SPARKS ✨ Interabilities • Arts • Technology

Interabilities in 21st Century Arts & Technology ✨🌈

A SPARKS session focused on neurodiverse artists, interabilities, and technology as prosthesis — designing better, more accessible cultures through art + computation.

🌿 gentle, consentful design 🫧 multisensory worlds 🧠↔️🧠 interabilities 🧷 prosthesis as possibility 🐾 world-building together

When

SPARKS: “Interabilities in 21st Century Arts & Technology” — moderated by James Hullick and Melentie Pandilovski.

🇨🇦 Toronto: Thu, Feb 26, 2026 • 7:00 PM (EST) 🇺🇸 LA: Thu, Feb 26 • 4:00 PM (PST) 🇦🇺 Melbourne: Fri, Feb 27 • 11:00 AM (AEDT) 🇨🇳 Beijing: Fri, Feb 27 • 8:00 AM (CST)

(All times and moderators listed above are from the official SPARKS listing.)

What “interabilities” means here

This session highlights neurodiverse artists and the idea that accessibility isn’t an afterthought — it’s a generative condition for new aesthetics, new tools, and new kinds of collaboration. “Interabilities” is about people with different abilities co-creating, and “prosthesis” is technology that extends or reshapes how we perceive and act.

Vivarium 🌲🐾 A layered intelligence ecology: small “animal” minds that respond to motion, rhythm, touch, and space — building presence through interpretable tiers.
VR Ecology 🛠️✨ The engineering backbone: haptics, sound, visuals, tracking, AI scene updates, hot-swappable modules, and a research dashboard for replay + analysis.

My talk

VR ECOLOGY: Interability and Prosthetic XR for Neurodiverse World-Building — a neurodiverse-led research-creation project treating XR as prosthesis for shared perception and co-authorship.

In a responsive virtual habitat, gesture/movement (and optional IoT sensor streams) drive sound, light, and haptic feedback — while an adaptive AI agent tunes intensity, pacing, and modality to different sensory needs. The goal isn’t “accommodate one user,” but design for interabilities: collaboration across differing cognitive styles and bodies (including more-than-human agents).

Cast of tiny helpers (because SPARKS should sparkle)

Not “features.” Just friendly metaphors for what’s alive in the system.

🧤 haptic sprite turns intensity into comfort-aware touch
(•‿•)ノ  *tap*  *pulse*
"consent first"
🎛️ sound goblin makes motion audible (and playable)
(ง'̀-'́)ง  ♫
"rhythm is data"
🪩 scene weaver updates light/space like it’s breathing
⟡⟡⟡
"i rearrange the glow"
🫧 tracker moth follows hands, gestures, streams
(˘▾˘)~
"i chase the shimmer"
🧠🤝 attunement buddy AI that adapts gently, not aggressively
(•ᴗ•)
"we adjust together"
📼 timeline owl replay + tagging + research dashboard
(o_o)📝
"i remember politely"

Media (coming soon)

This is where the short promo video / loop / screenshots will live for easy sharing.

✨ drop in video + images when ready ✨

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