Image (Left-Right): Amparo Fortuny, Debbie Harman, Estela Oliva, Nicholas Carn, Patricia Lalla, Ruth Mariner, Tatiana Collet Apraxine, Yasmin Khan
We are proud to announce the 2024 cohort of Alternate Realities Talent Artists, who have been selected to take part in this year’s edition of the Alternate Realities Talent Initiative, taking place on Saturday 15 June.
The initiative exists to promote collaborations between artists, collectives, creatives and organisations focused on using digital technologies to experiment and play with non-fiction boundaries, as well as foster connections between selected artists and representatives in new media to give them an opportunity to create a network in the field and ask advice and feedback on projects they may be working on.
Meet the cohort:
Amparo Fortuny
Amparo Fortuny is a documentary filmmaker and producer whose films frequently depict diverse realities, touching upon political and human rights issues through a narrative centred around the human experience, characterised by a thoughtful approach. Her work 's been featured via Filmin, MUBI, MTV and has won a selection of awards at festivals alongside numerous nominations. Amparo founded her own production company The Next Day Films to facilitate the production of her work on documentary, art video and XR/360º.
Debbie Harman
Deb began her practice within Documentary Photography & Film, studying at Leeds Beckett University (BA) and London College communication (MA). Creating work instinctively generated from lived experience, seeking the raw over the ‘real’. Deb balances working in education while exhibiting her photographs and film installations. Her experimental Documentary practice investigates Identity, Post-industrial communities, energy, tangible & visceral life forces, Medical and Environmental Humanities. Deb’s current film in post-production is an eco-feminist embodied documentary ‘North Sea Sisterhood’ exploring grief and synostopia through Sensory Ethnography (an idea developed while on residency with Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology).
Estela Oliva
Estela Oliva is a director, artist, and creative producer specialising in digital and immersive art. Her work is inspired by the power of emerging technologies and the internet to influence human identity, behaviour and our surroundings. She crafts virtual and hybrid environments where physical and virtual converge, weaving emotional narratives and sensorial experiences. With international exhibitions, including Sonar Festival Barcelona, MUTEK Montreal and London’s Somerset House, Estela is known for her sci-fi project CLON. She is currently developing Unform Experiences, a new immersive art & technology studio and powerhouse.
Nicholas Carn
Nicholas is an interdisciplinary artist from Bristol, currently based in London. He's created site specific installations, immersive films and AV performances in places including Bangkok, Germany, Poland and Czechia. Works have included an experimental film bringing machines back to life in an abandoned factory and an audiovisual triptych exploring secret networks in an underground reservoir. Methodically combining experimental real-time AV techniques, layered with narrative documentary approaches, he explores themes of impermanence within hidden systems where science, history, memory and place interact. He's begun to explore projects highlighting disappearing communities and is building VR/XR works into his immersive practice.
Patricia Lalla
Patricia holds an MA in Immersive Storytelling (Distinction) from Royal Holloway, University of London, which was on a StoryFutures scholarship. As a Creative Practitioner, Patricia co-created an augmented reality StoryTrail about the first UK black music artist to top the charts – the brilliant Trinidadian pianist Winifred Atwell, for StoryFutures’ award-winning UK immersive project. Through her micro-business Wolfskill Ltd, Patricia is developing her own XR projects, which has attracted in-kind support from Abbey Road Innovation Studios, Dolby Atmos, and Ableton. In June, Patricia will embark on Quantic’s part-time Executive MBA on a UK Leadership scholarship, to support her continuing development.
Ruth Mariner
Ruth is a creative director and narrative designer, creating story-driven experiences within immersive technology and video games. Recent clients include XR Stories, indie game studio Idoz & Phops, and Aardman Animations. Her background is as an award-winning writer and director in opera and immersive theatre, writing & directing for companies including BBC Proms, Royal Academy of Music & English National Opera. Current XR projects include: ‘I am your mirror’, an interactive multimedia installation using creative technology & movement to activate our mirror neurons, funded by ACE. And 'Shapeshifter', a narrative-led VR LBE, funded by XR Stories, University of Nottingham, ACE & BFI Network.
Tatiana Collet Apraxine
Tatiana Collet Apraxine, an award winning French VR director/creator and real time artist living in London. Tatiana extensively trained and worked as a theatre practitioner before transitioning to the VR/XR world. Her work centres on themes such as grief, trauma and embodiment - but is not devoid of levity and playfulness. Tatiana’s recent VR film, The Descent, is a journey into the mythical Underworld that explores the themes of grief and loss, and won the inaugural Immerse UK Award 2023 (now Immersive Tech Award) in the creative XR storytelling category, was longlisted for the Lumen Prize and was featured across XR festivals. She recently completed a residency with Mediale, supported by Jerwood Arts.
Yasmin Khan
Yasmin Khan is a 2023/24 Fellow at the AKO Storytelling Institute, University of the Arts London. She is currently producing The Museum of Truth & Lies, a limited-edition podcast series launching in autumn 2024 which features grassroots artists, activists and academics exploring the role of truth-telling in cultural institutions. She is the founder of Covalent Creatives, a cultural consultancy offering curatorial and coaching services. Her recent projects include leading the R&D for the Art Fund’s curatorial diversity programme and curating Outwitting Cancer at the Francis Crick Institute. She previously worked at the Science Museum and the British Library.
Alternate Realities Talent is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
