmand TV himself and will take you through the process using familiar film terms to translate the 'tech-speak.'

    Attendees must bring their own computer (laptop/notebook) with Unreal Engine 5.25 pre-installed, attendees are also encouraged to use an iPhone or iPad (optional) and some greenscreen footage (optional).

    How to Install Unreal Engine
    https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/GettingStarted/Installation/index.html

    Minimum System Requirements
    Windows 7 64-bit or Mac OS X 10.9. 2 or later.
    Quad-core Intel or AMD processor, 2.5 GHz or faster.
    NVIDIA GeForce 470 GTX or AMD Radeon 6870 HD series card or higher.
    8 GB RAM.

    Workshop: Filmmakers Guide to Unreal Engine for Virtual Production and Live (on-set) VFX
    Date: December 5
    Time: 1:45PM-5PM AWST
    Location: State Library of WA - Great Southern Room
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION SERIES

    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    VR
    Workshop
    Where
    State Library of WA - Great Southern Room


  • bio-fiction.com

    Where science meets art, design and film.

    The BIO·FICTION Science Art Film Festival is one of a kind: It’s a creative and boundary-crossing event with a program filled to the brim with content exploring cutting-edge emerging sciences – in the present, but also in possible futures.

    This excellent screening program brings together stunning international short works that embrace science, design, architecture, technology, engineering and many other disciplines in a unique environment of actual practice and contextual discussion through XR:WA. 

    On show and followed by a panel discussion are:

    The Auxiliary

    Dir: Frédéric Plasman | 9mins | Belgium
    Alone in front of her reflection in a collapsing world, someone desperate,feeling unfairly discredited, is going to end it all. But who is she and why?

    Paramusical Ensemble

    Dir: Tim Grabham | 7mins | UK
    Brain Computer Interface (BCI) to help locked in patients to play musical instruments.

    Reboot

    Dir: Andrei Thutat Ungur | 15mins | Romania
    "Reboot" is the story of a lonesome man suffering from depression and obsessive regrets about the past who chooses to erase his memory in order to restart his life and get a second chance at living a normal life.

    Adam & Eve Mk II

    Dir: Sebastian Kuder | 4mins | UK
    In a post-apocalyptic future, human memories from the now-extinct species homo sapiens are loaded into the artificial brain of a robot.

    Perfectly Natural

    Dir: Victor Alonso-Berbel | 14mins | US
    For Wanda and Zach, Future Families is a lifetime opportunity: a virtual parenting system that gives their baby access to a better life, but they soon realize this technology may come at a higher cost.

    Carlotta's Face

    Dir: Valentin Riedl & Frédéric Schuld | 5mins | Germany
    As a child, Carlotta didn’t expect the people around here to have faces. She even doesn’t recognize her own face, and years later, she learns about a rare, untreatable deficit of her brain. It was art, after all, that offered her a way to finally recognize herself.

    2050

    Dir: Lupashko Alexandra | 4mins | Russian Federation
    The future has come, but some would like to stay in the past.

    Erase Love

    Dir: Javier Ideami | 12mins | Spain
    Two sisters try to outsmart each other as they attempt to figure out why and which one of them is a robot and will  be sent away by their father after their mother’s death.

    Mind Mightier than Might

    Dir: Jalal Ud Din Baba | 7mins | India
    Aamir Hussain Lone, is a determined world-class cricketer without arms, who after an accident managed to  overcome the physical constraints without technology but through observation, willpower and training.

    Delegates free / Public: $12 entry
    GET TICKETS
    Architecture
    Engineering
    Film Screening
    Free to Public
    Panel
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Event

    SPEAKER

    Brad Nisbet

    This hands-on 3-hour workshop is a guided tour through Unreal Engine for absolute beginners in which you will learn to deploy a Virtual Camera, build a Virtual Set, create basic animations and VFX, and composite a 'live' feed for real-time on set VFX.

    The instructor has transitioned to Virtual Production from traditional filmand TV himself and will take you through the process using familiar film terms to translate the 'tech-speak.'

    Attendees must bring their own computer (laptop/notebook) with Unreal Engine 5.25 pre-installed, attendees are also encouraged to use an iPhone or iPad (optional) and some greenscreen footage (optional).

    How to Install Unreal Engine
    https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/GettingStarted/Installation/index.html

    Minimum System Requirements
    Windows 7 64-bit or Mac OS X 10.9. 2 or later.
    Quad-core Intel or AMD processor, 2.5 GHz or faster.
    NVIDIA GeForce 470 GTX or AMD Radeon 6870 HD series card or higher.
    8 GB RAM.

    Workshop: Filmmakers Guide to Unreal Engine for Virtual Production and Live (on-set) VFX
    Date: December 5
    Time: 1:45PM-5PM AWST
    Location: State Library of WA - Great Southern Room
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION SERIES

    Filmmaking
    Free to Public
    VR
    Workshop
    Where
    State Library of WA - Great Southern Room

  • FREE TO PUBLIC

    Love games of all forms? Love talking about games? Love looking at games? Like to drink wine or beer while you’re doing just that? Want to meet new people who also like doing exactly that? Well why not head on over to the relaxed and groovy surrounds of the Alex Hotel for a couple of hours and get together after perhaps spending a day exploring the myriad of XR:WA event, exhibits and installations.

