About
Maf’j Alvarez is a UK-based visual artist, UX designer, and creative technologist from Brighton. She produces poetic VR works in Unity3D at Root Interactive and is the founder of Inkibit, Immersive. She is digital arts and virtual reality mentor for the Lighthouse Young Creatives programme and has showcased her artwork at National Gallery X, Venice Biennale film festival, The Lowry, Vorarlberg museum and Brighton Festival. Maf’j is currently developing MotifXR, a mixed reality social crafting app, and touring her latest collaborative VR title, Mammary Mountain, at film festivals and institutions worldwide. She gives talks, mentors in labs, offers masterclasses, and runs workshops and hackjams to democratize artistic creation with immersive technology, particularly for women and underrepresented groups. Future work includes Changing Room Only (CRO), exploring menopause and women’s connections to the sea, and Matrilines – a storytelling discovery of her roots as a Spanish/Colombian artist growing up in the UK.
Maf’j has a BA in Interactive Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University (1998) and an MA in Digital Media Arts from Brighton University and Lighthouse (2015). Maf’j began working with virtual reality using Unity3d whilst resident artist at Brighton Fusebox (2017-2023). She has since helped other women learn VR through hack days, mentoring, talks, and collaborations around the world. She is currently working on CRO – ‘Changing Room Only’ (CRO) an immersive VR documentary exploring Brighton’s sea swimming culture and the transformative, iconic ‘Dryrobe’.
Recent work includes Mammary Mountain with artists Camille Baker and Tara Baoth Mooney on breast cancer and “Eva Quantica,” commissioned by the National Gallery X and shown at Brighton Festival in 2022. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Maf’j founded Inkibit Immersive, which aims to support women and other marginalized immersive tech creatives to democratize technology for the cultural and arts sector. She runs workshops, talks, hack-jams, and mentoring sessions, and participates in programs focused on early stage prototyping in immersive arts.
Past work includes the interactive installation “Stroke,” which was shortlisted for funding by the Wellcome Trust’s SciArt initiative and shown at ISEA (International Symposium of Electronic Arts), and “Softworld,” an interactive modular textile installation that encourages collaboration and was shown at The Lowry.
Exhibitions
2024 | Mammary Mountain | Wellness Conference | Sussex University | Brighton
2024 | Mammary Mountain | Artbomb | Doncaster
2024 | Mammary Mountain | Refractive | Paisley, Scotland
2023 | Mammary Mountain | Neon Digital | Dundee, Scotland
2023 | Audiolicious with Bunty Looping | The Sistxrhood | Glastonbury Festival | UK
2022 | Gorba/Uprooted | Netherlands Film Festival | Utrecht, Netherlands
2022 | Almost Home | Miss Represented @ International Women’s day | Brighton Dome, Brighton
2021 | Eye Eye Creates | Stevenage Festival | Stevenage, UK
2021 | Stickybits VR gameshow | Brighton Digital Festival @ Rosehill Arts | Brighton
2020 | Eva Quantica | Brighton Festival | Brighton & Hove
2019 | Warbells | Vorarlberg Museum, Bregenz, Austria
2018 | A house for a fly | The Old Market, Hove
2015 | Rootbeans game | Now Play This, Somerset House | London
2014 | Rootbeans game | Brighton Science Festival, University of Brighton | Brighton
2015 | Three Sisters | Transparency MA show | Brighton University
2005 | Mind Mine animations | Mindmine | Campbell Works
2003 | Choice Chance Circumstance | Newcastle Graft, Waygood Gallery | Newcastle
2002 | Rekwear | Stoke Newington Festival | London
2000 | Softworld | The Lowry | Salford
