Immersive Arts UK @ Foyle Film FestivalImmersive Arts UK @ Foyle Film Festival
Nerve Centre, 7-8 Magazine Street, Derry~Londonderry
Welcome to Immersive Arts UK @ Foyle Film Festival...
How do audiences step inside a story? And what happens to storytelling when they do?
Spend a day with some of the most exciting immersive work being made across Ireland and the UK today. You can try funded immersive pieces for yourself, meet the artists who made them and hear from the producers and filmmakers redrawing the line between screen and audience.
Then it's into the cinema for the finale: director Chee Keong Cheung in conversation and a big-screen screening of his first-person action feature Bad Day at the Office (15).
This day is for anyone curious about where screen storytelling is going: filmmakers, artists, students and creatives. It's also for anyone thinking about how immersive approaches could open up their own practice. Experience isn't needed, just curiosity.
Welcome
11am
Kick off the day with Nerve Centre's Immersive Arts Producer, Nicola Roleston who'll introduce the artists and projects you'll meet. Find out how you could get your own immersive idea funded.
The Future Of Audiences In Immersive Storytelling
11.15am
What happens when the audience stops watching and starts taking part? Three leading voices in immersive work from across Ireland and the UK talk about how audiences explore and react to immersive art, and how that changes what artists make. Expect honest insight into where technology and storytelling meet, and what it takes to build an experience people want to step into.
With Deepa Mann-Kler (Producer, The Baby Factory Is Closed), Camille Donegan (CEO, Eirmersive) and Chee Keong Cheung (Producer/Director, Bad Day at the Office).
Meet Deepa, Camille & Chee Keong
Deepa Mann-Kler
Deepa Mann-Kler is CEO of NEON, Director of Belfast XR Festival, XR Lead at the Atlantic Institute, Visiting Professor of Immersive Futures at Ulster University, and Executive Producer for Virtual Production at Aura Studios. An artist and member of BAFTA Connect, Deepa’s work sits at the intersection of immersive technology, creativity and innovation.
NEON harnesses the power of immersive technologies to create authentic, meaningful experiences and has received multiple awards. A TEDx speaker and recognised thought leader, Deepa regularly delivers keynotes exploring digital transformation, technical innovation, inclusion, ethics, bias, data and AI.
Camille Donegan
With a background in VR production, theatre and technology, Camille is a natural connector and creator of communities. Within her role as CEO of Eirmersive, she fosters strategic partnerships within the Immersive Technology sector to elevate the Irish ecosystem both nationally and internationally. Her industry acumen, passion for the sector, and hands-on approach to collaboration make her a key player in positioning Eirmersive as the go-to body for industry, academic and government stakeholders.
Chee Keong Cheung
Chee Keong Cheung is a British-Chinese writer, director and producer and founder of Action Xtreme, the UK's first action-focused film studio. Inspired by John Woo and Hong Kong's "Heroic Bloodshed" era, he began out of his family's Chinese restaurant. He was then mentored by former 20th Century Fox VP Tim Hampton and has built a 20-plus-year career in genre-driven action filmmaking. His credits include Redcon-1 (2018), Bodyguard: A New Beginning (Grindstone/Lionsgate), the Nigerian Netflix hit Son of the Soil, and Every Last One of Them starring Richard Dreyfuss (Saban/Paramount+). Bad Day at the Office, shot entirely from a first-person perspective, is his most technically ambitious project to date.
Live Immersive Showcase
11.30am–2.30pm
Step inside. Explore a selection of bold new immersive works funded through the Immersive Arts programme, moving between experiences at your own pace, before or after the panel. The artists will be on hand, so you can hear first-hand how each piece came to life.
The Baby Factory Is Closed, Deepa Mann-Kler
Echoes of Remembrance, Glenda Rolston
MyPace, Domnall Starkie
Memory Fractal, Katya Solomatina
The Baby Factory is Closed, — Deepa Mann-Kler
The Baby Factory is Closed is a 20-minute, single-player VR experience that places you inside the body of Zoraan, a British-born Sikh woman navigating menopause in the context of climate collapse and the legacies of colonial medicine.
