Female Pioneers in the History of VR

This seminar uncovers the overlooked contributions of female pioneers in Virtual Reality (VR), tracing their influence from the 1980s and 90s to contemporary world-building practices. As Brenda Laurel noted in 2018, ‘we learned some shit that some people aren’t paying attention to,’ underscoring the marginalization of early feminist interventions in VR. By revisiting figures such as Char Davies and Rebecca Allen, we examine how their work challenged technological binaries and redefined embodiment in virtual spaces. Each student will research an artist of their choice and contribute to the online platform www.xr-atlas.org. Alongside historical perspectives, we will explore contemporary concepts of extended digital selves and ask how immersive technologies can transcend escapist metaverse narratives. Structured as a block seminar, this course merges history and theory with hands-on 1:1 VR sketching, enabling students to design and animate their own virtual bodies through movement-based experimentation.