Narrative XR LAB 2025
Narrative XR Lab 2025 brought together artists, technologists, designers, developers, and producers from film, theatre, gaming, art, product design, mobility, and education in an experimental environment.
Over the course of two months, participants took part in workshops with industry leaders, exploring how extended reality (XR), artificial intelligence, and interactive media can transform the way stories are told and experienced.
The lab culminated in interdisciplinary group work, where teams developed XR concepts and prototypes by applying the methods and insights gained throughout the program.
The lab was an arena for collaboration, learning and exchange. Each session combined inspiration from international experts with hands-on prototyping and group reflection. Participants developed ideas, built prototypes, tested methods, and most importantly, formed long-lasting creative connections.
The 2025 edition of Narrative XR Lab unfolded through a series of curated sessions:
- Lectures & keynotes: Participants met researchers, artists and industry professionals. Topics included immersive narratives in the age of AI, designing for the metaverse, and the role of XR installations in shaping collective experiences.
- Workshops & labs: From generative AI for artistic exploration with Tor Palm (HighFive), to 360° prototyping with AI-driven visuals, to practical WebXR experiments and VR storytelling exercises.
- Hands-on teamwork: Groups collaborated to turn concepts into prototypes, blending digital and physical tools to explore new forms of narrative.
- Field trip: The entire cohort travelled together to CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, gaining inspiration from leading international immersive work.
Guest speakers included Tor Palm (Highfive), Erik Einebrant (RISE Interactive), Mark Atkins (CPH:Lab & Crossover Labs,) Ismaila Jallow (Kinema Lab, XR Sweden, Visual Arena), Tora Strid (metaverse & digital environments, Visual Arena), Martin Högenberg (human-centered experience design, Visual Arena), and many more who challenged the participants to rethink storytelling beyond traditional formats.
Results & insights
The Narrative XR Lab participants, Emma Stüffe och Anna Maria Joakimsdottir-Hutri was selected for 2026's CPH:DOX Interactive
"Participating in the Narrative XR Lab 2025 has truly been a game changer for me as an artist and storyteller. The lab gave me the opportunity to connect with inspiring people and deepen my understanding of human behavior, especially in the context of our increasingly digital lives.
The collaboration with Anna Maria on the RAN project during the summer in Copenhagen is one of the outcomes I'm most proud of. It feels like the lab not only gave me new knowledge but also led me to create meaningful partnerships."
– says Emma Stüffe, Narrative XR Lab participant 2025
"To be part of a community of people interested in XR meant that ideas didn’t fall into a void, there were listeners, conversations, and a sense of a stage where different perspectives could resonate.
The lab offered a sense of belonging to a wider field where curiosity and innovation were encouraged.
Looking back, what surprised me most was how energising the informal encounters were, small conversations, generous listening, and the shared experience of visiting CPH:DOX together. Today, I am proud that RAN has been selected to participate in CPH:LAB 2025–2026, where it will continue to grow and take form."
– Anna Maria Joakimsdottir-Hutri, Narrative XR Lab participant 2025.
Results & insights
Narrative XR Lab 2025 delivered both concrete outputs and long-term impact:
- 2 new XR prototypes were developed.
- 2 additional concepts were formulated and pitched.
- Knowledge and skills around XR and immersive storytelling increased significantly across the group.
- A community was formed that now continues as XR i GBG/VGR on Discord – a digital hub for ongoing collaboration and exchange.
- Participants have moved forward with new projects, funding applications and collaborations inspired by their lab experience.
Examples of
XR experiences and prototypes that were developed during Narrative XR Lab 2025
The Overview Effect: Impressions of a Drifting Body
This short VR film draws inspiration from the real asteroid YR4 2024, which in January 2025 was reported to pose a significant risk of colliding with Earth by the year 2032.
While speculative in nature, the work is rooted in real news coverage and factual data drawn from NASA’s publicly available resources. The narration is informed by scientific findings and recounts the reflections of an actual space traveller, who describes experiencing what is known as the overview effect – a profound shift in awareness reported by many astronauts when seeing Earth from space, suspended like a fragile blue marble in the void.
The Overview Effect: Impressions of a Drifting Body simulates this cognitive and emotional phenomenon through a posthuman lens. The creators have built a prototype in Unity, a cross-platform game engine, harmonising visuals, sound, and narration to evoke a multisensory response. An original score was composed to shape the film’s affective rhythm and deepen the immersive experience.