Echoes of Remembrance — Glenda Rolston
Echoes of Remembrance is an immersive artwork exploring memory, dementia and the fragile relationship between remembering and forgetting. Drawing on childhood photographs, domestic spaces and familiar family rituals, the work creates a shifting world in which memories gradually fragment, change and disappear. Through drawing, animation, virtual reality, spatial sound and tactile materials, audiences enter a familiar but increasingly unstable domestic environment.
Glenda Rolston is a visual artist, arts festival producer and community arts practitioner based in Northern Ireland. Her practice explores memory, place, identity and human connection through drawing, mixed media and immersive technologies.
MyPace — Domnall Starkie
MyPace is an Immersive Arts UK Explore funded project focused on sensory‑led stimuli designed to support grounding, cognitive ease and emotional regulation. It brings together gentle light, vibration, sound, scent, shape and tactile elements, alongside biomorphic paper‑clay seating, vibroacoustic chairs and bone‑conduction headpieces made from natural, non‑toxic and upcycled materials.
Domnall Starkie is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Derry. Starting out in graphic design and illustration, he expanded into fine art, fashion and interiors before turning his focus to sustainable, non‑toxic, natural materials. His work explores how immersive, sensory‑led design using light, sound, vibration and organic textures can support calm, grounding and wellbeing.
Katya Solomatina — Memory Fractal
Memory Fractal is an interactive mixed-reality experience exploring the personal objects, stories and memories that connect us. Blending digital storytelling with community contributions, it invites visitors to discover the meaning behind everyday objects, explore shared experiences and reflect on the memories that shape who we are. A creative exploration of personal history and collective identity, the experience reveals how individual stories can bring people together.
Katya Solomatina is a Belfast-based artist creating participatory Mixed Reality experiences that bring generations together. Her work explores how shared imaginative worlds can foster connection, reflection and new perspectives, with communities shaping the creative process. Her work has been presented at MAC Belfast, Culture Night Belfast, Heritage Open Days and Future Screens XR Days, with commissions from Arts Council Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council.
Lunch & Networking
12.30pm–2.30pm
Grab some lunch and get talking. Mix with artists, panellists, students and industry guests while the showcase carries on around you.
This is your chance to try another experience, swap ideas and make the connections that spark your next project.
Director Talk: Chee Keong Cheung
2.30pm
Go behind the lens with Chee Keong Cheung as he reveals how Bad Day at the Office was made. He'll cover the daring first-person, in-camera approach and the creative risks that shaped it.
Bad Day At The Office
3pm
Chee Keong Cheung | UK | 2026 | 111 mins | 15
What happens when the camera stops watching the action and starts living it? Chee Keong Cheung screens Bad Day at the Office, shot entirely from a first-person perspective.
Rather than simulate the point of view with visual effects, Cheung built the whole production around bespoke GoPro helmet rigs worn by cast and stunt performers, turning the language of the first-person shooter into a fully physical, in-camera discipline. Parkour, car work and hand-to-hand combat are all captured from inside the action, with no digital fallback.
Described by Hong Kong Cinemagic as "one of the most skilled, technically capable young independent action-film directors working in the UK today," Chee Keong Cheung is in conversation after the screening to talk about the risks, rigs and craft behind the film.
About Immersive Arts
Immersive Arts is an ambitious three-year programme taking place across the UK, using an artist-led approach to working with immersive technologies. Immersive Arts is run by a collaborative consortium of ten partners who are deeply embedded within the UK’s immersive arts and research communities and committed to creating positive change in the sector.
The programme’s lead hub is Pervasive Media Studio. UWE Bristol are the academic lead and Watershed are the Executive Producers, working in close partnership with University of Bristol and cultural organisations in Belfast and Derry (Nerve Centre), Cardiff (Wales Millennium Centre) and Glasgow (Cryptic). Our training and events programme is being led by Crossover Labs, alongside strategic support from Unlimited, Innovate UK Immersive Tech Network and XR Diversity Initiative and an international Advisory Board.
Funding for Immersive Arts is provided through a collaboration between the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England (ACE), the Arts Council of Wales (ACW), Creative Scotland and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI). Funding from Creative Scotland, ACW and ACNI is provided by The National Lottery.
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