Date:
Thursday 13 August 2026
Time:
13:00pm – 15:00pm
Venue:
UWC Innovation Hub,
405 Voortrekker Rd,
Oostersee,
Cape Town
The advancement of immersive technologies is fast shaping archival practice. What does this new yet old complexity of design, history, technology and mixed realities mean for the future of storytelling, research and education?
How do social, historical and political urgencies influence the technology of immersion and its ethical and ecological stakes?
Join us at the UWC Innovation Hub to learn about immersive technologies and the archive from Creative Technologist, Kyle Marais from the UWC Immersive Zone (UIZ) and Meghna Singh, Visual Artist and NAV Fellow. The discussion will be moderated by Marcos Martins (NAV Fellow) and Laurent de Laroche Souvestre (Lead AR/VR Developer at the UIZ). Before the discussion, the audience will be provided with a group tour of the Immersive Zone.
This discussion is presented as part of NAV’s ongoing Archive Lab series, which gathers scholars, students, artists and archivists to think together about the activation of research collections. Archive Lab is part of the Humanities in Session series presented by the Centre for Humanities Research at UWC.
Please note that Archive Lab presents works in progress. No independent recordings are permitted. NAV records its Archive Lab sessions for record purposes only.
Speaker bios:
Meghna Singh is a Cape Town based visual artist, researcher and a New Archival Visions Postdoctoral Fellow, 2025-2026, at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, working with its Robben Island Museum and Mayibuye Archives. She also leads Nordic AR and Public Space, a collective of artists, curators and academics from across the Nordic countries, focused on activating colonial histories in rural contexts through augmented reality. Her interest lies in creating public art installations that activate spaces while highlighting colonial and capitalist legacies within urban cityscapes.
Kyle Marais is an award-winning creative technologist, XR developer, and new media artist working with the UWC Innovation Hub’s Immersive Zone. His practice explores how XR can reframe stories, engage with cultural memory, and create new ways of understanding space, identity, and narrative. Collaboration is central to his work. Marais develops co-created projects with artists, filmmakers, archivists and cultural researchers, often drawing on lived histories, archival material and collective storytelling.
Moderator bios:
Marcos Martins is a video, graphic, and interaction designer who received a Digital Curatorial Fellowship from the New Archival Visions Programme in 2025 for Facts and Fabulations, based on research at the UWC–Robben Island–Mayibuye Archives, culminating in an exhibition at CHR’s Iyatsiba Lab Gallery (April–July 2026). He participates in seminars, lectures, and research groups, and works with faculty at the CHR. He is also involved with a South–South collaboration with the Superior School of Design (ESDI), University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Brazil.
Laurent de Laroche Souvestre is a creative producer and immersive technologies specialist at the UWC Innovation Hub’s Immersive Zone. His career began in 1999 in 3D animation and illustration, moving through concept art, teaching and XR production across four countries. He works across virtual and augmented reality, 3D modelling, 360-degree capture and large-scale projection, recently on AR and VR for the Robben Island Museum and an immersive installation at Groot Constantia for Iziko Museums. His current interests include interactive projection mapping and agentic AI, and he builds automation and documentation into his projects to make immersive work more sustainable.