Image credit:  If [Dir. Dee Harvey]

Female-identifying and non-binary people still lack representation both in front of and behind the screen. Why do we still find it so difficult to discuss feminine health, and how can immersive technologies shine a light on some of these issues?

On 17 March, we were joined by Dominnique Karetsos (CEO & co-founder of Healthy Pleasure Collective and Founder of the Intimology Institute), Dr Camille Baker (Interdisciplinary Artist, Curator and Researcher at the University for the Arts), Dee Harvey (immersive writer/director and founder of Controvert) and Sarah Ticho (Hatsumi VR) for our XR & Femtech webinar.

Watch the webinar recording

This webinar explores:

• Untold female stories that are being told through XR;
• The potential of XR and haptics to educate people on the inner world of middle-aged women’s bodies and the reproductive diseases;
• The barriers in developing female-centred content – from issues around investment through to ethical considerations when telling painful and intimate stories.
• Issues around representation, in response to the Vision for Women and Virtual Reality Report’s findings, including how only 14% of immersive tech companies in the UK are directed by women.

Related resources

Speakers’ projects

IF, directed by Dee Harvey,  a VR feature film about Infertility made in 180VR and drawn from factual testimony of those who have been through or still going through their infertility journey. Visit the IF website

Camille Baker Creates Wearables that Enhance Communication – Brought to you by Hyundai

Articles

• VR Scout – Why Yes Virigina, There Have Always Been Women in VR by Jacki Morie
• Women of VR – 35 Ladies Who Are Killing It In Virtual Reality
• Women Push the Envelope in Virtual Reality
• UK Women in Virtual Reality Launched
• New Sex Helmet Promises VR intimacy

Presentations

• VR: Not Just a Boy’s Game by Maria Korolov, Founder of Women in VR

Artists and Companies

• SxTech
• Women of Sex Tech
• Raspberry Dream Labs
• Guila Tomasello
• XR Diversity Initiative
• Women in VR

Books

• Future Presence: How Virtual Reality Is Changing Human Connection, Intimacy, and the Limits of Ordinary Life by Peter Rubin
• Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

Podcasts

• Voices of VR Podcast #72: Jacquelyn Ford Morie on the history of VR, emotional experience mapping, military simulations, NASA isolation training, scent collar for VR, & creating the Holodeck

Funds and Accelerators

• Women in XR Fund

Presented as part of

Spring Forward is a Brighton-based, month-long celebration of the role of women in digital culture and runs throughout March in parallel with Women’s History Month.