David Gochfeld – Research Fellow

David is an award-winning XR creator. He crafts interactive narrative experiences at the intersection of the real and virtual, merging traditional theatrical techniques and cutting edge XR technology. His pioneering work with live performance in virtual reality has appeared at festivals and conferences worldwide, including Tribeca, Siggraph, SXSW and the Venice Biennale Cinema. In 2017, he directed To Be With Hamlet — the first live, immersive theatrical performance in room-scale VR with a remote audience. He holds an Emmy for his work on Zero Days VR.

An experienced theatre actor and director, David has devised and performed works internationally. He trained at the prestigious Jacques LeCoq school in Paris and is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. He holds a Master’s from New York University’s ITP program, where he studied user experience and game design, and his thesis research explored comedy in VR. Before joining XR Stories, he taught computer science courses and a cross-departmental course on technology for performance at NYU.

As a research fellow at XR Stories David has continued his practice-based research into storytelling in shared virtual environments, and the use of XR and real-time technologies for live performance and theatre. He is part of Play On, a €2 million cultural project, which supports theatre companies across Europe to integrate new tech into their creative practice. David also gives workshops on VR, performance capture and immersive storytelling to university colleagues and students, as well as artists and SMEs in the region.

Published on 8 March 2023