HEATHER RAIKES

Founder | Creative Director

Heather Raikes, Ph.D., is a creative leader catalyzing next-generation sensory experiences. Her work is uniquely rooted in the body, and in the design of futurist convergences between corporeality and emerging technocultural systems.

Raikes’ artwork has been exhibited throughout the world at venues such as HEREArt, Culturgest, LeCube, Lincoln Center, Imaginaria International Film Festival, and On the Boards. Her creative research has been presented widely, and published in the International Journal of Art, Culture, Design, and Technology; Technoetic Arts; American Communication Journal; Technologically Expanded Dance; Poeticanet; New River Journal, and Body, Space & Technology. She is a former modern dancer with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company.

Heather Raikes has made pioneering creative contributions to emerging media design in roles ranging from founding partner of first-generation Web collective Media Farm to Principal Creative Director at Microsoft Mixed Reality Studios. Her XR creative direction and design work has received numerous honors, including an Oculus Launch Pad fellowship, exhibition at the Tokyo Olympics, and a Digital Innovation Emmy Award. Raikes has directed production of groundbreaking XR experiences and applications, and delivered creative leadership presentations at design forums such as the IxDA Interaction Conference, VRLA, LDV Vision Summit, Creative Mornings, and Seattle Interactive Conference.

Heather Raikes holds a Ph.D in Digital Arts and Experimental Media from the University of Washington, and conducted postdoctoral research through the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Integrative Arts (CAiiA), Plymouth University. She has catalyzed innovation in multiple university research, teaching, and leadership positions. At Temple University, she was New Media Producer-In-Residence, Director of the New Media Interdisciplinary Concentration, and Founding Director of the New Media Performance Lab. At the University of California San Diego, she was Director of Innovation for the Culture | Art | Technology Program, Research Associate with the Center for Research in Computing & the Arts, and Design Associate with the California Institute for Telecommunications & Information Technology. As a DXARTS Research Associate at the University of Washington, she developed innovative pedagogy and forged collaborative research between academic disciplines, departments, institutions, and industry partners.

Neopoetics is the syncretic culmination of Heather Raikes’ creative vision and expertise cultivated through a multi-faceted career journey defined by passion and curiosity probing and discovering next-generation sensory experiences that awaken, amplify and redefine human potential.