Alasdair Swenson Programme Leader, Future Media Production

Alasdair Swenson is a creative technologist and researcher whose creative projects push the boundaries of interactive and immersive technology in Unreal Engine and Virtual Production.

His work has been shown at Manchester People’s History Museum, Imperial War Museum North. As well as exhibiting his own work, he has collaborated with a number of well-known organisations including Soup Collective developing innovative interaction for public facing media installations such as at the launch of MediaCityUK.

Alasdair leads the Future Media Production BA (Hons) in the School of Digital Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University with a curriculum focussed on how to tell new stories with emerging technologies.

Contact

a.swenson@mmu.ac.uk

Office

School of Digital Arts

Research

Books

tom Dieck, M.C., Jung, T.H., Loureiro, S.M.C., 2021. 'Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality: New Trends in Immersive Technology', Springer.

Book Chapters

Sibley, J., Swenson, A., 2023. 'Events in the metaverse'. In Brown, T., Drakeley, C. (eds.) Virtual Events Management: theory and methods for event management and tourism, pp. 155-174, Goodfellow Publishers, Oxford.

Edifor, E., Swenson, A., Aiyenitaju, O., 2021. 'A Virtual Reality Framework for Upskilling in Computer Programming in the Business Context'. In Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality New Trends in Immersive Technology, Springer.

Cho, J., Jung, T., Macleod, K., Swenson, A., 2021. 'Using Virtual Reality as a Form of Simulation in the Context of Legal Education'. In Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, Springer.

Journal Articles

Swenson, A., 2023. 'Teaching digital identity: opportunities, challenges, and ethical considerations for avatar creation in educational settings', Brazilian Creative Industries Journal, 3 (2), pp. 41-58.

Park, S.H., Lee, P.J., Jung, T., Swenson, A., 2020. 'