Lora’s latest publications explore the transformative potential of immersive experiences, creative technologies (XR/AR/VR) and modalities of applied convergence across creative industries sectors (screen, performance, and heritage).
Profile
Lora has designed and delivers ICF’s module Immersive Experiences and Creative Technologies and leads the module Creative Industries: Contexts and Practices. She also delivers research-led lectures for ICF’s modules Digital Heritage, Museums and Cultural Industries, Design Futures, and Design Ecologies. Lora supervises dissertations in Immersive & Transmedia Storytelling, Digital Cultural Heritage, Moving Image, Immersive Experiences & Live Events.
Lora joined Loughborough University as a Research Associate at the AHRC-funded Creative Research and Innovation Centre (CRAIC) where she conducted research projects on Creative R&D and immersive storytelling.
Previously, Lora worked as a visiting lecturer in Cultural & Media Studies at Georg-August University of Goettingen, Germany and a Postdoc Researcher in Media & Film at Edge Hill University, where she authored research outputs for the REF 2021 Impact Case Study “Uncovering the Artistic Work of the British-born/Mexican Surrealist, Leonora Carrington."
Her professional background involves research positions at the former Netherlands Media Art Institute – NIMk (Amsterdam), the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage – ICN (Amsterdam), Greenpeace International (Amsterdam), and the European Commission (Brussels); plus, she has been serving as an evaluation expert for HORIZON and Creative Europe programmes.
Academic background
- PhD (Cum Laude) – University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain with research mobilities at the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE) – Goldsmiths University of London, the Department of Film & Creative Writing – University of Birmingham and the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of Aveiro, Portugal
- MA Euroculture – Georg-August University of Goettingen, Germany and Pune University, India with ALBA prize for the best MA thesis of the Erasmus Mundus Euroculture Consortium
- MA Arts & Heritage: Policy, Management and Education (Cum Laude) – Maastricht University, the Netherlands
- MA Media Culture – Maastricht University, the Netherlands with HSP Huygens Grant for Excellence by NUFFIC and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
- BA Animation & Visual Arts – New Bulgarian University (NBU), Sofia with a Socrates Erasmus semester in Visual Semiotics at Turin University, Italy
Research
Current research and collaborations
Lora’s research explores the transformative potential of immersive experiences and modalities of applied convergence across creative industries sectors (screen, performance, heritage). Lora joined Loughborough University as a Research Associate at the Creative Research and Innovation Centre (CRAIC), where she conducted research projects on creative R&D and creative technologies (XR/AR/VR) such as Immersive Experiences for Inclusive Innovation – StoryTrails by StoryFutures and UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK; as well as the digital preservation project and collaborative workshops Collecting and Archiving Immersive Experiences in partnership with UKRI and the V&A Research Institute (VARI).
Building upon her background in cross-cultural communication and media arts, Lora is specifically interested in the interconnection between immersive aesthetic experiences, virtual empathy, and inclusive interaction.
Research expertise
- Immersive experiences and media arts
- Creative technologies (XR/AR/VR) in screen, heritage and performance
- Creative Industries R&D
- Co-creativity as a tool for cross-cultural dialogue
- Socially engaged art and migration
Interests and activities
As a visual artist, Lora has presented abstract animations and moving image within the official selections of LOOP: Video Art Fair – Barcelona, Not Still Art Festival – New York, Glitch – Montreal, Miami International Short Film Festival, Rome Independent Film Festival, Cartoon Club – Rimini, among others.
Lora enjoys developing impact activities, curating and delivering public events and talks, such as:
- LUL JOINT Fund 2023/24 – Critical and Creative AI
- LUL JOINT Fund 2022/23 – Design Fiction for Creative Innovation
- BEYOND 2022 panel – “Immersive Technology for Civic Storytelling”
- In Conversation with Tate Liverpool curators on “Keith Haring’s Art and Activism” – Festival of Ideas 2019, Institute of Creative Enterprise (ICE)
- “Symbolic Resistance and Art as a Refuge” (video lecture, 20 min) – Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange “EUROPEAN REFUGE/ES” – Sharing Perspectives Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Lora is a member of:
- ENCATC – The European Network on Cultural Management and Policy
- IAA/AIAP – International Association of Art – UNESCO
- INCCA – International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art
- ISSS – International Society for the Study of Surrealism
- WIFHI – Women and Film History International
- UBA – Union of Bulgarian Artists