Guest Speakers
Karim Ben Khelifa
Karim Ben Khelifa is an award-winning Belgian-Tunisian trans-disciplinary artist and director, whose documentary storytelling is at the crossroads of art, science and technology. A proponent of cross-pollination that spans disciplines, he has anchored his practice in non-fiction narratives.
He started his career as a war correspondent and photojournalist, on assignment for publication such as Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Le Monde, Stern, Time Magazine and has traveled to more than 90 countries. He then moved on to work with a variety of immersive media, such as VR and AR.
He is a former fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, an Artist-in-Residence at the OpenDocLab and a Visiting Artist at Center for Arts, Science & Technology, both at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Karim Ben Khelifa is also a lecturer in universities and academic institutions and has been a mentor at numerous conferences and festivals.
He is currently an advisory board member of the Center for Advanced Virtuality at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Guild of Future Architects.
Coral Manton
Coral Manton is an artist-technologist, design researcher and Senior Lecturer in Creative Computing at Bath Spa University. Her work focuses on creating more equitable spaces for people and technology through speculative design, design activism and playful design. She is co-curator of Control Shift, a computational arts programme in Bristol and is co-director of the Playable Media Lab. She has been developing work that explores our emerging relationships with artificial intelligence including a series of conversational AI chatbot projects including Women Reclaiming AI, and Looking For The Cloud. Coral’s work has been featured in Ars Electronica, SXSW, The Guardian Newspaper and she has led workshops at The Barbican for AI: More than Human and MozFest and was invited to speak at ITU, a United Nations Conference, on Gender and AI.
Kip Williams
Kip Williams is Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company. STC productions include Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Tempest, Julius Caesar, Playing Beatie Bow, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord of the Flies, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Harp in the South Part One and Part Two, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Cloud Nine, Chimerica, All My Sons, Suddenly Last Summer, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, and Under Milk Wood.
Kip has also directed for Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Sydney Chamber Opera, Victorian Opera, Princeton Theatre, NIDA and Dark Mofo.
Awards include the 2022 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Direction for the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 2018 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Direction for The Harp in the South (also Best Mainstage Production), 2016 Green Room Award for Best Director for Miss Julie (also Best Mainstage Production) and the 2015 Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play for Suddenly Last Summer.
John-Paul Marin
John-Paul is the co-founder and director of Distil Immersive, an award-winning digital production studio. Building on a career spanning 18 years in the interactive media sector, his work bridges the worlds of documentary, art, storytelling, design and technology. He has produced a slew of interactive experiences across the web, TV and in virtual as well as physical spaces. Having previously led the Digital Creative Lab at SBS, he spearheaded dozens of world-class projects and experiences, garnering international acclaim from multiple Webby and SXSW Interactive Awards to Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism. With an emphasis on shedding light on the unseen world, his work has been exhibited at major festivals across the UK, Spain, Latin America and the United States. As a speaker and mentor, he has shared his experience at SXSW, AIDC, Sheffield DocFest, iDW Switzerland, DocsBarcelona and Mediamorfosis Valparaiso, and he is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
David Oppenheim
David Oppenheim is a Creative Producer and Executive Producer of interactive experiences. At the National Film Board of Canada (2014-2022) his most recent credits included Draw Me Close, Agence, The Book of Distance, Otherly, The Space We Hold and To Kill a Tiger. His productions have won multiple Webby awards, Canadian Screen Awards and a Peabody-Facebook Futures of Media Award, and premiered at major festivals including Venice, Tribeca, Sundance and TIFF.
David is a past resident at the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab. He is currently consulting and completing his Masters of Design at OCAD University in Toronto