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My name is Anita Wilhelm.  I design interactive software experiences.  I use social play, games, and media to create more engaging interactions within the systems which I create.

I’ve worked with many start-ups and innovative product groups – creating new games, services, and platforms which have launched worldwide (US, EU, Korea, and Japan). Starting my career with early mobile technologies, I am fluent in the technical capabilities of different devices and hardware, as well social software design patterns. My work, has included consoles, tablets, tv’s, cars, immersive games, large touch screens displays, and, of course, the web. I’ve worked with Oculus Touch VR (using UnReal), ARCore / ARKit (Android, iOS – using native and Unity engines), Apple and Google Android (mobile toolkits), Microsoft Kinect, Volkswagon, General Motors (connected cars), Samsung, HP/ Palm, and (formerly) Nokia native platforms.  I’m mainly interested in creating engaging experiences which connect audiences, and solve challenges problems while entertaining players. I view different platforms simply as access points to that end.  Many of my projects look toward innovating and expanding games and playful media design – allowing people to naturally connect with them.  I believe that fun is a powerful instrument which when harnessed positively can act like no other motivator for human behavior.

I recently finished a second Master’s in Games and Playable Media from UC Santa Cruz.  I wanted to spend some time going deeper into VR/ AR and immersive art so I could transition fully into richer media applications and games.  I also hold a masters degree from the iSchool at University of California Berkeley, where I worked under Marc Davis and Garage Cinema Research.  Caterpillar Mobile, a social media game platform, was formed from my work at UC Berkeley.   As my first job in Silicon Valley, this gave me invaluable lessons about entrepreneurship which I’ve taken with me to aide other early ventures.  A TED Global Talk was given about work I was involved in exploring gender-inspired-technology for females – in collaboration with University of the Arts, Berlin and Deutsches Telekom R & D.

I love electronic music and dancing; and I sometimes create physical art installations of my own to play with generating affective responses within urban cities and the built environment.  I like to watch how people engage with new artifacts in their physical environments and I draw inspiration from how my audiences react to what I create.  In a world where today’s technologies encourage us to think about how to bring physical (and location) contexts into a digital realm, this gives me an opportunity look differently – how do we bring the digital into the physical? Examining and crossing this “reality” line from different directions helps me keep my approach to interactive digital design continually fresh and evolving.  (Recently, too, I started a give-back project working with foundational Detroit techno artists to showcase a visual- futurely interactive – side of the music which largely influenced my youth and love for digital media : Techno Art Gallery.)

If I had to summarize the three most powerful actions I know–> Listen. Play. Create.