Shehani Fernando is the founder of Indigo Storm. She specializes in cutting-edge documentary and arts storytelling. Previously, she spent many years at The Guardian, where she led the Audio department, directed acclaimed VR experiences, and was a pioneer in video journalism. Her work has been showcased at major international festivals, including IDFA, SXSW, and the Venice Film Festival. As a champion of immersive storytelling, she also produced and hosted the StoryFutures Academy podcast.

ASSOCIATES

Francesca Panetta

Francesca Panetta is Director of UAL’s AKO Storytelling Institute and an Emmy award-winning artist. Working at the intersection of artistic practice and social change, the Institute aims to develop the discipline of storytelling-for-change. She led the Guardian's vanguard storytelling initiatives for over a decade including podcasting, immersive features and virtual reality. Her work has been shown in museums and film festivals around the world, as well as venues such as the White House and European Commission

Halsey Burgund

Halsey Burgund is a new media artist and Emmy-winning interactive director whose work focuses on the combination of modern technologies - from mobile phones to artificial intelligence - with fundamentally human “technologies”, primarily language, music and the spoken voice. He is the creator of Roundware, the open-source contributory audio AR platform. Halsey’s recent work has focused on the societal challenges posed by artificial intelligence, in particular synthetic media and generative AI. Halsey was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow, a Research Affiliate at the MIT Media Lab and is currently Creative Technologist in Residence at the MIT Open Documentary Lab and an affiliate in Harvard's metaLAB.