Speaker Announcement: “When Media Watches You – The Rise of Immersive Technology” – Eric Hawkinson

The second panel presentation to be announced for The 2nd Kyoto Conference on Arts, Media & Culture (KAMC2021), held concurrently with The 12th Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film (MediAsia2021) is a keynote presentation titled “When Media Watches You – The Rise of Immersive Technology” by Eric Hawkinson from the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, Japan.

The KAMC/MediAsia2021 Organising Committees are currently calling for papers to be presented at the joint event, submit your abstracts by August 20.

To participate in KAMC/MediAsia2021 as an audience member, please register for the conference via the conference websites. (Registration for either conference will allow delegates to attend sessions in the other.)

The keynote will also be available for IAFOR Members to view online. To find out more, please visit the IAFOR Membership page.


When Media Watches You: The Rise of Immersive Technology – Eric Hawkinson

Abstract

Pervasive, ubiquitous, and ever watching the watchers is how the stage is seemingly being set for the next evolution in media technology. Immersive media and the metaverse is poised to integrate and merge into our realities like nothing before. Augmented, virtual, mixed, diminished, extended are new names for realities that are being layered and mingled into our daily lives. Let’s explore the possibilities both virtuous and vicious of these new realities as they move more mainstream in our media consumption and creation.

There are still so many questions and issues left to be worked out from mobile technology and media in our pockets, such as the collection of data and business models of media distribution. These issues and others have the possibility of being exacerbated. The media we carry in our pockets now gets attached to every aspect of these new realities.

So much potential abounds as well in the use of immersive technology in education, medicine, mental health, communication, and other fields. The high level of curation, interactivity, and customization makes the possibility for media to be more timely and relevant than ever before.

Join us for a discussion of the future of the metaverse as it relates to our relationship with media while we get some hands-on experience with some augmented and virtual learning environments."

– Eric Hawkinson


Speaker Profile

Eric Hawkinson

Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, Japan

Eric Hawkinson, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies

Eric is a learning futurist, tinkering with and designing technologies that may better inform the future of teaching and learning. Eric is president and research coordinator of MAVR, a research group working in immersive technologies for teaching and learning, and more specifically, augmented and virtual realities in language learning. Eric's day job is at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies where he teaches courses and conducts research on issues related to technology in tourism and education. Eric also leads a team of interactive media designers for TEDxKyoto. His passion project, ARientation is an award winning, free-to-use, privacy-by-design augmented learning platform to rapidly prototype augmented learning environments, also aiming to spread awareness of increasingly aggressive data collection models using immersive technology. Eric's other projects have included augmented tourism rallies, AR community art exhibitions, mixed reality escape rooms, and other experiments in immersive technology.

Posted by IAFOR