Stacey Spiegel

Stacey Spiegel is a Canadian artist, artistic director, and new media visionary. He is the co-founder of Parallel World Labs and its European counterpart PWLabs AS, and co-founder of the former Immersion Studios.

Life and work

Stacey Spiegel was born in Hespeler, Ontario, Canada. He attended Southwood Secondary School in Galt where his talent was recognized and encouraged by the late Gerry Weber, a passionate art teacher who inspired and mentored many to develop their talents. Southwood has recognized him for his accomplishments by electing him to their Hall of Fame in 2005. He attended York University in Toronto where he studied fine arts (BFA). He currently resides in Canada and Norway.

Interaction & Audience Engagement

Spiegel is an expert in strategic visioning and planning, creative conceptualization, and project realization for organizations in the cultural and educational sectors. He creates content experiences, often using advanced media, that provide audiences with a self-directed exploration of the world around them. He works with museums and science centers, historic and cultural visitor centers, international expositions, sporting organizations, healthcare centers, and educational facilities.

A 2014 article in The Museum of the Future called "Walk in, dance out! Lessons about interaction and audience engagement from Rockheim and ABBA: The Museum" cites Spiegel's design at Rockheim as an example of successful visitor engagement that "turns the museum into an experience" and "[manages] to turn the interest and enthusiasm of their visitor for their topic into something more profound: involvement, engagement."

Pioneering Advanced Media

From 1985-1987, Spiegel was a fellow at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Study, from where he moved on to become adjunct professor at the University of Toronto from 1992-1997. As a new media installation designer and artist, Spiegel worked early on with Dr. Rodney Hoinkes (Harvard Graduate School of Design) creating state-of-the-art digital installations at events such as DEAF (Dutch Electronic Arts Festival) in 1995 and 1996, Rotterdam City Festival (Safe Harbour, a harbour simulator of Marine Safety featuring a 360-degree Virtual Reality environment for experiencing the multicultural city of Rotterdam), MultiMediale, and Ars Electronica.

After years of exploring new media through art, in 1997 Spiegel and Hoinkes joined forces to start Immersion Studios (later renamed I-mmersion) to explore the potential of interactive films, theatres and classrooms. During the firm's existence from 1997–2006, I-mmersion was considered one of Canada's most innovative new media companies and a forerunner in the arena of social computing. Its products included the Immersion Cinema, a 180-degree HD digital cinema experience which has been installed in museums and science centres around the world, including Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota Florida, Discovery Center of Springfield Missouri, Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration in Connecticut, and The Smithsonian in Washington DC.

In 2006, the company was restructured under the name Parallel World Labs which operates in both Canada and Norway (the latter under the name PWLabs AS). PWLabs has produced numerous projects in Europe since 2006, including design of the Rockheim Museum of Pop and Rock Music in Trondheim, a popular cultural attraction which also received a nomination for European Museum of the Year 2012 - [see also "Recent work"].

Since the mid-90s, Spiegel has produced and directed nearly 50 major interactive projects, including installations for the likes of The Smithsonian Museum, British Science Museum, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and EXPO 2005. Spiegel has also worked with renowned experts and scientists such as Dr. Robert Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic and founder and president of the Institute for Exploration at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, where he created the experience at the center of the groundbreaking Immersion Institute in 2002. The Immersion Institute employed the same robotics used in sea exploration, wiring Monterey National Marine Sanctuary (on the U.S. west coast) to Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration (on the U.S. east coast) through a live digital feed enabling visitors, for the first time ever, to explore the sanctuary remotely in real time.

Recent work

Spiegel is currently (2015) designing a concept and proposal for the National Capital Commission as a national finalist for the design of a new monument to Canada's building trades.

