Situated within the Woodward Instructional Resources Centre, a familiar Theatre and Film space is entering a new chapter. Formerly dedicated to sound capture and experimental lighting and projection, the Super-Secret Transmedia Spatial Storytelling Laboratory (SHH Lab) has been reimagined as a dynamic research hub that will be buzzing with activity in 2026. The lab builds on a long history of experimentation within the department. In 2021, research activity in the space expanded through a collaboration with UBC Studios, resulting in the construction of an automated, 3D-printed mechanism capable of controlling the focus of a hypersonic speaker, directing sound on a laser, similar to a spotlight. That work culminated in an installation at the Vancouver Art Gallery as part of The Imitation Game: Visual Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (March–October 2022).
The lab, under the direction of Dr. Patrick Parra Pennefather, is poised to operate for three to five years as an integrated research ecosystem, moving fluidly between research creation (co-creation of immersive digital experiences) and the investigation of phenomena (measuring audience responses) to research creations.
Lab activities will include:
Spatial Audio & Acoustics: Using ambisonic microphones, spatially distributed speakers, and Holosonic speakers, creations will combine captured natural and human made sounds. These works will explore how sound influences memory, respiratory rate, galvanized skin responses, and other biometrics.
Ethical Voice Portal: A team of Theatre and Film faculty, recorded actors, Computer Science and Law students will participate in the optimization and refinement of an existing open-source text-speech machine learning model. The portal is intended to provide actors with ownership and sovereignty of their voice and how it is used with features such as permission-based access, a public portal, and voice generation that offers emotional and character complexity.
Motion Capture (Mocap): By recording the nuances of human movement the lab will create digital avatars and interactive characters to be integrated into episodic 3D transmedia stories.
360° Video & Volumetric Capture: Using mixed reality headsets like the Oculus Quest 3 and the Apple Vision Pro, researchers will create virtual cinematic experiences that surround the viewer entirely.
Investigation of Phenomena: Sensor-Based Capture: Another focus of the SHH lab lies in its capacity to investigate how audiences respond to mediated virtual experiences. By exposing participants to spatial audio and video environments, the lab will generate a comprehensive dataset of human responses capturing both biometric and non-biometric responses to narrative events. These findings will directly inform future iterations of the lab’s creative research.
About Patrick Parra Pennefather
An award-winning sound designer, Patrick leverages technology to create unique, human-centered stories. As the director of the SHH Lab, his research focuses on the co-construction of narratives across different media for people to explore. He has authored two books on AI—one on creative prototyping and another on how AI is transforming workplace learning. He publishes regularly on the phenomena associated with the human experiences of immersive technologies in technology, medicine and education. His third book focuses on the ethical advantage of maintaining the Human-in-the-Loop within AI ecosystems and machine learning development. Pennefather’s research activities in the lab can be accessed here.
For more information about the SHH Lab, please contact Dr. Patrick Parra Pennefather.
