INSIDE SYMBIOSIS/DYSBIOSIS
CREATING IMMERSIVE ART WITH BIODATA, NATURE AND TECHNOLOGY

Tosca Terán (Nanotopia) is an interdisciplinary artist and cultivator of participatory storyworlds whose work bridges bioart, immersive media, and live performance to explore more-than-human consciousness and ecological interdependence. Collaborating with microbial life, she translates bio-electrical activity into sound and spatial experiences, dissolving boundaries between human and nonhuman worlds. Her current projects explore VR as decolonial space, living environments resisting extractive design. Recognized by NASA and presented at Ars Electronica, Venice Immersive and Raindance Immersive, Tosca reimagines extended reality as a site of care, mutualism, and quiet resistance.

Hi, I’m Sven, also known as Rixx. I usually do the tech stuff for the Mycelium Network, making sure everything runs smoothly. Over the years, I’ve built a lot of things and been to a few places, but this isn’t really about me. The things that lasted, and I’m most proud of were never built alone, they were always a collaborative effort. Just like the mycelium itself, it’s all about coming together and living in symbiosis. I hope you can join us soon.

Brendan ‘Brendy’ Lehman (any/none; b.1988, Toronto, Canada) is a neuroscientist, game developer, media artist, and arts event programmer based in Toronto, Canada. Projects in biodata-driven software development, interactive installation, music, and game curation all aim to capture contexts of togetherness and euphoria and help people connect with themselves, each other, and their natural environment in new and meaningful ways.

Marinda Botha is a voice-over artist and performer based in Cape Town. She is part of two international ensembles, located in Toronto and New York, that create and perform live, immersive theatre in Virtual Reality. For the past seven years, she has been performing remotely in VR from South Africa. She holds a Master’s degree in English, with a research focus on storytelling in Virtual Reality.

Marinda has 25 years of professional voice-over experience, recording for many traditional brands as well as VR projects. She’s also a seasoned senior lecturer, having taught Acting, Puppetry, Creativity, and Visual Literacy at tertiary educational level for 14 years. https://marindabotha.co.uk 

A Christopher Coles is a curious and elusive creature. He is commonly found in the Canadian Prairies, tucked away within nooks and crannies and surrounded by pseudo-antiquated furniture and plastic plants as he types away at whatever fantasy or sci-fi he is currently obsessed with. He may also be found bent over a drawing tablet, perched behind a GM screen, crammed into a vocal booth, or shoved face-first into a VR headset.

Mandy Canales plays the character “Slug” in the live VR performance Symbiosis/Dysbiosis and is thrilled to be discussing the work of The Mycelium Network at ImmersiveX. Alongside her work with The Mycelium Network, she is a teaching artist at the Virtual Reality Dance Academy in VRChat and explores how comedy translates in the virtual space. Her work has been showcased at OnBoardXR, Raindance Immersive, VRCon, The Gray Area, and Immersive X and she has been a speaker at SIGGRAPH, Electric Literature Organization, Raindance Immersive, Indicade Playable Theatre, VRTO Spatial Media World Conference, and SF Design Week.

For decades, I’ve explored the connection between martial arts, meditation, and disciplined awareness. My training includes Hapkido, with an emphasis on balance, control, practical technique, and the mind-body relationship. Meditation has been equally important in my life. I practice Transcendental Meditation and the TM-Sidhi program twice daily, alongside long-term study of Eastern philosophy and the Bhagavad Gita. To me, martial arts and meditation are complementary disciplines, both developing focus, self-control, awareness, and the ability to respond with intention rather than react.