Erica Wellman, Kaitlin Urlando, Ashley Thong, Hyun Ju (Joo) Park
https://youtu.be/vopdcG0-Bos

video, bios, etc

metaAccess, is an audio-visual composition representing a speculative future centered around a digitally inclusive and accessible metaverse. Isolation is a ubiquitous issue in today’s society, heightened in recent years due to COVID-19. Since the metaverse is an increasingly popularized notion already implemented in the entertainment industry, our project aims to artistically imagine a digital world that highlights the topic of isolation and digital accessibility. This is because in a modern world that values rapid technological innovation, it is more often the case that those in control are designing these systems to best serve the typical, able-bodied user. As a result, many communities with diverse needs are left feeling isolated and disconnected from new digital platforms. It is only by creating a ‘multimodal metaverse’ designed for a range of different users that we can truly form an inclusive digital community

Erica Wellman
Erica Wellman (Art IG @eriwell) is a Japanese Canadian 2nd-year student, majoring in Digital Media Arts. She is interested in almost anything that involves creating and has many hobbies, such as DIY, flower pressing, Illustration, music videos, web design, animations, and much more. Erica also loves to add new ideas and details to her course projects even after the deadline has passed, to gain new skills and knowledge for making a more interesting and stronger project in the future. Right now, she is working on character designs and illustrations for a game made by her friends and is also making her own projects to find her strengths and weaknesses as a step in finding her goals for the future.

Kaitlin Urlando
Kaitlin Urlando is a second year student going into the Digital Media Arts stream. She has always had a passion for drawing and painting ever since her childhood, so much so that she gained the reputation from her peers as “the go-to art kid for school projects”. Growing up, she learned how to adapt her traditional skills to more contemporary media, as she has worked with animation, web design, and digital art and continues to do so in her university years. She plans to become a graphic designer in the future and, with a few years of work experience, she hopes to one day become an art director.

Ashley Thong
Ashley Thong is a second year digital media student studying game art. Her goal is to one day make art for an official published video game. Games have always been a huge part in her life and she continues to learn more about them everyday. Art comes naturally to her, anything art related she will show nothing disappointing. Creativity is a strong suit of hers, creative ideas always flow through her mind and strives to express them in unique ways. With her love for games, artistic skills and creative mind, she hopes she can show what she can do in the coming years.

Hyun Ju (Joo) Park
Joo Park (she/her) is a Korean-Canadian digital media arts student with an interest in interaction design, media art, and mixed reality. She also enjoys exploring the intersections between art and traditional sciences (e.g., neuroscience) and continues an on-going pursuit to visualize and manipulate these themes into her creative projects. Like many of her peers in digital media, creative expression has always played an intrinsic role in her life and personal development. She hopes to grow with the digital media program and create future projects that address her own present thoughts and questions on meaning, identity, flow, and change

For inquiries regarding this initiative, please contact:

Mark-David Hosale, Ph.D.  – mdhosale@yorku.ca
Associate Professor and Chair, Computational Arts
Digital Media Program
School of Art, Media, Performance and Design
York University, Toronto

4700 Keele Street .:. 228 Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts .:. Toronto ON, M3J 1P3 Canada
http://computationalarts.ampd.yorku.ca/