Dr. Patrick Parra Pennefather, Assistant Professor at UBC Theatre and Film and shared with the Master of Digital Media Program (Co-owned by UBC, SFU, BCIT and ECUAD).

Patrick is passionate about bridging disciplines of practice and thrives in collaborative projects. He is a designer of interactive experiences working as a sound designer, designer of learning and producer of scalable virtual and augmented reality prototypes.

Teaching sound design and collaboration at UBC Theatre and Film, he draws from his work as an award-winning sound designer and composer for live and virtual spaces having worked on over 250 productions in Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He is co-appointed with the Master of Digital Media Program where, for the past ten years, he has developed a successful improvisation course for digital media collaborators as well as mentoring teams co-constructing scalable digital prototypes with over 50 companies and organizations (Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, Blackbird, Finger Foods, Kabam and more).

Research and scholarly activities are centered within the investigation of mixed reality environments including spatial audio research creations; hybrid performances in theatre and dance; and collaborative user experiences across devices and disciplinary boundaries. Research-driven projects have included public VR projects for good; iPad/mobile VR projects for older adults as a development partner with Agewell NCE; public-facing mixed reality projects with Small Stage, Realwheels Theatre and others. He presents and publishes regularly about Mixed Reality development in the area of improving public exposure of technological experiences to the general public. Most recently he has presented at SIGGRAPH 2020 and i4 2020. He regularly consults with arts organizations such as Small Stage, the Arts Club and Bard on the Beach.

Through his work with UBC’s Emerging Media Lab, Patrick has mentored students and collaborated with faculty on numerous projects from Medicine, Engineering, Geography, and Music. Persistent UBC collaborators include Steven Barnes from the Department of Psychology, Dr. Claudia Krebs from the Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences and as a member of her HIVE lab, Lindsay Rogers from BioChemistry, Jon Festinger Faculty of Law and Kathryn Gretsinger from the Graduate School of Journalism.

Website: http://patrickpennefather.com/

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/ppennefather

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickpennefather/