Late Shift

Late Shift is an interactive crime thriller where the audience’s choices guide a young man through a dangerous art heist, shaping the story and its outcome.

The Mirror's Echo

Mirror's Echo is an interactive projection that listens to spoken language and transforms it into a continuously evolving visual environment. Using AI-driven speech transcription and real-time diffusion models, the system captures visitors' voices, extracts key words, and generates claymation-style imagery projected onto surfaces. The work explores how language, presence, and image shape one another, blurring the boundary between observer and collaborator.

Performative Salvation

"A darkly comic VR séance with a genocidal self-help AI, where optimism means survival and defeatism brings the laser closer." Performative Salvation is an interactive, LLM-enhanced VR film in which the player (in the role of a space-station crew member overlooking Earth) is interrogated by a godlike AI debating whether humanity is salvageable. Through answering the AI’s questions about humanity's existential challenges, the world will either be saved, or indifference will prevail. With a touch of dark humor, this work asks whether a relentless, nearly performative optimism is a necessary delusion helping us counter our self-destructive inclinations, and a more hopeful alternative to defeatism.

Oyat is a XR interactive and immersive experience that weaves together ecology, natural disasters, ink painting, and the Taoist cosmological view. The work is inspired by the 2022 wildfire that broke out in the Dune of Pilat, the largest dune in Europe, where fire destroyed vast stretches of forest and caused countless lives to perish under the intense heat and pressure. The ashes left behind by the blaze blanketed the dune’s surface and, over time, integrated its ecosystem. What humans often see as an uncontrollable natural disaster may be part of nature’s self-regulating mechanism. The title Oyat in French refers to the European marram grass that grows on the dune. The plant plays a key role in stabilising the dunes, but intriguingly, once the dunes have become stable, the plant gradually disappears

the waters whisper sweet solace: a VR odyssey

the waters whisper sweet solace: A VR Odyssey is a virtual reality experience that invites viewers into the sacred landscapes of North Carolina, where the spirit of Black life moves through rivers, trees, and shifting sands. This work is rooted in the deep soil of Afro-Carolinian history, where memory is not just preserved but alive. Breathing through the land, the water, and the stories passed down through generations. The film honors the land as both witness and participant. It holds the echoes of laughter, labor, mourning, and resistance. Through archival materials from Duke University and original footage of Afro-Carolina, the piece traces the everyday lives and extraordinary resilience of Black communities who have shaped these spaces with care, creativity, and defiance. It remembers the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 not as a footnote, but as a turning point. A brutal act of white supremacist terror that echoes through generations. It remembers the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 not as a distant tragedy, but as a rupture that still reverberates. A wound in the landscape that demands remembrance, healing, and justice. The land remembers, and so must we. At its core, the waters whisper sweet solace is a spiritual offering. It is a call to listen. To the ancestors, to the land, to the quiet wisdom that lives in stillness and movement alike. As viewers journey through this immersive world, they are guided by ancestral presence, not as ghosts of the past but as active forces shaping the present and dreaming the future. The work draws from the traditions of Black spirituality, where liberation is not only political but cosmic, where the sacred and the everyday are intertwined. This is a vision of Afrofuturism grounded in place, not in escape, but in return. It looks toward a future built from the fragments of memory, the strength of survival, and the radical imagination of those who refuse to be erased. the waters whisper sweet solace invites us to remember, to grieve, to celebrate, and to imagine together. It is a portal into a world where Black life is held with tenderness, where the land remembers, and where the future is shaped by those who have always known the way. Thank you to my collaborators: Akeema-Zane, Brandon King , Carrie Hawks, Courtney Staton

Meridian Transmissions

A quotidian meditation on surveillance and the decay of modernity.

Crossing Lines

Weave through traffic in this narrative driving experience. Your teenage sister shows up at your college dorm in a panic. She needs help, but because of the state's strict abortion ban, she doesn't know where to go or what to do. After managing to secure an appointment in Colorado, you pile into your mother's old station wagon, hoping to make it there on time. As you attempt the long and intimidating journey, the story of the sisters and their bond unfolds.

Soul Paint

Soul Paint is a multi-award winning virtual reality experience by Sarah Ticho & Niki Smit, backed by behavioral scientists and researchers. Narrated by Rosario Dawson, this experience asks you the question: "Where are you feeling?"

A Long Goodbye

A Long Goodbye tells the story of Ida, a 72-year-old pianist living with dementia. In this animated, interactive VR experience, we walk in Ida’s shoes. We experience a day in her life, as her reality is fading.

alterR destinY wilimingtoN

A historical sci-fi narrative set during the 1898 Wilmington coup, this 360° film blends ancestral memory, conjure traditions, and prophetic vision to reimagine escape as an act of ancestral intervention. Guided by color and sacred movement inspired by the visionary drawings of Wilmington artist Minnie Evans, a man follows a quiet call to leave — stepping beyond what is seen, into what is known. Rooted in Afro-futuristic nostalgia — an aesthetic that bridges imagined futures with the emotional resonance of the past — the film unfolds through intuitive choreography, legacy, and unseen protection. Afro-futuristic nostalgia A personal aesthetic framework developed by Q. Roc Ragsdale, Afro-futuristic nostalgia bridges imagined futures with the emotional resonance of the past. It is a creative approach that draws equally from speculative vision and ancestral memory — reimagining Black history, spirituality, and culture through a futuristic lens while honoring the textures of what came before. Rooted in storytelling, movement, and immersive technology, Afro-futuristic nostalgia is not just a reimagination, but a return — a practice of dreaming forward while staying grounded in legacy, rituals—passed down and newly made, and deep reverence for our égún (ancestors).

Riceboy Dreams

RiceBoy Dreams is an immersive audio-visual work that explores systemic colonialism, cultural identity, and suppressed heritage through a blend of documentary storytelling and dreamlike abstraction. Drawing from personal and family histories, the project weaves together ancestral memory, pop culture, and lived experience to examine how identity is shaped across generations and geographies. Using vintage media such as old screens and analog devices, the work evokes nostalgia while inviting audiences into a layered, introspective journey through memory, displacement, and self-discovery.

CINETECH ARTISTS PANEL

Audience members joined participating creators from 2026’s CineTech exhibition for a conversation about how emerging technologies are reshaping the language of storytelling. Working across virtual reality, interactive installation, games, and hybrid cinematic forms, these artists are exploring new ways for audiences to engage with stories—not just as viewers, but as participants. The panel will dive into the ideas, creative processes, and technical experiments behind their projects, from AI-driven visual environments and multisensory VR to immersive works grounded in history, memory, and place. Featured artists include Krista Faist (The Mirror’s Echo), Ivy Nicole-jonet (the waters whisper sweet solace: a VR odyssey), and Sarah Ticho (Soul Paint), Leah Churchill, Mike Ren (Crossing Lines), and Eric Patrick (Meridian Transmissions) . Moderated by CineTech curator Q. Roc Ragsdale, this conversation offered a behind-the-scenes look at how today’s immersive artists are expanding what cinema can be. Following the panel, audiences are invited to continue the conversation at the CineTech Artist Meet & Greet in the exhibition space.