Keynote: Dhanraj Vishwanath
Keynote title: Immersion, tangibility, realness: What does it mean to see in 3D?
Dhanraj Vishwanath originally trained as an engineer and architect and practiced for several years at firms in New York, Los Angeles and Buffalo. When his theoretical interests in architectural design led to scientific questions in 3D space and surface perception, he pursued a PhD in cognitive psychology at Rutgers University. His PhD work examined links between eye movement control and surface perception. He then held a NIH postdoctoral fellowship at U.C. Berkeley, where he worked on 3D space perception. He was Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is currently Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St. Andrews.
His research is primarily in the area of 3D perception and visuomotor control, with broader interests in experimental phenomenology and the foundations of perception. His recent work challenges the conventional wisdom, held since Wheatstone’s 1838 invention of the stereoscope, that binocular parallax is the primary source of the visual effect associated with stereoscopic 3D. Instead, he has proposed that the 3D effect is a more fundamental psychological construct related to how the brain computes the scale of visual objects and space. The theory seeks to provide a more unified explanation of a range of observations in human depth perception, including why 3D stereoscopic images (e.g., 3D movies) produce the most vivid sense of immersion and tangibility, and why 2D pictorial images (e.g., conventional movies) can generate an impression of depth despite the lack of a 3D effect.
Keynote: Natasha Barrett
Keynote title: Tangible soundfields: the reality of 3D sound
Natasha is a freelance composer, performer & researcher specialising in electroacoustic composition and the perception & practical investigation of 3D sound. Since receiving her PhD in 1998 (City University, London) she has lived in Norway creating concert, theatre & installation works, & collaborating with scientists, designers & architects. Barrett’s works are performed and commissioned throughout the world. As an active member of OCEAN Design Research Natasha has created three large scale public space 3D sound & architectural installations. In collaboration with the University in Oslo she is currently exploring the real-time interaction of 3D data sonification for both arts and science applications. Her concert music has receiving numerous prizes, including the prestigeous Nordic Council Music Prize (Norden 2006), along with the Giga-Hertz Award (Germany 2008), Edvard Prize (Norway 2004), Noroit-Leonce Petitot (France 2002 & 1998), Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Awards (France 2008, 2006, 2001, 1998 & 1995), Musica Nova (Prague 2001), CIMESP (Brazil 2001), Concours Scrime, (France 2000), International Electroacoustic Creation Competition of Ciberart (Italy 2000), Concours Luigi Russolo (Italy 1995 & 1998), Prix Ars Electronica (Austria 1998), 9th International Rostrum for electoacoustic music (2002).
Speaker: Thomas Villepoux
Presentation title: Macroscopic 3D shooting: tools and tricks
Thomas Villepoux is stereographer and cinematographer who graduated from the famous Louis Lumiere cinematography school in Paris, and specialized in commercials. First self-educated in 3D, he later studied stereoscopy with Alain Derobe and Yves Pupulin at Binocle. Since 2010, he teaches stereoscopy for INA and CIFAP, Louis Lumiere School, and is an active member of the UP3D association.
Award-winning stereographer for the feature The Builder’s challenge for ARTE. He has also been involved in 3D projects in France and abroad such as commercials (Bouygues Telecom, Audi, Burburry), documentaries, multicameras live broadcast (football and rugby matches, circus, opéra, theatre, DIOR fashion show, Orange TV, Canal+, Sky 3D) and IMAX projects (Time Passengers).
Speaker: Dr Lisa Purse
Presentation title: Critical encounters, sensory trajectories: re-assessing the narrative dimensions of Digital 3-D
Lisa Purse is Associate Professor in Film in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television at the University of Reading, and is the author of Contemporary Action Cinema (EUP, 2011) and Digital Imaging in Popular Cinema (EUP, 2013). Her research interests focus on film style and the politics of representation in contemporary cinema, and she has published a number of essays on genre cinema, digital effects and the body in film.
She is currently working on a project exploring the aesthetic dimensions of Digital 3-D.
Speaker: Dr Stefan Bilbao
Presentation title: Large scale 3D audio rendering & sound synthesis in parallel hardware
Stefan Bilbao studied Physics at Harvard University (BA, ’92), then spent two years at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique Musicale (IRCAM) under a fellowship awarded by Harvard and the Ecole Normale Superieure. He then completed the MSc and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University (’96 and ’01, respectively), while working at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He was subsequently a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Space Telecommunications and Radioscience Laboratory, and a Lecturer at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at the Queen’s University Belfast.
