Mediating Presence

Peter (Zak) Zakrzewski is a design strategist, researcher, and design and innovation coach who advocates for applying transformative design thinking and participatory design methods to the creation of media, experiences, and social change. He is an assistant professor of communication and visual arts at Thompson Rivers University. He is a former creative director of the emerging technologies conference EmTech at MIT. Before that, Peter's design consulting career included 15 years of working on user experience (UX) design, retail, and branding programs for organizations, including global brands, start-ups, non-profit groups, and educational institutions such as MIT, Astra Zeneca, Glad, Kraft, and Loblaws. He is a recipient of the MIT President's Citation Award for his research, design, and strategy work for the MIT Enterprise Forum. Peter's current research explores the design of human+computer systems, immersive experiences, and the application of participatory design methodology to media making. He holds a doctoral degree in Technology in Practice (Communication and Culture), an MFA in Documentary Media from Ryerson University, and a Bachelor of Design from OCAD University.

David Tames is a media maker working in traditional and immersive media forms. His creative practice focuses on media co-creation and immersive media production. David recently completed an MIT Open Documentary Lab Fellowship, conducting research for this book. He is a teaching professor in the Department of Art + Design at Northeastern University with a joint appointment in communication studies. He teaches extended realities, video, documentary, and narrative filmmaking courses. David is on the board of directors of Filmmaker's Collaborative (supporting media makers through fiscal sponsorship and educational services) and serves on the advisory board of MedVR (a community of medical XR innovators exploring immersive technologies in healthcare and life sciences). David has produced award-winning short films and recently co-directed and co-produced Reality's Fugue: Genesis, a virtual reality experience that provides a new take on the Genesis origin story to suggest how we create a shared world. He holds an MFA from the Dynamic Media Institute at MassArt and an MS in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab.