People

Shauna Janssen (PhD) is Associate Professor in Performance Creation and Interdisciplinary Practices in the Department of Theatre, Faculty of Fine Arts, at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. She is also studio director of Immersive Arts & Storytelling at Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture & Technology. Shauna’s current research-creation work engages with the dramaturgy of XR technologies and their activist potentials in crafting place-based/ site-specific art works. 

Internationally, she has given workshops and presentations about her research and urban curatorial work, as well as participated in various interdisciplinary and research-creation activities, events, curatorial and artist residencies hosted by institutions such as the Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik, and Agora, Berlin (2015); the School of Art, Design and Architecture Creative Exchange Institute, University of Tasmania, Australia (2016); the Department of Spatial Design at Massey University, New Zealand (2017); the XX Architecture and Urbanism Biennial, Chile (2017); Performance Design at Roskilde University, Denmark (2018); Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design & Space (Czech Republic, 2019); The School of Performance Design and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds, UK (2021, 2023); the DesignLab, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago de Chile (2023), University of the Arts Zurich (2023), and Humboldt Berlin, Matters of Activity (2023).

Her writing on site-specific art, contemporary scenographic practices, art and public space, performance pedagogy, performative and intermedial practices have been published as book chapters, essays, and in artist monographs, with the Journal of Theatre & Performance Design, FIELD: a journal of socially-engaged art criticism, the Journal of Artistic Research (JAR), Routledge, and Bloomsbury. Her research is funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council, the Fonds de recherché Québec – Société et Culture (FRQ-SC), and the Office of the Vice President Research and Graduate Studies, Concordia University.

JoDee Allen’s art practice ranges from dance-on-stage to dance-on-screen. Her roots begin in biomechanics and choreographic practice in breakdance and contemporary performance/fusion, and span to using visual and interactive mediums as a lens through which to interrogate the body in motion.

Her choreographic work has toured Canada and Europe and she has been a movement designer for the production of dance-inspired video games and research. In 2021, JoDee collaborated with choreographer Katie Ward to design a hybrid show—live streaming/live performance with large-scale projections for which she remixed the visuals in real-time. And, in 2023, she produced and was lead-designer for a game-like participatory performance called The Other Market (Montreal), soon to be remounted in London, UK.

JoDee is a PhD Candidate in the Humanities research/creation program at Concordia University. Her doctoral research is entitled: Choreographic Echos: Animation, Archives and Female Movement in Videogames.

Marco Luna is a Peruvian documentary filmmaker, educator, and immersive media researcher focused on cinema as a tool for social change. Holding an MFA in Studio Arts – Film Production from Concordia University, he specializes in documentary filmmaking, virtual reality (VR), and interactive storytelling. His work emphasizes co-creation, social engagement, and emerging technologies.

As a part-time faculty member at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Marco teaches courses in film montage, filmmaking, and interactive VR cinema, encouraging students to integrate new media into their storytelling. He is also a technologist at the Milieux Immersive Storytelling Studio, where he mentors students and artists in VR/AR projects, helping them experiment with immersive narratives.

Previously, Marco was a research associate at the Concordia Research Chair in Interactive Documentary Filmmaking, contributing to the development of interactive documentary methods. He is currently involved in the TESL VR project at the Lab for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (LITL), where he explores the use of Cinematic VR for second-language education. Through his research and mentorship, he continues to push the boundaries of immersive media, exploring its role in education, storytelling, and social impact.