PXR2023
2023 IBPOC Fellows

Victor is an actor and director who became interested in designing for xr during the pandemic, and focused on creating standalone applications for Oculus headsets through Unreal Engine. Now, they look forward to learning new tools through the fellowship.

I’m a trans femme theatre artist, performer, and musician excited to dive into VR! I’ve worked with such orgs as Nightwood Theatre, Paprika Festival, Blackwood Gallery, b current, The Power Plant, multiple Fringe shows, and more. I currently have the project “Hip Hop 100” in development with Tarragon Theatre’s Greenhouse, and even more to come in the future. Already brainstorming how to integrate XR into these performance concepts! Catch me playing bass or keyboards sometime too!

Hi everybody!! I’m a techie, artist and performer excited about VR and XR experiences! As a performer, I’ve performed at the Stratford Festival and around Toronto. I also hold a Bachelor’s in Computing from Queen’s. I got to see Mitski in concert last month which was amazing. I hope I make something cool for you! Watch this space.

རིན་ཆེན་སྒྲོལ་མ་|Rinchen Dolma [she/her] is a director, playwright, dramaturge, performer and veteran community arts practitioner originally from the Himalayas; currently based in Tkarón:to. Rinchen completed her 2020/21 Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Program in Artistic Direction at Theatre Passe Muraille, participated in the 20/21 Foundry program and the 2023 TEPs Directing Cohort at Factory Theatre. This past spring, she completed a residency at the 50th edition of The Banff Playwrights Lab. Rinchen’s recent work includes Orlando (Talk is Free Theatre, 2022), Transfers (SummerWorks, 2022); and How We Play(ed) (Forward March, 2023.)

Seymour Irons is an Artistic Producer and owner of See More Wake Up, a production company that works within the intersections of entertainment and Wellness. He recently completed his undergraduate degree in Media and Performance Production at Queens University. During the summer of 2023, Seymour produced his first site specific movement piece “Sooth Shivers” at Kick and Push festival. Currently Seymour works as a costume designer on various projects and is a jr media editor at Queens University. With PXR he plans on developing more XR skills to bring his work into VR.

Kai is an award-winning, entrepreneurial storyteller and educator using immersive media to connect with the kid-at-heart in each of us. Kai’s career spans TV, film, music videos, commercials, interactive-theatre, XR, games, and even teaching, research, and curriculum development. Kai’s Tkaronto-based studio BP Solarpunk Media creates and collaborates on kids media projects with heart and kick. Kai’s latest project, mythical, magical, mystery “Chesa and the Coffin Factory” launched the first installment “Solstice Stories” in late 2022. “Solstice Stories” web-series prologue is screening and amassing nominations at film festivals around the world, while 10-14 year-olds from Alaska to New Zealand are playtesting the AR Visual Novel adaptation. Kai’s approach is solarpunk. Applying universal design is solarpunk. Anchoring collaboration and creation with pillars of accessibility, authenticity, and a connection with land and community is solarpunk. Optimistic future-casting and insatiable curiosity are… so solarpunk. So, what kind of future are you crafting?

Alina Pete (they/them) is a nehiyaw (Cree) artist and writer from Little Pine First Nation in western Saskatchewan. They are a multi-disciplinary creator, working in comics, animation, VFX and VR, as well as writing fiction, poem and TTRPG supplements. They are the editor on the all-Indigenous comic anthologies, Indiginerds: Tales of Modern Indigenous Life and The Woman In the Woods and Other North American Stories. They live and work on the unceded lands of the Kwantlen, Musqueam, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, Qayqayt, and Kwikwetlem peoples.

Homegrown, and currently based in Whitehorse, Yukon, Heather ‘Von’ Steinhagen is an artist of sorts, with a drive for supporting creative innovation and soulful connections. Her roots are from Cowessess First Nation (mother, Sparvier, Cree) and Germany (father, Steinhagen, 2nd generation Canadian). She has a Visual Arts Diploma from Vancouver Island University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Community Arts Education from Concordia University, Montreal. 
Heather is the former Executive Director for the Yukon Art Society and currently works part time for the Canadian Crafts Federation as the Director of Operations + Digital Strategist and maintains a busy artistic practice as an intuitive, painter and fine toy maker.