MIT Open Documentary Lab

Updated graphic: The event is Monday, June 15, 6:30–8 PM.

✨ Artist Talk at Cambridge Public Library ✨

Join the MIT Open Documentary Lab and IXRDC for a public talk with Peabody-nominated and Emmy award-winning director Michaela Ternasky-Holland

🎥 Navigating the Crossroads: When Art and Technology Intersects and Diverges
📍 Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA
🗓 Monday, June 15
⏰ 6:30–8 PM

Part of Libraries as Immersive Storytelling Hubs.

Upcoming VR Pop-Ups at other MA libraries:
📍 Mattapan Public Library — June 24 & July 14
📍 Medford Public Library — July 13 & July 27

Upcoming artist talks and workshops:
✨ Michèle Stephenson , Emmy award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author
✨ Sister Sylvester , multimedia artist
✨ L’Merchie Frazier , multidisciplinary artist, educator, and poet

Learn more: opendoclab.mit.edu/presents/libraries

✨ Artist Talk at Cambridge Public Library ✨

Join the MIT Open Documentary Lab and IXRDC for a public talk with Peabody-nominated and Emmy award-winning director Michaela Ternasky-Holland.

🎥 Navigating the Crossroads: When Art and Technology Intersects and Diverges
📍 Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA
🗓 Monday, June 15
⏰ 6:30–8 PM

Part of Libraries as Immersive Storytelling Hubs.

Upcoming VR Pop-Ups at other MA libraries:
📍 Mattapan Public Library — June 24 & July 14
📍 Medford Public Library — July 13 & July 27

Upcoming artist talks and workshops:
✨ Michèle Stephenson , Emmy award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author
✨ Sister Sylvester , multimedia artist
✨ L’Merchie Frazier , multidisciplinary artist, educator, and poet

Learn more: opendoclab.mit.edu/presents/libraries

✨ Artist Talk at Cambridge Public Library ✨

Join the MIT and IXRDC for a public talk with Peabody-nominated and Emmy award-winning director Michaela Ternasky-Holland

🎥 Navigating the Crossroads: When Art and Technology Intersects and Diverges
📍 Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA
🗓 Monday, June 15
⏰ 6:30–8 PM

Part of Libraries as Immersive Storytelling Hubs.

Upcoming VR Pop-Ups at other MA libraries:
📍 Mattapan Public Library — June 24 & July 14
📍 Medford Public Library — July 13 & July 27

Upcoming artist talks and workshops:
✨ Michèle Stephenson , Emmy award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author
✨ Sister Sylvester , multimedia artist
✨ L’Merchie Frazier , multidisciplinary artist, educator, and poet

Learn more: opendoclab.mit.edu/presents/libraries

✨HAPPENING NEXT WEEK AT ROBBINS LIBRARY IN ARLINGTON✨

The MIT Open Documentary Lab and IXRDC (Independent XR Distribution Coalition) presents a Artist Talk at Robbins Library, Arlington:
🎥Art as Ecosystem: Rethinking Immersive Media Through Community and Care: Immersive storytelling as a community-centered practice that transforms technology into a tool for connection, care, and collective voice.
About the artist: Rashin Fahandej is an Iranian-American immersive filmmaker, futurist, and cultural activist whose “Art as Ecosystem” methodology uses long-term community engagement and co-creation to reimagine social systems across differences while expanding access to emerging technologies.
📍 Robbins Library, Community Room, 700 Mass Ave, Arlington, MA
🗓 Thursday, June 4 | 6-7:30 PM

Part of Libraries as Immersive Storytelling Hubs, a civic research initiative by the MIT Open Documentary Lab exploring how public libraries can become spaces for immersive storytelling, community engagement, and new ways of knowing.

Upcoming VR Pop-Ups at other MA libraries:
📍 Robbins Library — June 6
📍 Boston Public Library: Mattapan Branch — June 24 & July 14
📍 Medford Public Library — July 13 & July 27

And more to come…

Upcoming artist talks and workshops:
✨ Michaela Ternasky-Holland , Peabody-nominated & Emmy award-winning director

✨ Michèle Stephenson , Emmy award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author
✨ Sister Sylvester , multimedia artist
✨ L’Merchie Frazier , American artist, educator, and poet

With generous support from

WatertownLibrary PublicLibraries VR ImmersiveMedia CivicMedia InteractiveDocumentary IXRDC

✨HAPPENING NEXT WEEK AT ROBBINS LIBRARY IN ARLINGTON✨

Step into immersive storytelling! 🎧✨

The MIT Open Documentary Lab and IXRDC (Independent XR Distribution Coalition) present at Cambridge Public Library:

🎥 IMMERSIVE DOCUMENTARY POP-UPS
📍 Robbins Library, Community Room, 700 Mass Ave, Arlington, MA
🗓 Saturday,, June 6 | Drop in 11 AM – 4 PM

Experience groundbreaking virtual reality works by trailblazing artists exploring climate change, identity, immigration, indigeneity, racial injustice, disability, memory, and civic life.

