Put your newly acquired (or polished) skills into action and test your abilities at the RIGA IFF GOES XR hackathon! An exciting and inspiring experience, this hackathon in a film festival is a testing ground that welcomes participants with all levels of expertise and from diverse professional backgrounds! There you can explore or take your first steps in creation of XR content under guidance of seasoned XR mentors completely for free. We especially encourage audiovisual storytellers and filmmakers as well as film and media students to join and broaden their professional horizons in this perspective field!
The potential of the XR medium as well as the number of its use cases are nearly limitless. As we’ve seen from numerous cases around the world, XR mediums can positively impact communities, empower creators and redefine the learning process, making it more accessible and inclusive. At the festival we are passionate about quality audiovisual content that can benefit everyone – from children and youth to educators and larger communities. Therefore – to keep focus on these ideas – the only requirement for participants is to develop ideas that can be used for educational purposes – at schools, museums, social services, you name it!
After the hackathon the teams will present their ideas to the public as well as the mentors, who will provide their feedback and choose the best one!
You can join as a part of a team or individually and find teammates on the spot! We will use Zoom and Slack as the main platforms of communication among participants, mentors and moderators. Please hit the apply button and we will be in touch regarding all the practical details.
Saturday 17 October
9.00 Check-in
10.00 Welcome
10.15 Meet the moderator & mentors
10.30 – 11.30 Team formation on a Slack
13:00 – 15:00 First mentorship session
18.00 – 20.00 Second mentorship session
Sunday, 18 October
8.00 – 10.00 Third mentorship session
12.00 – 13.00 Last checkpoint
14.00 – 14.30 Hackathon project presentations
14.30 – 15.15 Jury deliberation
15.15 – 15.45 Jury feedback & awards
Evette Vargas is an award-winning writer, director, producer and immersive storyteller. Named by the New York Times as an “Artist to Watch,” Evette has produced series for Amazon, MTV, Bravo, DirectTV; and interactive content for Fast And Furious, Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Madonna and Wu Tang Clan. She wrote, The Current War VR Experience, a companion piece for the film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Evette is a member of the Writers Guild of America, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Producers Guild of America. Evett will assist the hackathon participants with storytelling solutions.
Pierre – PYARé – is a digital artist, creating immersive worlds. His intent is to make people reconnect with their body and sense of self through art and technology. Coming from a film background he focuses on creating content for the 3rd digital revolution, which is designing Reality through spatial computing (VR, AR, …).
At the hackathon Pierre will assist the teams with VR/AR development, immersive storytelling, interaction design.
Marina has clinical education and a diverse experience in tech startups and the healthcare sector. This has turned her to love developing innovative solutions of XR and delivering out of the bubble. Marina has extensive experience in building diverse and inclusive learning spaces by being a core team member of the Riga TechGirls community for 5 years. She is co-founder and CEO of VREACH – a company aimed to deliver VR experiences as a therapeutic approach in rehabilitation.
At the hackathon Marina will assist with concepting, UI & product design, pitch, prototyping, storytelling, education/healthcare implementation.
Gatis is an artist and programmer with experience in the gaming industry, tech companies as well as 3D animation creation for advertisements and television. He is interested in the fields which are the meeting points of art and technology.
At the hackathon Gatis will assist with 3D and Unity.
Irina Gaņeviča is an art director, mentor, active member of Riga TechGirls and a multidisciplinary designer. She is a senior UX researcher at Prezi covering two products – Prezi and Infogram. Irina has provided development of web solutions for enterprises such as Tet, Garnier, Balta, Just 5, Rimi, E-klase among others. Currently in her work she focuses on new ideas, discoveries and new ways of improving digital products. Irina holds degrees in IT and Interaction Design from three universities – Riga Technical University, Cyprus University of Technology and Tallinn University.
At the hackathon Irina will assist with UX and UI design.
Līna is a creative technologist, passionate about the crazier side of applications and how computing and electronics can be used to discover new mediums in the arts. Being on the board at the startup space TechHub Riga she is used to seeing innovative products born on a daily basis. Līna is currently studying her masters at UCL, researching new ways of how computing can be applied towards sustainability goals in the built environment.
At the hackathon Līna will assist with data visualisations, animation, web based and augmented reality solutions, as well as validating and defining your idea.
Ēriks is a professional game developer. Over the course of his studies as well as professional career he has worked on several game projects. One of them is Veselībnieks – a project crafted in cooperation with the pharmacy company Mēness aptieka – with an aim to promote health awareness. Ēriks has participated in various Latviam game hackathons as well as international game jams. He was also an organiser of Global Game Jam Riga 2020 and Global Game Jam next 2020.
At the hackathon Ēriks will assist to solve various technical challenges primarily with Unity.
Edgar is a versatile generalist with 10+ years of experience combining web development, interaction design, photo/vector/3d content production and interactive visualizations. With a track record of bridging the gaps of understanding across clients, designers, developers, artists and management. Focused on Product Customization and AR/VR.
At the hackathon Edgar will assist in the role of a moderator.
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