VR Design
Graphic Design
Event Production
2018 - 19

Building an accessible community around XR in LA.

In 2018 a diverse team of professors, designers, producers, artists and I built an event series which produced XR focused events in Los Angeles. The events we produced still remain among the best I’ve participated in. Founding members included Dr. Maja Manojlovic of UCLA, Marjam Oskoui of Cal Arts, sound designer Nathaniel Eras, and VR designer Donald Dunbar.
Especially in 2018 and still now, XR can be an intimidating industry to get into. The walled garden of emerging tech within silicon valley is still clinging to life. Both Donald Dunbar and I moved to LA early in the year and coincided our trip with one of the biggest VR conferences on the west coast; VRLA. On our first day in town we met both Nathaniel and Marjam who were eager to cultivate a community around XR.
Until Reality was born just two weeks later. Our brand statement was as follows:

Until Reality (UR) is a team of creatives and entrepreneurs, building a community around VR / AR / XR. We offer a safe environment for people to come together to experiment, create, discuss, do business, and have fun. We host regular salon-style, curated events – the XR Garden – as well as experiential parties – the XR Forest – at our Downtown Los Angeles location.
UR is made up of content developers, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, DJ’s, educators, and academics. We are ethnically, racially, culturally, age, and gender diverse, allowing us to welcome a broad representation of society. This diversity and exchange of ideas has attracted young people who want to learn with a hands-on experience and join the conversation in XR. In addition, it is attracting entrepreneurs and businesses seeking an alternative environment in which to do business as well as artists, designers and developers looking to collaborate.
Ultimately, Until Reality embodies an innovative model of connectivity grounded in face-to-face interactions, while exploring the potentials of XR experiences. As such, it represents a platform for both education and distribution of XR content to diverse local and global communities.

XR Garden:

From the beginning, the team knew that we wanted to have talks at our events. XR Garden focused on 3 speakers per event as well as 3 VR experiences for attendants to try. You can catch my talk from the first one on the “Talks” page. Our overarching goal between both event series was to bring together all walks of life to connect on a mutual interest in XR. This series was always free to ensure accessibility. Speakers included Andrew Schwartz, Marlon Fuentes, Nir Netzer, and Christina Heller. Some of our favorite demos included works by Gray Crawford, Cabbibo, and Dawn Chan.

XR Forest:

Our member Nathaniel Eras is a revered curator of music events in LA and as we all had a passion for music, we thought an event series that leveraged great music as the initial draw would bring many new people to XR. We paired line ups of amazing dj’s with a line ups of amazing VR experiences. What unfolded was a series of events that people still ask me about to this day. In one night you could see amazing dj’s shock the dance floor, jump up to the mezzanine to try brand new VR experiences, and end on the roof top in conversation with folks from wall walks of life. I look forward to producing more events in LA when it’s safe to be in public again.