B3 Media TalentLab XR

Our TalentLab XR Associate Artists are contributing to an exciting slate of diverse, immersive storytelling across the fields of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. 

Watch the TalentLab XR trailer:

 

B3 TalentLab XR 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.

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.

 

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

 

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.

 
 

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:

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.

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’).

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.

 

About us

B3 Media engages emerging talent with the tools and know-how to lower the barriers to access in the creative industries; help them develop their own creative practice; and build their confidence and industry networks.

TalentLab XR supports diverse creators and storytellers who are keen to explore the potential to tell their story in XR (VR, AR and mixed reality). We help them to kick-start their immersive projects through our creative labs, industry mentoring and tailored hands-on support.

B3’s Talentlab alumni have had their work shown at Cannes and Sundance, have won BAFTAs, and have been exhibited at major arts venues and cultural institutions. TalentLab XR is developed and produced by Marc Boothe for B3 Media in partnership with B3 alumni, other industry mentors, and a distributed team.

If you want to get in touch directly, email us at: projects@b3media.net