I was born in former communist Czechoslovakia, and I have moved all around the world just to discover that the world is within me. I am an experience designer, a researcher and media artist whose practice bridges embedded design, human-computer interaction, embodied technology and AI ethics. With a background in film, theatre and performance studies and a PhD focusing on affective computing, virtual, augmented and mixed reality and physiological interfaces, my work investigates the entanglement of bodies and systems — emotional, technical, political. I create participatory environments that challenge the boundaries between users and their environments, performer and audience, exploring how biometric sensing and algorithmic processes can generate new forms of agency, intimacy, and collective resonance.
With over a decade of experience in leading interdisciplinary research, community-driven innovation, and complex cultural projects, I bring a proven track record of transforming data into actionable insight, facilitating cross-sector collaboration, and embedding social impact into creative practice. As an interdisciplinary practitioner and researcher at the intersection of emerging media, extended reality and performative arts, I bring a co-creative and participatory perspective to research, art practice and teaching. I implement different research methods such as research-creation and qualitative and quantitative research methods in impact oriented practice via embedded and embodied design, and creation of educational and knowledge mobilization tools aimed at different stakeholders to create measurable results.
My research integrates technical and human-centered approaches, focusing on areas such as AI ethics, value-sensitive design, human-AI collaboration. I combine skills in AI technologies, ethical design, and extended reality with a strong understanding of policy implications and societal impacts. My background in participatory and speculative design enables me to facilitate meaningful collaboration between diverse groups, ensuring policies are grounded in real-world needs.
My multimodal doctoral thesis, “Embodying Affect: Critical Interventions in Human-Computer Interaction via Embedded and Embodied Design in Extended Reality”, investigated human-computer co-creation in XR through psychophysiological responses (e.g. heart rate, gaze tracking etc.). By exploring the implications of affective computing, I critically examined how technologies shape user experience, agency, and ethics. The integration of these new technologies gives rise to new forms of communication and new semiotic systems which fundamentally reconfigure audience agency, perception, and interaction. Through these processes, shared affect and emotional states emerge among all participants, forming new modes of communication and engagement.
Another focus in my practice is AI ethics, and the ways how to create value embedded design methods during the development of these technologies. In my role as Research Associate with the NIH-funded Bridge2AI project, I tackled the challenge of making AI systems more trustworthy and socially aligned via creation of an interactive application – Pneuma Dilemma – which is a personal exploration of stakeholder roles and their relations via different scenarios in health care.
My first VR piece (co-created and co-produced with Jamie Balliu) Symphony of Noise VR was exhibited at VRHam!, Reeperbahn Music Festival, IDFA Doc Lab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction in Amsterdam 2019, LEV Madrid 2020, Geneva International Film Festival 2020 and FIVARS 2020. It received the FIVARS 2020 Award for Excellence in Sound Design and Forbes Magazine listed it among the best XR installations of 2019. In 2017 together with Mike Robbins, I have co-created and produced an interactive predictive policing app Pre-Crime Calculator. During my work as a film producer in Germany, I produced three feature length documentaries (Border Cut, 2018; Waterproof, 2019; Scars, 2020) and two short fiction films. I was the co-producer of a mixed reality project Chomsky vs. Chomsky: First Encounter which premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2020.
During my work as researcher at FairEVA (a Mozilla Trustworthy AI Award-funded project), I contributed to bias auditing in voice recognition technologies, an effort aimed at increasing fairness, accountability, and accessibility in AI-driven applications. We created tools such as interactive multimedia for public awareness, a Python library for bias testing, audits of speaker recognition datasets, guidelines for fair evaluation practices, and a comprehensive resource catalogue to promote fairness in voice biometrics. These efforts led to the creation of bias auditing tools and guidelines, which are now being piloted in biomedical AI contexts.
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS
Susan Mann Doctoral Scholarship Award 2023, Helen Carswell Award 2022, CIBC Art Award 2020 (CA), FIVARS Award 2020 (CA), Marseille Web Fest Award 2019 (FR), Special Mention at the Bosch Stiftung East European Co-Production Prize 2014 (DE), EWA Development Award 2017 (EU) and Golden Frog Award for Best Feminist Play in 2009 (CZ). Alumnus of Ex Oriente Workshop 2014, MAIA Workshop 2014, Doc Tank 2017, id workshop at Visions du Reél 2017, !Flab Prototype Booster 2017, Mozilla Fest 2022, European Creators’ Lab – Booster 2022.
Michaela Pnacek(ova), PhD 