Nerd Nite SF #115: Immersive Media, and Electric Sharks

It’s December once more, which means it’s a great time to learn a whole bunch of strange, interesting, and funny things so you have a quiverful of “well actually’s” to spring on bewildered family members over holiday dinners.

Scripting Outside the Lines with Michael Epstein

How do you write a script for a story where the audience's reactions - and their surroundings - will end up driving the plot and character development? That's an incredible challenge in the age of AR/VR/XR, interactive Netflix shows, escape rooms, and participant theater. These are all "immersive media" where you are, if not the star, at least a castmember. And it requires a totally different way of storytelling.

Shark Electrosensors - A Sixth Sense with Brandon Brown

As we stub our toes in the dark, or spin around helplessly trying to figure out which way is “North” when our phones can’t connect to a network, it sometimes feels like we could do with an extra sense or two. And some animals have them - in the murky depths, sharks and their relatives are able to detect electricity and use it to navigate their world. We’ll explore the physics, chemistry, and biology behind these “electrosensors” and “see” what a shark’s “electric vision” might be like.