Spiegel is also finalizing a three-year project for St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, Norway, scheduled for completion at the end of 2015. The installation is an information-rich two-storey-high interactive experience in the lobby of the institution's new Knowledge Center (Kunnskapssenteret). Working in partnership with Sony Nordic, Spiegel conceived, designed and developed a gesture-based 3D interface through which hospital visitors can explore hundreds of video-based stories about innovation projects (all produced by Spiegel) within the integrated hospital-university complex. The project has already awarded the 2014 Best Product Design for Healthcare Application from the International Academy for Design & Health.

In 2014-2015, Spiegel also developed creative concepts and strategic planning for major art museums / culture institutions in Europe, including:

- The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, currently building a new 700M EUR / 54,600 m2 museum for Opening 2019; - The Kunsthalle Mannheim, a museum of modern and contemporary art in Germany currently undergoing a 70M EUR new development for Opening 2017; - Stadtarchiv Mannheim - Institute for City History in Germany, also undergoing a major redevelopment.

In 2012 Spiegel directed the experience for a new visitor center for Norwegian national lottery Norsk Tipping, which opened to the public on in December 2012.

Spiegel also designed a new multi-lens interactive tool for exploring art, called The Curiosity Engine, for the McMaster Museum of Art, which launched in 2012.

From 2007-2010 Spiegel acted as the Artistic Director for the design/development of Rockheim, a new national rock and pop "experience center" in Norway which opened in August 2010 to critical and public acclaim. 2010 Media Reviews of Rockheim included: "A [music] center that will floor visitors" (translated from aftenbladet.no); "Rockheim sets a new standard for digital museum audio/text/image communication" (translated from dagbladet.no); "[At Rockheim] await musical treats and technological solutions never before seen..." (translated from adressa.no). In 2015, Rockheim still rates highly as a visitor experience, and is within the Top 10 Things to Do in Trondheim based on its high visitor ratings from hundreds of visitors on TripAdvisor.

Since 2010, Spiegel has consulted and produced projects for the IOC International Olympic Committee's Ethics Commission. His company created educational transmedia campaigns and interactive tools on sports integrity and athlete life skills which have been in use at numerous Olympic Games, including 2010 Singapore Summer Youth Olympic Games, 2012 Innsbruck Winter Youth Olympic Games, 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, 2013 Asian Youth Games, 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, 2014 Nanjing Summer Youth Olympic Games and the 2016 Lillehammer Winter Youth Olympic Games.

In 2006-2007, Spiegel designed an interactive educational exhibit at W5 Discovery Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as an immersive large-format film called “The Ledge” within the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre in County Clare, Ireland. The latter won two awards (see Awards).

From 2003-2005, Spiegel worked as a Creative Director for the Government of Canada / Canadian Heritage on the Canada Pavilion at EXPO 2005 in Aichi, Japan which included a nationwide network of major museums and an online experience called Virtual Canada.

Spiegel has served as:

- New Media Advisor to the International Olympic Committee on Culture and Education for the Youth Olympic Games Singapore 2010.

- Director of Avatar Development for the A2E2 project of the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Programme, a joint research and development funding activity with the financial support of the European Community.

- Director of Industry Relations at the Center for Advanced Media Research in Amsterdam located at the VU University Amsterdam, where his work is focused on establishing commercial partnership opportunities that establish real world applications for the innovative academic research happening at the CAMeRA.

Awards & Nominations

Spiegel has won numerous awards for his new media work, including a 2014 award for Best Product Design for Healthcare Application from the International Academy for Design & Health for his large-scale experience design at St. Olavs Hospital in Norway. At the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Center in Ireland, Spiegel's immersive large format film "The Ledge" and interactive "Predator and Prey" game were part of the highly acclaimed exhibition that won design awards in 2008 from the Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI) and in 2007 from the Association of Heritage Interpretation (Interpret Britain & Ireland Award). Spiegel's previous awards include a 2002 Electronic Multimedia Awards (EMMA) for Technical Excellence & Innovation; a 2002 Innovation Award from the Interactive Multimedia Arts & Technologies Association; a 2002 Canadian New Media Award for New Media Visionary, a 2000 Canadian New Media Awards nomination for Company of the Year, and two Golden Reel nominations as producer/director. In the fine arts, he is a winner of the Bernice Adams Memorial Arts Award and a recipient of grants from the Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council.