    Free to Public
    Games
    Networking
    Public Access
    Where
    Alex Hotel

  • Day 4

    Sunday 6 December, 2020


  • Free Screening

    Official Selection: Sundance Film Festival
    Official Selection: SXSW
    Official Selection: Full Frame Film Festival
    Official Selection: Hot Docs

    Modern society sits at the intersection of two crucial questions: What does it mean when artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly governs our liberties? And what are the consequences for the people AI is biased against? When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that most facial-recognition software does not accurately identify darker-skinned faces and the faces of women, she delves into an investigation of widespread bias in algorithms. As it turns out, AI is not neutral, and women are leading the charge to ensure our civil rights are protected.

    Director Shalini Kantayya illuminates our mass misconceptions about AI and emphasizes the urgent need for legislative protection. From facial scanning used for policing and surveillance to automated HR systems that mirror and magnify workplace prejudices, these technologies are created with fundamentally biased building blocks. Emboldened by these remarkable and troubling discoveries, Buolamwini charts a way forward by joining ranks with other concerned experts to form a justice league committed to increasing awareness of the biases that underlie the technology that shapes our lives yet is largely free from legislative and public scrutiny.

    Dir: Shalini Kantayya | 2020 | 90mins | USA

    Screening: Coded Bias
    Date: Sunday December 6
    Time: 12-1:30PM
    Location: State Library of WA - Theatre

    GET TICKETS

    Film Screening
    Free to Public
    Public Access
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Screening

    Official Selection: Visions du Réel
    Official Selection: CPH:DOX
    Official Selection: Hot Docs
    Official Selection: NZ Architecture & Design Festival
    Official Selection: Sheffield DocFest
    Official Selection: IDFA

    A funny and fascinating exploration of our relationship with a rapidly developing technology, Hi AI asks: How will artificial intelligence impact our most personal and intimate lives, what will we win and what will we lose, and what will this seemingly unimaginable world of the future look like?

    Humanoid robots are the new creatures on our planet. They work at the reception, in shopping malls or as chefs, and they already have relationships with people.

    Hi AI follows Chuck, a Californian searching for love and happiness, as he picks up his new companion robot Harmony and embarks on a road trip through the United States unlike anything we have ever seen.  

    At the other end of the world, in Tokyo, grandma Sakurai receives the cute robot, Pepper, from her son. But Pepper turns out to be a rogue, with grandmother’s topics of conversation of little interest to her new robot friend. Pepper prefers to flirt with other members of the family.

    While Harmony and Chuck search for love, and Pepper and Grandma kill time, the question increasingly arises: how will we live with artificial intelligence? What will we win, what will we lose? And who are the main characters of this beautiful, new world?

    Screening: Hi, A.I
    Dates: Friday December 4 @ 11:30AM | Sunday December 6 @ 10AM
    Location: State Library of WA
    GET TICKETS

    Film Screening
    Free to Public
    Public Access
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Screening

    This excellent documentary is a blast from the past and shows with great precision where we have come from and where we may be going in the world of tech and the culture surrounding it since 1995. In doing so, it reframes our relationship with so many things we’ve become so comfortable with...and also has a fabulous retro design sensibility that’s sure to inspire.

    Is reality obsolete? From low-tech function like body piercing and artificially-stocked fishing pools, to the latest in bionics and VR gaming, Iara Lee's cyber-age intellectual survey—call it a *.DOCumentary—downloads a Future Shockful of data and defines the parameters of advanced technologies that delete nature and reprogram mankind.

    Cryonics defy death; the Internet exists outside time and space; smart drugs and surgery upgrade the mind and body. But are we headed toward human optimization or system crash? Timothy Leary, RU Sirius, Lisa Palac, John Barlow, and others offer sound bytes against a mesmerizing screen display of cutting-edge computer graphics and archival clips. Exhilarating and disturbing, Synthetic Pleasures raises issues nobody today can afford to abort / retry / ignore.

    Conceived as an electronic road movie, Synthetic Pleasures, directed by Iara Lee and produced by George Gund, investigates cutting-edge technologies and their influences on our culture. It explores the idea that mankind's effort to tap the power of nature has been so successful that a new world is suddenly emerging, an artificial reality, a supernature. The film presents the implications of having access to such power as we all scramble to inhabit our latest science fictions.

    Directed by: Iara Lee
    Year: 1995
    Country: USA
    Duration: 85mins

    Screening: Synthetic Pleasures
    Date: Sunday December 6
    Time: 3:45-5PM
    Venue: Art Gallery of WA - Theatrette
    GET TICKETS

    Film Screening
    Free to Public
    Public Access
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


  • Free Event

    PANELISTS

    Alen Catek - ChampChong - YouTube Gaming Channel (~1M subs)
    Stephen Cornish - Pentanet GG

    Moderator: Clint Vojdinoski - Bullpen Media - Sports/tech/gaming commentator

    Mystified, misunderstood and misjudged but who wouldn’t want to be a professional eSports team member, manager, analyst, coach or caster right? With eSports well integrated into other forms of sport and tens of thousands of fans attending tournaments, it’s most certainly a viable career. But how do you get in front of the people that count to join a team? What’s the process in moving through the sector and what does it take?

    This panel of experts gives you the inside running and will explain the ins and outs of getting where you want to be in a sector whose potential hasn’t come close to being reached.

    Panel: Building a Career in eSports
    Date: Sunday December 6
    Time: 1:45-3:15PM
    Location: State Library of WA - Theatre
    Perth Cultural Centre, Perth, Western Australia
    Cost: FREE
    REGISTER FOR SESSION

    Business
    Free to Public
    Games
    Panel
    Public Access
    Where
    State Library of WA - Theatre


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