Sandra Rodriguez^CA/QC

Sandra Rodriguez, PhD, is an award-winning director and producer of XR and AI content and a sociologist of new media technologies. Exploring new media forms for two decades, her work spans from film, interactive animation, webdocs, virtual and mixed reality, to now AI-led experiences, immersive theatre, and large scale XR/AI exhibits. Her work has garnered multiple awards, including a Peabody, best immersive experience (IDFA DocLab 2016; Leipzig DokNeuland 2018, Numix 2018), best storytelling (UNVR and World Economic Forum tour 2018), and the first Golden Nica award given to a VR project at Ars Electronica (2019). She is a Sundance New Frontier Fellow and a Sundance Institute/MacArthur grantee, and has showcased independent XR experiences at SXSW, Sundance New Frontier, Tribeca, IDFA, Cannes, Rotterdam Film Festival, Busan and more. A sought public speaker, Rodriguez has collaborated as an emergent media and XR expert with events (MIT Virtually There Conference, PHI New Storytellers II, III and IV, MUTEK), the United Nations, national public news, national and foreign ministries of culture and communication, academia, international orchestras, game studios and NGOs. As a scholar, Rodriguez leads and lectures the course HackingXR at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT’s first official course on immersive media production and design. Fascinated by the platforms and tools we create to share stories, she has published articles, white papers, a book and book chapters on reception studies, emergent technology adoption, meme culture, and tech disruption for social change.