In 2012, Spiegel's museum experience at Rockheim was also a Nominee for European Museum of the Year.

Education

Stacey Spiegel studied fine arts at York University in Toronto graduating with a HBFA. He went on to become a fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Advanced Visual Study from 1985-1987 where he focused on the impact of technology on culture, moving from physical works to the virtual, exploring holography, 3D imaging and advanced visualization in the Media Lab.

Academia & Publishing

Maintaining ties to education and art, Spiegel has continued working closely with post-secondary institutions around the world. For several years, Spiegel collaborated with the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California in a study on the effects of interactive technology on children’s understanding of science, and installed "Immersion labs” in post-secondary institutions such as Harvard University, University of Toronto, and Sheridan College.

Spiegel has also contributed to textbooks and publications, including Serious Games: Mechanisms and Effects, and the International Communication Association's 2015 publication Communication and «The Good Life».

Presentations

Spiegel has guest-lectured at the University of Queensland (Australia) and the University of Mannheim (Germany). He has also appeared as keynote or guest speaker at numerous international events, including the Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment, Trondheim Matchmaking (an annual international festival for electronic arts and new technology), the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, SIGGRAPH Toronto, DEAF Netherlands, and the USC Annenberg Workshop on Games for Learning, Development & Change.

In 2006, Stacey Spiegel and Dr. Rodney Hoinkes presented a talk titled “The Evolution of Real and Virtual Communities” at the University of Toronto. In October 2007 Spiegel inspired an international symposium at the University of Western Ontario called "Playing the Gallery: The art of games", which focused on understanding issues between virtual reality and the implications for social change and technology-driven environments for creative expression. In the mid-1990s, Spiegel was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Software Engineering and Game Design at McMaster University and a Visiting Lecturer in Media and Communication Studies at the University of Mannheim.

Art

In addition to his work in the business, education and art of new media, Spiegel is also a renowned artist "whose thesis on the mechanisation of nature informs his multidisciplinary work". His sculptures and computer-based artworks have been exhibited in many international venues at more than 35 solo exhibitions and 14 group exhibitions, and are included in both public and private collections, and in the permanent collections of over 22 galleries and museums including the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Aside from creating and exhibiting artworks internationally, Spiegel has also been an Artist-in-Residence in a number of prestigious institutions, including Cité des Arts in Paris; the Zentrum for Kunst and Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany; the Banff Centre's New Media Centre in Banff, Alberta; the Museum of Science and Technology in Hull, Quebec; and a MIT fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Study.

Spiegel has three major public art installations in the Toronto region. The city's Sheppard-Yonge subway station features "Immersion Land", a mosaic composed of 1,500,000 one-inch tiles, which has been called one of the top five public art installations in the Toronto Transit system. The installation was developed from a digitized and pixilated blend of 150 photographs depicting lush landscapes, country homes, and rural scenes from Yonge Street as it stretches towards North Bay.

Another of Spiegel's major installations, Synthetic Eden, can be discovered in a hidden courtyard within the Financial District (Yonge and Adelaide Street East), a collection of three eclectic water-based sculptures and etched glass windscreens that create what author John Warkentin, in his book Creating Memory: A Guide to Outdoor Public Sculpture in Toronto calls "one of the finest urban spaces in Toronto".

The City of Mississauga's Living Arts Centre also features a trio of public art works by Stacey Spiegel (1997) including a water fountain (Pool of Knowledge) and two large wall-type structures (Book Wall and Data Wall).

External links

• Parallel World Labs Inc.
• Rockheim
• ZKM
• IMAT
• ITBusiness
• V2 Artist Collective Netherlands