21 Feb 2/25/25 Verity McIntosh & Catherine Allen
In conversation (online) with:
Verity McIntosh & Catherine Allen
Tuesday | February 25, 2025 | 12PM – 1:30PM ET
We’re All in This Together: Safety, Policy and the Translation of Human Rights into Multi-Person Virtual Environments
As immersive technologies and spatial computing paradigms move into the mainstream, public and political interest in the ‘metaverse’ is growing.
For many, virtual spaces offer an exciting view of the future, one in which we, as a global community, can come together, embodied as avatars in navigable 3D environments to share ideas and opportunities with one another. To collaborate and create together. Building kinship regardless of where we are in the physical world. And all without burning a milligram of jet fuel.
By contrast, early instances of “proto-metaverse” spaces have been plagued by reports of harassment and abuse. Concerns about data, privacy and surveillance remain largely unaddressed by policymakers as tech companies compete to find a ‘viable’ business model. For policymakers and regulators tentatively approach this domain, it can be extremely tricky to establish the extent to which existing laws, freedoms, rights and protections that have been configured for physical or online encounters, can now be translated into unfamiliar virtual environments.
Verity McIntosh, Associate Professor at University of the West of England and Catherine Allen CEO of Limina Immersive will share some of the work they have been doing with companies, charities and governments around the world to consider what is needed now if we are going to live well together as empowered citizens in both physical and digital immersive spaces.
Bios:
Verity McIntosh is Director and Principal Investigator of Immersive Arts, a $7.5m programme of research, training, funding and events designed to support over 200 artists in the UK to engage with immersive technologies.
She is Associate Professor of Virtual and Extended Realities at the University of the West of England, where she founded one of Europe’s first dedicated masters programs championing XR as a creative medium. Her research includes inclusive and accessible experience design, XR ethics, and the application of human rights in social, virtual environments.
Catherine Allen is CEO and lead consultant at Limina Immersive. Catherine Allen is most well known as a UK leading expert in immersive technology – expanding the audience and creator base of the medium whilst advising on responsible use of this emerging technology. Her work has played a significant role in informing policy – with a current focus on helping shape VR and AR’s inclusion in the UK’s Online Safety Bill. This work has been recognised through an honorary doctorate from the University of Warwick.
Catherine’s approach is innovative yet heavily audience-centric and down to earth. After working on the BAFTA-winning iPad app Disney Animated, Catherine led the creation of two of the BBC’s first virtual reality experiences in 2015 – 2016. Finding VR an incredible artistic medium, but with a frustratingly narrow audience, she founded Limina Immersive in late 2016; a VR events and research company dedicated to bringing immersive tech to broader audiences. Limina ran cultural VR events across the world to a total of over 15,000 audience members. Catherine has continuously shared findings about audience needs back with universities and the sector in the form of reports, consultancy, seminars and workshops. She has authored several seminal public reports that have influenced policy, for instance the Immersive Content Formats for Future Audiences report, for Innovate UK and Digital Catapult. Her public engagement work includes expert op-eds, comment and analysis on immersive tech to outlets including Radio 4’s Today programme, The Sunday Times, Bloomberg, British Vogue, Wired Magazine and The Guardian.