Prof. Dr.-Ing. Johann Habakuk Israel (Scientific Supervisor)
Johann Habakuk Israel is Professor of Applied Computer Science at HTW Berlin, where he teaches human-computer interaction, computer graphics, multimodal interaction, and user-centered design. His research interests include immersive sketching and modeling, tangible interaction, human-computer interaction, virtual reality, and 3d user interfaces. From 2008 to 2014, he worked in the Virtual Product Creation (VPC) department of the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems, where he headed the Virtual Reality Solution Centre (VRSC). In 2009, he completed his PhD at the Center for Human-Machine Systems at the Technical University of Berlin on the topic of »Hybrid Interaction Techniques for Immersive Sketching in Early Phases of Product Design«. From 2005 to 2008, he received a fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG). He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Human-Computer Interaction Division and the »Be-greifbare Interaction« Division within the Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI) and an associated researcher of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«.
Maja Stark (Project Management and Research Assistance)
Maja Stark is an art scholar M.A. with focus on the development and meaning of art, culture and gestaltung with extended reality (XR). From 2015–2018, she was publication manager at cluster of excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. From 2017–2020, she studied Media and Applied Computer Science. From 2018 to 2022, she coordinated the AURORA School for ARtists and from 2020–2023 also the project XR_Unites at HTW Berlin.
Since 2023, Maja is coordinator of the AURORA XR School for Artists. For the AURORA trainings, she is lecturer of extended reality’s art and cultural history. She accompanies creative XR development processes from the concept phase to the public presentation. Since 2020, she has curated and organised the XR Art & Networking Event at HTW Berlin. Within the study program of Computer Science in Culture and Health at HTW Berlin, she is lecturer of Cultural Studies of new media since 2022.
Leonid Barsht (Research Assistant)
Leonid Barsht is a developer and research assistant at the HTW Berlin’s research group INKA. From 2018 to 2021, he worked at the AURORA School for Artists. There he developed augmented reality applications in cooperation with creatives from various fields, such as the Red Dot Award-winning application New York, New York by designer Sarah Müller. He also teaches the development of augmented reality as a lecturer – from 2019 to 2021 as part of AURORA and since 2020 also in seminars for students of Applied Computer Science at HTW Berlin.
Dagmar Schürrer (Project assistant)
Dagmar Schürrer is an Austrian digital artist with a degree in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design London, UK. She assembles computer-generated objects and animations, text and sound into complex video-sound montages and installations, often combined with extended reality applications.
Major international presentations of her work include ICA London, Moscow Biennale for Young Art, Centre Pompidou Paris, House of World Cultures Berlin, Louvre Auditorium Paris, Transmediale Vorspiel Berlin, Museum of Waste Changsha China, SUPERNOVA Denver, Ars Electronica Linz, Eunam Museum South Korea and Diagonale Film Festival Graz.
As a board member of the Berlin Media Art Association, she is committed to new forms of presentation of contemporary new media art.
In AURORA she supports in the field of digital media production and concept development.
dagmarschuerrer.com