We’d love to have your support for our SXSW 2023 proposals. This year, the Digital Bodies team submitted two proposals for SXSWedu and two for SXSW Interactive. Community input is a critical part of the SXSWedu 2023 selection process. Please take a minute to review and vote on our proposals – we deeply appreciate your support!

Please note that voting ends Sunday night, August 21st, at midnight.

We are frequent participants at SXSWedu and SXSW Interactive and have presented at the conference in previous years. The entire SXSW event is inspiring and is where we founded Digital Bodies. This year, our proposals for SXSWedu 2023 and SXSW Interactive reflect critical issues in XR for education and the role of realistic AI-driven avatars in the future Metaverse. We hope you’ll agree!

So send us to SXSX 2023 with your votes, and we hope to see you there!

Here are our four proposals – and the details on each one are below:

👾 The Future of Learning in the Metaverse
VOTE https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/130343
👁 Learning with Embodied Avatars in the Metaverse
VOTE https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/129595
🎠 The Art of Immersion Story & Code in the Metaverse
VOTE https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/129613
🤖 Future Challenges in Human-Avatar Interaction
VOTE https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/129811

SXSWedu Proposal: The Future of Learning in the Metaverse

Description:

The Metaverse is based on a convergence of diverse technologies, including XR, AI, and blockchain to power 3D virtual worlds. These developments will reshape the educational landscape, including remote work and learning, decentralized governance, and new ways of credentialing learning and certifying our digital identities. They also raise profound challenges, including accessibility, the ethics of our virtual interactions, and how the goals of the tech industry fit with the broader mission of education.

Takeaways:

1. Learn about successful Metaverse initiatives advancing pedagogical innovation, student engagement, academic programs, research, and partnerships
2. Discuss the development of the Metaverse, including AR/VR, AI, blockchain, NFTs, and the vision and expertise required to leverage them for learning
3. Understand the challenges and opportunities the Metaverse will bring to education in the future.

Support this SXSWedu 2023 proposal here. Voting ends Sunday, August 21st at midnight:

Vote for The Future of Learning in the Metaverse

 

SXSWedu 2023 proposal: Learning with Embodied Avatars in the Metaverse

Description:

Rapid advances in XR and AI programs will lead to engaging virtual worlds populated with highly realistic AI-driven avatars. How will students relate to themselves and others as embodied avatars, and what will be the impact on learning and sense of identity? Drawing on cutting-edge research on how avatar interactions reshape human behavior, we will share the potential and challenges of using realistic avatars to support authentic learning and incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Takeaways:

1. Learn how the convergence of XR and AI will lead to the development of intensely realistic virtual worlds and human-like avatars.
2. Understand the emerging field of human-avatar interaction and how virtual beings will impact student learning, behavior, and self-identity.
3. Identify the ethical challenges that will arise in learning environments when virtual avatars become indistinguishable from humans.

Support this SXSWedu 2023 proposal here. Voting ends Sunday, August 21st at midnight:

Learning with Embodied Avatars in the Metaverse

 

SXSW 2023 Proposal: The Art of Immersion Story & Code in the Metaverse

Description:

The future of the Metaverse from learning to work and play, will depend on exploring the unique affordances of the new medium, embodying avatars, and facing AI algorithms in virtual worlds. We will examine cutting-edge immersive projects featuring learning, art and museum installations, documentaries, music, and games created by Students at The Parsons School of Design. Join us to review the top groundbreaking immersive experiences created by the next generation of immersive storytellers.

Takeaways:

1. Examine cutting-edge immersive projects across art, design, games
2. Gain insights into the advances made in XR and how the work of educators, researchers, storytellers, and entrepreneurs is changing the landscape
3. Learn foundational principles for designing in AR, VR, and MR through analyzing innovative immersive experiences in art, media, and science.

Support this SXSW 2023 proposal here. Voting ends Sunday, August 21st at midnight: 

The Art of Immersion Story & Code in the Metaverse

 

SXSW 2023 Proposal: Future Challenges in Human-Avatar Interaction

Description:

The global pandemic opened a doorway to the future, pushing us to connect, work, and learn through virtual worlds. But we’ve yet to fathom the complex psychology of human-avatar interaction and how it transforms our online and offline behavior. Exploring this issue from our work with universities, NGOs, and workforce training projects, we’ll examine passivity, aggression, and the Proteus Effect on offline behavior to understand our future lives as human and AI-driven avatars in virtual worlds.

Takeaways:

1. Gain insights into the research and studies on avatar representation in virtual worlds and its impact on human behavior.
2. Examine cutting-edge projects from universities, NGOs, and workforce training on conflict-resolution, climate change, and cross-cultural understanding.
3. Understand the promises and perils of a world where virtual avatars bleed into our real-life experience.

Support this SXSW 2023 proposal here. Voting ends Sunday, August 21st at midnight:

Future Challenges in Human-Avatar Interaction 

Thank you!

Thanks for supporting our SXSWedu and SXSW 2023 Proposals! We hope to see you in Austin in 2022!