Featured projects include:
• Ice Sailors
• Less Than Five Grams of Saffron
• Travelling While Black
• You Destroy. We Create.
• Notes on Blindness
• Danse, Danse Matisse
…and more.

Part of Libraries as Immersive Storytelling Hubs, a civic research initiative by the MIT Open Documentary Lab exploring how public libraries can become spaces for immersive storytelling, community engagement, and new ways of knowing.

Upcoming VR Pop-Ups at other MA libraries:
📍 Boston Public Library: Mattapan Branch — June 24 & July 14
📍 Medford Public Library — July 13 & July 27

And more to come…

Upcoming artist talks and workshops:
✨ Rashin Fahandej , Iranian-American immersive filmmaker, futurist, and cultural activist

✨ Michaela Ternasky-Holland , Peabody-nominated & Emmy award-winning director

✨ Michèle Stephenson , Emmy award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author
✨ Sister Sylvester , multimedia artist
✨ L’Merchie Frazier , American artist, educator, and poet

With generous support from

WatertownLibrary PublicLibraries VR ImmersiveMedia CivicMedia InteractiveDocumentary IXRDC
Edited · 2w

Step into immersive storytelling at your local library! 🎧✨

The MIT Open Documentary Lab and IXRDC (Independent XR Distribution Coalition) present:
🎥 IMMERSIVE DOCUMENTARY POP-UPS
📍 Watertown Library — 123 Main St, Watertown, MA
🗓 Saturday, May 9 | Drop in 12–3 PM
🗓 Thursday, May 28 | Drop in 4–7 PM

Experience groundbreaking virtual reality works by trailblazing artists exploring climate change, identity, immigration, indigeneity, racial injustice, disability, memory, and civic life.

Featured projects include:
• Ice Sailors
• Less Than Five Grams of Saffron
• Travelling While Black
• You Destroy. We Create. 
• Notes on Blindness
• Danse, Danse Matisse
…and more.

Part of Libraries as Immersive Storytelling Hubs, a civic research initiative by the MIT Open Documentary Lab exploring how public libraries can become spaces for immersive storytelling, community engagement, and new ways of knowing.

Upcoming VR Pop-Ups at other MA libraries:
📍 Cambridge Public Library — May 14
📍 Arlington Library — June 4 & June 6
📍 Mattapan Public Library — June 24 & July 14
📍 Medford Public Library — July 13 & July 27
And more to come…

Upcoming artist talks and workshops:
✨ Rashin Fahandej , Iranian-American immersive filmmaker, futurist, and cultural activist
✨ Michaela Ternasky-Holland , Peabody-nominated & Emmy award-winning director
✨ Michèle Stephenson , Emmy award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author
✨ Sister Sylvester , multimedia artist
✨ L’Merchie Frazier , American artist, educator, and poet

With generous support from

WatertownLibrary PublicLibraries VR ImmersiveMedia CivicMedia InteractiveDocumentary IXROC

Join us for a Public Talk (online) - Examination of Burden of Other People’s Dreams: The creative process behind a film/book story world

Joe Bini and Tabitha Jackson will discuss the animating ideas and creative process behind Joe Bini’s latest immersive story world piece, Burden of Other People’s Dreams: Book One, Ganymede.

Best described as a “book-film,” Burden of Other People’s Dreams: Book One, Ganymede is an e-book that comes to life as a cinema experience, designed to be taken in by one person at a time, at their own pace. Similar in ways to a graphic novel, it crosses the interiority of being a reader with the visceral presence of being a film watcher and presents a story world framed in three storytelling traditions: oral, written word, and cinematic. It also questions the role of authorship, believing that stories are a shared experience that exist in an in-between space.

Over the course of his personal filmmaking career, Bini has been developing a more conversational, everyday language of filmmaking. This has led him to his current project, Burden of Other People’s Dreams.

Showing clips from foundational films in his editing and personal work, Bini will discuss the steps that led to the language of his book film.

Moderated by Tabitha Jackson.
📅 Tuesday, April 7, 2 - 3:30 PM EST
📍 Join Zoom Link Below