1999 | Stroke | Care=Art=Care | St Augustinus Hospital | Antwerp
1998 | Stroke | ISEA98 | Manchester
1998 | More Bark Than Bite | Dry bar | Manchester
Events, talks & workshops
2022 | Gorba (Uprooted) VR | StoryJam | Storytellers United & NFF | Utrecht | Watch trailer
2022 | Audiolicious sound hackjam | Inkibit immersive @ Spring Forward Festival | Brighton
2022 | Eva Quantica VR – presentation | EVA London Conference | Online
2022 | Eye/I Create VR | Stevenage Festival | Divya Kasturi Dance Company | Stevenage | Watch online
2022 | Eva Quantica VR | Brighton Festival | Brighton | Watch trailer
2020 | Stickybits gameshow | Driva Arts Driva @ The Fusebox | Brighton
2020 | Hookathon – Hacking the herbarium | Kew Gardens
2020 | Celebrating Women in Tech | Fusebox | Wired Sussex | Watch online
2019 | Hanningtons Hackday | Brighton Digital Festival
2018 | Rootbeans at Fusebox – Watch online
2016 | Great Lengths | XX+ Games Jam | Refig & Press fire to win| Brighton
2016 | Rootbeans game | Bognor Regis hub meetup | Wired Sussex | Bognor Regis
2015 | Hackess accessibility hackathon | Fablab London & Goldsmiths college | London
2015 | Rootbeans workshop | Now Play this, Somerset House | London
2015 | Rootbeans talk and demonstration | Pixels and Prosecco | Brighton
2015 | Rootbeans game | Apticon, Mozilla space | London
2015 | Women digital artists, and their relationship with code – Talk | 300 Seconds | Brighton – Watch online
2014 | Moment | Popathon hack day, Brighton Digital Festival, Lighthouse | Brighton
2014 | Lego Panopticon presentation | Now Play this, Somerset House | London
2013 | Lego Panopticon | Brighton Cryptofestival, Lighthouse | Brighton
2005 | Animation workshops | Mindmine | Campbell Works
2005 | Samba Xchange international program development | Creative Partnerships (ACE) | London
2004 | Streets for people workshops | Mindmine | Campbell Works
2002 | Muslim Diaspora schools workshops | Maria Kheirkhah | Cultural Cooperation | London
Virtual Reality prototyping/production
2022 | Vessel – artistic exploration | Kathleen Rogers | Brighton
2022 | Gorba (Uprooted) VR | StoryJam | Storytellers United & Netherlands Film Festival
2022 | Eye/I Create VR – prototyping | Divya Kasturi Dance Company
2022 | There Exists – Early VR prototyping | Studio Anrk
2021 | Museum of Imagined Futures – Early VR prototyping | Indigo Storm/ Studio Anrk
2019 | Powerbabies VR Hack | weekend hack of idea for multiplayer game around political power
Masterclasses, teaching and mentoring
2023 | Digital arts mentor | Lighthouse Young Creatives (6 months program)
2023 | Mentor | Story Jam | Storytellers United / Netherlands Film Festival | Utrecht, Netherlands
2023 | Artist mentoring | Mei Tao | Croydon system change project | Swarm Dynamics (several months)
2022 | VR workshop – Holonspace | ZZZAP Studios | Utrecht, Netherlands
2022 | Individual mentoring in Unity3d for VR production | Various | online
2022 | VR Masterclass – Holonspace | Lincoln University
2021 | VR Masterclass – Holonspace | Kings College London
2021 | VR Masterclass – Holonspace | University of Sussex
Education
2013-2015 | MA Digital Media Arts | University of Brighton & Lighthouse Arts
1995-1998 | BA Hons Interactive Arts | Manchester Metropolitan University
Publications and articles
2022 | Eva Quantica VR | Science open | Download paper
2019 | Featured FuseBox Resident: Maf’j Alvarez – read online
2016 | MA Thesis: Female digital artists and their relationship with code – Download pdf
Links
Twitter
Root Interactive – Design portfolio
Generate – Generative Art
Rootbeans – Game site and blog
Github – digital repositories
Youtube channel
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Twitter