Media entrepreneur and climate leader Chip Giller and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt launch AGOG, an immersive media agency for social good.

New organization helps people imagine and build a better world using XR

Austin, Texas, March 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — chip giller and wendy schmidt today announced the launch of Agog: The Immersive Media Institute, a groundbreaking initiative at the intersection of technology, communication, and social impact. Agog, a philanthropic organization, helps creators and nonprofit leaders harness the power of augmented reality (XR) technology to drive positive social change and open new avenues for empathy, understanding, and activism. To do.

chip gillerKnown for his pioneering work in journalism as founder of climate media organization Grist, wendy schmidtis a visionary philanthropist and investor who has spent nearly 20 years making the world healthy, resilient, and safe. We are working together to bring it to the forefront of the media landscape.

Immersive media and XR, including virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and other emerging technologies, disrupt traditional storytelling forms by putting users in action, stimulating their senses, and fostering connections with others and the natural world. exceeds.

Agog serves as a hub for collaboration, fostering partnerships between XR creators and nonprofit leaders, and providing resources to envision and bring new forms of communication to life. As immersive media becomes mainstream, Agog aims to help people use cutting-edge XR to imagine and build a more just and sustainable world, address pressing global challenges, and develop deeper empathy. We aim to help foster a sense of interconnectedness.

“It may sound crazy, but these new technologies can help people feel and experience What exists, what has existed, and what could exist.” chip giller, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Agog. “Too often in storytelling, the focus is solely on the problem. We want to increase the real possibility of building a better, more just world, and our I’m worried about the power of

Co-Founder wendy schmidt “Few people forget the first time they experienced XR, being transported to another location or walking in someone else’s shoes. The name Agog derives from this sense of awe and wonder. Agog creates an augmented reality that could easily be called empathetic.”Immersing people in new experiences and spending time with the people experiencing them is a way of improving our relationships with each other. , and has the potential to dramatically change our relationship with the planet. ”

Agog advisors include immersive media thought leaders and technologists. Jared Cheshire, courtney cogburn, Nonny de la Peña, Lauren Hammons, Amy Seidenwurmand John Veshay.

Agog’s main focus areas are:

• social justice and equity: The Institute will help develop and support immersive media creators from diverse fields who raise issues of social justice and focus on making these technologies more accessible.
• Impactful storytelling/worldbuilding: The Institute supports the creation of XR content that builds empathy and explores ways to address social and environmental challenges such as climate change, racial justice, and human rights.
• the study: The institute will partner with researchers to explore applications of XR to foster empathy and promote positive behavior change.
• Education and support: The Institute helps people use XR for social good through workshops, technical support, training programs, and other outreach activities.
• Advocacy and policy: The Institute will work to promote the responsible and ethical use of immersive media technologies.

Early working examples of Agog include support for:

• MIT Reality Hack helped bring an Indigenous perspective to the January hackathon, which drew more than 600 participants from around the world.
• Anagram’s Impulse: Playing with Reality is an innovative mixed reality experience that explores what it’s like to live with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
• “The City of Awe” is a project born out of Arizona State University’s Narrative and Emerging Media Program that enables communities around the world. Los Angeles Use immersive media tools to design and physically transform abandoned neighborhoods into community green spaces.
• Whose Future? is a pilot program that provides hands-on XR instruction to teenagers at universities. boys and girls club in Harlem, New York;
• “Forager” is an XR experience that immerses participants in the complete lifecycle of a mushroom using sight, sound, touch, and smell.and
• Social Impact Buildfest University of Texas at Austinworked with XR novices to prototype an impact-centric social experience in XR.

Agog invites nonprofit leaders, XR creators, and people excited about its vision to visit agog.org Learn more and join our community of makers and doers.There is also Agog blue sky, linkedin, Instagramand thread.

About Agog: Immersive Media Research Institute
Agog: Immersive Media Research Institute is a charity that uses augmented reality (XR) to help people connect, foster empathy and inspire action towards a more just and sustainable future. Agog brings together nonprofit leaders, thinkers, and creators to harness the power of emerging media like virtual and augmented reality to develop new ways to communicate, learn, inspire, and collaborate. Agog’s initial focus areas include social justice and equity, impactful storytelling and worldbuilding, research, education and advocacy, and policy and ethics. For more information, please visit agog.org. wendy schmidtvisit https://wendyschmidt.com/.

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