Winter 2022 newsletter
Hello 2023!
We thought we’d use the New Year to reflect on an extraordinary 12 months and how our achievements in 2022 are supercharging our plans for 2023.
B3 TalentLab XR – Associate Artists
Our Associate Artists for the next phase of TalentLab XR are contributing to an exciting slate of diverse, immersive storytelling across the fields of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality.
The selected artists will be developing their projects and pitches in the coming weeks in preparation for our B3 Futures showcase in spring 2023.
B3 TalentLab Associate Artists, 2023
Dzifa Benson
Writer / Producer / Performance Maker
Dzifa Benson is a multi-disciplinary live artist whose works have appeared in the Courtauld Institute of Art, BBC Africa’s Beyond Translations, Poetry Review, Magma Poetry, and elsewhere. Her TLXR project “Exhibition of a Real Live Wonder!” is a first-person perspective VR experience about the showgirl Saartjie Baartman, aka the Hottentot Venus.
Chantelle Parson
2D & 3D Design / Motion Graphics Artist
Chantelle Parson is a motion graphics artist. She is a 2021 graduate of Motion Graphics at Ravensbourne University. Her TLXR project is a VR/AR interactive music video that adapts the classic novel “Alice in Wonderland” into an experience with a contemporary, urban twist.
Doug Rao
Actor / Writer / Filmmaker
Filmmaker Doug Rao has worked extensively in the UK and US television and film industries. He is producing his first feature film, the psychological thriller Dirty Boy. His TLXR project, “The APE Program”, is a site-specific theatrical experience where audiences root for APE, a powerful torture bot who develops consciousness and begins questioning her actions.
Jeremiah Brown
Writer / Spoken-Word Artist / Actor
"Go Back to Your Country" is a virtual reality experience that seeks to document the UK Black Experience through an exhibition of commissioned work by Black British creatives.
Marcus Joseph
Musician / Spoken-Word Artist
Marcus Joseph is a musician and spoken-word artist. His debut album is Beyond the Dome (Jazz Refreshed), and he has played at Love Supreme, the Manchester Jazz Festival and We Out Here. His project “Jazz Maze VR” is an interactive, immersive, autobiographical comic book brought to life through his compelling music and spoken word, and the theatrical imagination of BetaJester.
Rena Lizawa
2D / 3D Designer
Rena Lizawa is a 2D and 3D designer currently working in lighting and video design. Her TLXR project “Burden” is a site-specific, non-linear immersive game where players must read over old diary entries and hurried notes to piece together their memories before they fade forever.
Rumbidzai Savanhu
Illustrator / Writer
Rumbidzai Savanhu is an illustrator and writer. Her work has been commissioned for arts-in-health projects as well as editorial work. Inspired by the artist’s own struggle with identity and belonging, her TLXR project “Where is Home” explores intergenerational conflict in the immigrant experience. It incorporates elements of Afro-modernism and motifs from Zimbabwean culture, poetry and storytelling.
TalentLab XR Alums at LFF Expanded
Following the success of our B3 Futures’ online showcase of immersive storytelling projects in spring last year, our alums from 2021’s TalentLab XR presented their works-in-progress at LFF Expanded, the London Film Festival’s immersive art and XR strand.
At the event, alums Emilie Dubois (Creative Producer), Lara Kobeissi (3D Artist), RCL Graham (Writer / Director), and Wanda Hu (Architect / Moving-Image Artist) showcased their work to major industry players.
Congratulations
Huge congratulations to B3 TalentLab XR (Associate Artists 2022) alums Isaac Ouro-Gnao, Lara Kobeissi, Wanda Hu and Leann O’Kasi for winning prestigious Arts Council England’s Developing your Creative Practice (DYCP) awards! DYCP supports those who need the time to focus on their creative development, and this funding will help all four of our artists to take their immersive storytelling projects and creative practice to the next level. Leann (O’Kasi) was also selected in the BFI Shorts School Lab and is currently working on several screenwriting projects.
Finally, well done to RCL Graham (Associate Artists 2022), who, during TalentLab XR 2021, taught herself Unreal Engine Developer and is now working as part of a project development team that recently secured funding from the BFI’s £1 Million development programme.
TalentLab XR and Origin
Last year’s TalentLab XR programme attracted interest from major XR players such as Epic Games and the UK authority on advanced digital technology, Digital Catapult. This year, we will take a hybrid approach to all our core programmes.
Our mentoring programmes, TalentLab XR and Origin, will open their doors to another cohort in the summer of 2023. For TalentLab XR, these “doors” will be both physical and virtual.
We’re slowly restoring our Origin programme’s in-person activities. Author, filmmaker, producer and long-standing Origin mentor Nelson George will return to mentor our students. Applications for both programmes open in summer ’23. Make sure you sign up to our mailing list to get a heads-up.
B3 Virtual Artist Residency – Six B3 Associate Artists prototype their immersive work with B3’s expanded support
This year, we’re helping six Associate Artists push their personal creative projects to the next level with access to our pilot virtual Artist Residency, which will be linked to our soon-to-be-launched microstudio based in Carlton Mansions, Brixton:
Emilie Dubois (Creative Producer) with “Cric Crac Tales”, a table-top augmented reality experience about Caribbean myths & legends and the tradition of oral storytelling. This AR experience comprises a series of 3D animated stories.
Lara Kobeissi (3D Artist) with “ Nazar // VR”, a multi-sensory personalised and immersive mixed-reality experience that explores one of the Middle East’s oldest and most notorious superstitions: the Evil Eye.
Loretta Tosson (Jazz Musician / Sound Artist) with an as-yet-untitled immersive XR and ambisonic experience that aims to bridge divides and heal our wounded world.
Leann O’Kasi (Actor/ Writer) with ‘Just Passing’, a short film and VR experience that explores loneliness and disconnection in big cities. The story touches on themes of mental health, immigration and human connection. (Leann was also selected for the BFI Shorts School Lab, where she has been developing the short-form script ‘Just Passing’).
RCL Graham (Writer / Director) with “Astronauts & Afropuffs”, an immersive, reward-driven environment that brings the gamer into the Black protagonist’s Afrofuturistic experience as they launch a spacecraft to help complete her mission.
Wanda Hu (Architect / Moving-Image Artist) with “Sacred Space”, a location-based XR journey that enables users to experience praying in digital spiritual spaces of various faiths.
These six artists will later get the chance to test their designs in our Carlton Mansions studio space, which will launch in March 2023. Thanks to generous support from Arts Council England, this studio space will be furnished with mocap and animation equipment for producing high-quality early-stage XR projects, helping our artists to prepare their pieces for showcasing and further development.
B3 Media gets valuable assistance from Cambridge University’s Social Venture Incubator
Named as an Incubator participant, B3 Media will get 12-month support, business advice and networking from Judge Business School to help us develop a new, immersive microstudio as a social venture which will be linked to our TalentLab XR programme.
Thanks to everyone for their support this year.
We recognise that 2022 was not an easy year, but we are extremely proud of what our creative network has accomplished. Finally, we’d like to express our appreciation to our collaborators for all their help and support. We couldn’t have done any of this without our participants, partners and funders. We’re looking forward to a year of continuing to diversify the landscape of XR and the creative industries and strengthen our artists’ projects and mindsets for long, successful careers!
How can we help you?
B3 Media is a creative network which makes connections between Britain’s multi-ethnic communities and the UK’s creative industries. We’ve always been passionate supporters of diverse talent who want to tell powerful, transformative stories. For more information, please visit our website. If you want to get in touch directly, email us via our online form: https://www.b3media.net/contact.
