Joshua Lucas: Keynote Speaker, and Metaverse Concerts 101

Joshua Lucas (He/Him) is a digital creative and multi-disciplinary artist working in the XR and Web3 space. He’s had a distinguished career as a composer, producer, visual artist and performer. His focus right now is on world building in VR, live streaming metaverse concerts, and sound designing for immersive applications and theatre. Joshua is currently working on his own NFT project called Ambiscapes which offers music NFTs, 3D art and virtual experiences for collectors and holders.

Alex Dault: Unity Basics I & Unity Basics II
Alex is a game designer currently working on the narrative team for Archiact in Vancouver, BC. He’s also Associate Artistic Director of Single Thread Theatre in Kingston, Ontario. He has worked as a game programmer and is also a playwright and a puppeteer. He founded the PXR (Performance and XR) conference in 2020, the first of its kind to take place in virtual reality. His plays included Caribou Cave (2019), Northern Lights (2018) The Five Points (2017), Turkey Shoot (2016), Firebrand (2014) Alex studied game design at Centre for Entertainment Arts Langara and theatre at George Brown Theatre School and Queen’s University.

Merlin SImard (Digital Cauldron Collective): Navigating in Altspace 101
Merlin Simard (she/they/iel/elle) is a performer, playwright, dramaturge, and filmmaker originally from Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal) now based in Tkarón:to (Toronto). Her practice focuses on themes of access, gender euphoria, technology, and multilingual performance. As a performer, Merlin has worked with Stratford, Factory Theatre, Mirvish, Company Theatre, Crow’s, Outside The March, Buddies In Bad Times, and many other theatre companies across Turtle Island. She has also acted on Grand Army (Netflix) and This Life (CBC).  She is developing several projects spanning across theatre and VR with the support of Theatre Passe Muraille (FEAR OF MEN), Théâtre Français de Toronto (ZADDY ISSUES), and Nightwood Theatre (a free britney), amongst others. @hussy4hussy

Raven John (Digital Cauldron Collective): Navigating in Altspace 101
Raven John, artist, involuntary comedian and two-spirit activist, is of Coast Salish and Stolo Nation decent. This Two-spirit Trickster is a BFA graduate from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, with a major in visual art and minor in social practice and community engagement, as well as a graduate of the North West Coast Jewelry Arts program at the Native Education College. Raven is a visual artist, cultural consultant, mediator, storyteller, photographer and sculptor. A jack-of-all-trades (and master of a few), their practice covers a wide array of mediums from provocation and humor, puppet making, ceramics, dressmaking, interactive electronics and indigenous technologies. Should you wish to participate in direct action regarding Truth and Reconciliation and/or the ongoing colonization/genocide of the indigenous peoples of Canada, feel free to visit their following website to directly wire them money for coffee, comic books and/or art supplies. Www.ravenjohn.com

Rinchen Dolma (Digital Cauldron Collective): Navigating Altspace 101
རིན་ཆེན་སྒྲོལ་མ་|Rinchen Dolma [she/her] originates from the Himalayas and is currently based in Tkarón:to. She is the founder and Artistic Director of MADE IN EXILE, a grassroots community-arts based initiative that engages young Tibetan creatives in exploring their complex identities through contemporary mediums of storytelling in exile. As an emerging performer, director, playwright, dramaturge and veteran community arts practitioner she is passionate about the intersection between art, labour and community. Rinchen recently participated in the 2019/20 Artist Producer’s Training Program by Generator TO, Factory Theatre’s Foundry 20/21 program, a new work creation group, where she has been developing a full-length play piece called “July 1st.” She completed her 2020/21 Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Program in Artistic Direction under Marjorie Chan and is the recipient of the Cahoots Theatre 2021 Promising Pen Prize. Rinchen is presently part of the new Producing Team for Weesageechak Festival 35.

Matt Rogalsky: Binaural Audio for Headphone Listening
Matt Rogalsky works in live electronic music composition and performance, sound installation, and study of late 20th century compositions by David Tudor and other composers. He has been active in performance of David Tudor’s music since 1996, and is based in Kingston Ontario where he runs the Sonic Arts Studio at Queen’s University. Recent projects include the outdoor sound installations Octet (2016) and Into the Middle of Things (2017, with LJ Cameron), which are based on research into the life and work of William WH Gunn, Canadian conservationist and field recordist. Rogalsky has a new album Visitations and Revisitations, planned for release on XI Records in 2023.

Andrew Johnson, Exploring the World of Soundscape
Andrew (he/him) is a broadcaster, sound engineer and voice talent. He was named as one of Radio INK Magazine’s, 2021 recipients of Radio’s Future African American Leaders. After graduating in 2008, Andrew has contributed to several major market stations’ growth and sonic development.  Andrew Johnson is also a national voice talent who has voiced commercials across North America for clients like Honda, Lexus, Universal Music Canada and Spotify. He has also Sound designed for Audio Plays, Podcasts, and live theatre. 

Justine Garrett: 360° Film Making, Web AR
Justine Garrett is a writer, producer, and director working in film, TV, and XR. Most recently, she directed and produced the Captain Me interactive series for children. Justine has helped produce award-winning documentaries including No Greater Love (National Emmy Award, Cindy Award) and A Science of Miracles: The History of Organ Transplantation (Nominee, National Emmy Award). With Toasterlab, she produces place-based XR experiences and immersive shows, including From Weeds We Grow, Transmission, and Virtual Parkway Forest Park. She’s a graduate of UCLA, CalArts, and The Second City Conservatory in Toronto. She teaches in the MFA Scriptwriting and Story Design Program at Toronto  University.

Ian Garrett: 360° Film Making, Web AR
Ian Garrett is a designer, producer, educator, and researcher in the field of sustainability in arts and culture.  He is the director of the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts and Associate Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University, where he is Graduate Program Director for Theatre and Performance Studies. He is also producer for Toasterlab, a mixed reality performance collective. He maintains a design practice focused on ecology, accessible technologies and scenography.