MEET THE PANELISTS:
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 7PM

Tech Strategies for Small Performing Arts Companies: What Is Possible Now?

You've got questions...we've got answers! Or at least we have an amazing crew of panelists ready to talk about them. What is currently being done in VR and the arts? How does filming in 360-degrees differ from live performance? Is racial equity an issue in both the tech world and the arts world? ​Talk #3 will broaden awareness of how tech has influenced the dance scene up until this point, what can one expect when working with film and new technologies and discuss possible futures for arts performance and technology.

Lauren Ruffin, Co-founder, Crux; Co-CEO, Fractured Atlas

Lauren is co-founder of CRUX. Over the course of her career, she has become a “Jane-of-all-trades” for small and mid-sized enterprises in the for-profit and non-profit sectors. The hallmark of her work is a willingness to take calculated risks, an interest in scaling businesses using innovative organizational mechanisms, and her ability to secure capital for  projects from non-traditional sources. 

Founded in 2017, CRUX is the only company focusing solely on bringing XR artistic content from Black creators to mainstream users and audiences. As co-founder, Lauren focuses on creating an organization with core principles that are rooted in liberation movements, as well as anti-racism and anti-oppression, and works closely with partners as they create original content and immersive experiences to delight audiences and expand their digital footprint. Partners include the International Documentary Association, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, New York Live Arts, Urban Bush Women, and Black Public Media.

Lauren is currently the interim Chief Marketing Officer of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), where she focuses on amplifying the stories and activism of the YBCA community. Prior to joining YBCA, Lauren was co-CEO of  Fractured Atlas, the largest association of independent artists in the United States. She frequently speaks on a diverse range of topics including ethics in technology, the digital divide, organizational development and culture, racial bias, and economic justice. 

Her career began after law school as a lobbyist for a boutique government relations firm where she represented a variety of technology companies, including Comcast and Sirius/XM, providing strategies relating Black and Brown communities nationally.  Her work included efforts involving video franchising, net neutrality and regulatory and utility policy, and international trade policy representing several sovereign governments.  She also oversaw large public/private partnerships and approximately $30 million in appropriations funding.

After leaving the government affairs sector, Lauren transitioned into fundraising, securing nearly $70m for DC-based organizations Martha’s Table and the National Center for Children and Families. She was also fortunate to serve in various roles at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Children’s Defense Fund, New Leaders, and AAUW. 
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Lauren graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in Political Science and obtained a J.D. from the Howard University School of Law. She is on faculty at New York University, teaching an Arts and Entrepreneurship course, and has served on the governing board of Black Girls Code as well as the advisory boards of ArtUp and Black Girl Ventures.

Kate Fisher, Safety Third Productions (Los Angeles)

Katherine Helen Fisher is director of Safety Third, a boutique production house creating movement-based new media.
Katherine danced with The Lucinda Childs Dance Company and has also performed with MOMIX, ODC San Francisco, the Merce Cunningham Trust, Johannes Wieland and the Mark Morris Dance Group among others.  She was an ensemble member of the Philip Glass opera Einstein On The Beach directed by Robert Wilson.
Kate has movement directed projects for Radiohead and Rufus Wainwright. She has directed branded content for Hermès, Microsoft and others. Her work has been featured by the New York Times, the Smithsonian, Georgia Tech, the Palm Springs Art Museum, La Menagerie de Verre in Paris, Danspace Project, Judson Memorial Church, Art Basil Switzerland and The Hammer Museum. 

Photo Cred: Mark Escribano

Her participatory performance garment, Le Monstre, won a Jury Prize for Best Paper at The 21st International Symposium on Wearable Computers. Her film, CEILING won an award at The San Francisco Dance Film Festival. She holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, is a professor of Dance was a professor of New Media at the Peabody Conservatory and is currently earning her MFA in Dance at Sarah Lawrence College. Katherine is proud parent to one year old Frances Leigh. 

Jaehee Cho, Founder and Creative Director, Orta Interactive (Pgh)

Jaehee Cho is an enthusiastic game designer, passionate about telling interesting and unique stories in various media. Beginning his career in film and photography, his work has expanded beyond traditional, using new technology such as virtual reality and augmented reality. He completed his master’s degree at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center, where he was the director for award-winning VR projects, Hypnos’s “Imago” and Kalpana’s “Injustice”. Jaehee is currently working at Orta Interactive Studio as a Creative Director.​

Lee Erdman, Immersive Experience Expert and Film, VR/XR Theatre Professional

Lee Erdman, MA
ACTRA, CCA, DTRC

Actor, dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, Lee attained her MA (Distinction) from Staffordshire University’s Film and Media Studies program and is an academic mentor for Raindance’s post grad program. Possessing a solid background in theatre and film, Lee is focused on merging her love of both the visual and performance mediums by exploring and creating short format content with VR and 360 media. Lee advocates for the inclusion of diverse collaborators from the arts as crucial to the development of immersive and extended technology which straddles the divide between dramaturgy and cinematographic practise and approaches. She is also one half of Van Rooi Productions which produces cinematic content that seeks to tell visual stories that illuminate the concept of identity in our postcolonial culture. Lee is currently developing a narrative dance series in cinematic VR that centres around reconnecting with the earth as a pathway to healing, and landscape as a metaphor in the stages of feminist self-actualisation. You can see her performing live in VR as a lead in “The Severance Theory: Welcome to Respite” (Ferryman Collective/CoAct), a ground breaking immersive theatre production in VRChat during the 2021/22 film festival season (Tribeca, Venice Biennale and more).