Damien Tomaselli

Dr Damien R Tomaselli is an award-winning filmmaker, the creator of Astrolabe Studios, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Visual Identities in Art and Design (VIAD) at the University of Johannesburg. He is a transmedia storyteller with a background that includes theatre, film, and photo manipulation. Currently he is focussed on the emerging media of virtual reality, mixed reality, and motion book technology; his recent projects include the launch of an augmented reality comic book at Comic Con Africa.

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Sessions:

5 Blurred Realities 

In this session Damien will explain how continued developments in the fields of AI and XR  are used to shape our perceptions, something historically done by the media, government, and advertising agencies. As the technology expands, recognition of the technological itself may recede to become increasingly blurred, reorienting the position between real and artificial experiences.

 

16 Digital Storytelling in the Real World - AR and Overlays - The frame of a painting influences the composition of that painting. The playable space in a video game works seamlessly with the objectives of the game and in turn determines narrative significance within that game. In augmented reality a digital overlay blends with real world spaces. AR and overlays merge the real world with fictional and therefore these overlays will work with the real world in producing AR narratives

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17 Trans Media Digital Storytelling

Damien’s talk will focus on the concept of adaptation, and at which point adaptation can and should be substituted with full scale re-engineering. To demonstrate he will use motion comics adapted from traditional comics, and 3D films adapted from 2D films to discuss notions of ‘native storytelling’.