He currently works on sound synthesis based on physical models of musical instruments, with a particular focus on mainstream numerical simulation techniques, such as, e.g., finite difference methods. Special topics of interest include: Hamiltonian and symplectic methods, distributed nonlinear systems such as strings and plates, estimates of computational complexity, multichannel sound synthesis, and hardware and software realizations.
A sideline is joint work with composers of electroacoustic music. Other interests include virtual analog effect modelling and artificial reverberation design, modelling of electromechanical instruments, shock wave propagation in tubes, numerical absorbing boundaries in acoustics applications, and large-scale audio rendering using graphics processing units (GPUs) in conjunction with the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre.
Many of the research directions described above now form part of an ERC-funded project, NESS, running jointly with the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC) over the period 2012-2017. Project website for more information: http://www.ness.music.ed.ac.uk/
Speaker: James Uren
Presentation title: Teaching 3D Storytelling
James has delivered training programmes in 3D storytelling to over 100 industry professionals, and designed the UK’s first MA/MSc devoted to 3D Stereoscopic techniques at Ravensbourne. He has been involved with independent 3D filmmaking for over 5 years, with his most recent 3D film as director, “Afterlight” winning the 3D Innovation award in LA’s New Media Film Festival and receiving a special mention in Barcelona.
Speaker: Andrew Murchie
Presentation title: No Budget, No Time 3D Filmmaking
Andrew Murchie is a multi-award winning writer, director & stereographer, credited with creating a number of firsts for stereoscopic 3D film and motion graphics in Scotland. He launched Enhanced Dimensions in 2009 to focus on developing stereo 3D films, products and training, as well as a portal for sharing information and news on the growing stereoscopic 3D marketplace.
Andrew’s stereoscopic 3D work has been screened on UK TV and in 3D events and film festivals worldwide receiving many accolades including Best Director for “Situation Vacant“, Excellence in Visual Arts for his animated short “FourPlay 3D”, Best Live Action Short for his first live action 3D film “Cycle (3D)” and a special Director’s Choice Award for his 4 live action 3D short films screened at the LA 3D Film Festival in 2012. In 2013 Andrew acted as stereoscopic consultant on the 6 episode 3D cartoon series, BearShark, which ran on the Nintendo 3DS video channel. For demonstration purposes a 4K 3D demo version was created of one of the episodes.
Andrew is currently writing his first feature film screenplay and completing production on a six part comedy web series “Crime Squad 3D”.
Speakers: Pippa Best & Mary Davies
Presentation title: The Cross Channel Film Lab: Explore, Experiment, Exchange
Pippa developed and delivered the first phase of the Cross Channel Film Lab as UK Project Director and Script Consultant.
Pippa has worked as a freelance script consultant since 1999 for a diverse range of clients – produced films for Parallax include Blind Flight and Yasmin. She was Project Director of Cornwall Film, a £1.9million EU funded project to develop Cornwall’s film, TV and digital media sector via training schemes, mentoring, development and production activity. Festival Director of the Cornwall Film Festival in its second year, Pippa also worked as Development Executive for the Cornwall Film Fund, supporting over 50 projects.
Pippa was Head of Development at Zephyr Films from 1997 to 2002, developing a slate of features with emerging talent. European co-productions at Zephyr included Mathilde and Secret Passage. Pippa joined Zephyr in 1995 working in development and production on Esther Kahn, My Son the Fanatic, and A Further Gesture.
In addition to script editing, Pippa has worked as a consultant for Falmouth University. And in her elusive free time, runs a creative online community for mums.
.
Mary Davies worked on the successful European funding bid for phase two of the Cross Channel Film Lab, taking over from Pippa in 2011. Mary has extensive experience as a consultant for film festivals and as a script editor.
Mary was acquisition consultant for Japanese satellite film channel Cinefil for 15 years and is a former international sales agent for independent feature films at BFI Production and Jane Balfour Films. She was head of Industry at the Edinburgh International Film Festival until 2009, European account executive for festival submissions platform Withoutabox for five years, has run the Industry Screenings at the BFI London Film Festival for the past five years, and is an industry consultant for the Rotterdam and Dubai Film Festivals, advising and mentoring filmmakers. She has worked in development for production companies and as project assessor and script editor for UK regional screen agencies including Screen East and Scottish Screen. Mary was also associate producer of a series of short environmental TV films for children in Brazil, India and Zimbabwe.
Former board member of Cornwall Film and production panel member for Scottish Screen.
