I am a Brooklyn-based designer & developer of immersive tech, applying expertise in embodied, audience-centric, three-dimensional design from theater and dance to spatial experience design for XR.
I have designed and built XR and other tech-driven immersive experiences with Pig Iron Theatre Company, MIT Theater Arts, New Georges, the Brooklyn Museum, PRELUDE Festival, Works on Water, and Forest Fringe. As a Senior XR Designer at Transfr, I build virtual reality simulations and design the tools to make them.
I hold an MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) from Brooklyn College and a BA in Theater from Occidental College. I’m a New Georges affiliated artist and Oculus Launch Pad grant winner.
Most recent
MIT Reality Hack Winner
Built for augmented reality Spectacles, CareNest: AR Bottle Tracking for Sleep-Deprived Parents won for best use of Snap Cloud. CareNest gives every caregiver the same real-time bottle safety view, so a baby’s whole care community stays in sync.
XR/Immersive Tech Projects
Theater Direction
Stage-based collaborations with playwrights.
Coming from a background in directing new plays, I’ve collaborated with daring writers like Kim Davies, Will Arbery, and Emily Feldman and have worked as an assistant director at Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Playwrights Horizons.
A site-specific theater event about long-distance friendship, performed up close.
Drawing from actual emails, chat transcripts, and text messages, We Were Nothing! is an intimate theater experience about two childhood friends staying connected and losing touch.
Written by Will Arbery in collaboration with Shelley Fort, Elly Smokler, Emilie Soffe, and Lisa Szolovits
Portrait by Kent Meister.