Production Team
3D & Technical Direction: Jonathan Dewoon
Script & Narration: Kerstin Hamilton
Sound & Programming: Susanne Hansson
Trailer: Chanson Audio
Developed in 2025 as part of the Narrative XR Lab at Visual Arena, Gothenburg.
24 Hours in the Life of a Screen
This clipping from a pitch presented at Visual Arena on May 09th draws on Nathalie S. Fari’s postdoctoral research, exploring an embodied and media-critical approach to screen performance in public spaces. Central to this is the concept of screen spaces – urban environments shaped by the density, convergence and materiality of various screens – and how these spaces can be used to engage with screens as both sites and tools for navigation, mediation and representation.
Within the XR-Narrative Lab, Group nr 5's members Malin Zaki, Nathalie S. Fari, Otto Olsson Båth and Vangelis Kollias explored a specific screen space in Gothenburg. Located at the “Valand” tram station, this space is characterised by intriguing screen activity, from the flow of mobile devices in transit to projection screens showing late-night football and hockey games and a striking media façade. Unlike usual media façades, which are placed on top of buildings, this one is at eye level on the back of John Scott’s sports bar and impossible to miss. For many passers-by, however, it is mostly perceived as a source of light or an echo of their own social media feeds.
To offer an alternative viewpoint, the group came up with ideas on how the sensory and experiential aspects of this media façade – its content, ambience and character – could be used to develop new audiovisual formats, particularly when enhanced by AI tools and experimental storytelling techniques.
About
Narrative XR Lab is an initiative designed to explore and push the boundaries of artistic storytelling in extended reality (XR). At its core, the lab brings together creators, producers, developers, and futurists from various backgrounds to collaborate on innovative projects that fuse narrative with immersive technology.
In this interdisciplinary environment, participants work together to develop XR ideas. With access to expert guidance, technology, and equipment, teams learn the art and craft of XR storytelling. The lab offers hands-on experience in 360-degree video, VR production, and interactive media, paired with insightful lectures, seminars, and workshops.
Throughout the project, teams create XR concepts, building not only the creative foundation but also working on practical aspects like budgeting and financing strategies.
The next Narrative XR Lab application round will open in the fall of 2025.
Sign up for your XR newsletter to receive information about the next application.
Past participants about the Narrative XR Lab
"Very insightful starting point when it comes to VR and Extended Reality (XR) experiences. Also a great place to meet different people, artists and programmers and to challenge each other's approaches, practices and notions."
Careen Koleilat
Narrative XR Lab 2025 participant
Occupation: Filmmaker & Researcher
"It's been an experience that has taught me even more about how vast technology is and has felt really valuable but also highlighted how important it is to collaborate."
Kerstin Hamilton
Narrative XR Lab participant 2025
Occupation: Postdoctor in Photography
Is Narrative XR Lab needed?
"Yes. More and longer. I am incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to go and that it exists. There is such a high level of course participants and lecturers. I would have liked it to be for a longer period of time when everyone is a professional who goes. It is fantastic that it is multi-faceted and that it is in English. I got to meet many interesting people that I would never have met otherwise."
– Andrea Östlund, Swedish film director and screenwriter
"A joyful and fulfilling experience."
"I really appreciated the group work and am sure that we created valuable connections that will stay."
"I liked to be able to meet new people and also be able to imagine my practice within a new field. The lab was inspiring."
"It’s been great to be a part of the lab. The presentations and the talks were awesome - they gave me a clearer idea of how to proceed and create a projects of my own which is the reason I applied to the lab. Just being in that space was helpful even though I had to commute quite a lot and feel like being in the XR field is really my thing. I enjoyed networking and meeting other people interested in the same things."
2025's edition of Narrative XR Lab was run by Visual Arena in collaboration with the partners: University of Skövde (@playlabskovde) and Gothenburg Film Studios. The project qasmade possible by the financiers: the City of Gothenburg and the Västra Götaland region.
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Gorki Glaser-Müller
Martin Högenberg
Narrative XR LAB 2025
From Narrative XR Lab to Venedig Film Festival 2023
Andrea Östlund explores Extended Reality (XR): "new thoughts about what storytelling is"
Från Narrative XR Lab till Venedig Film Festival 2023
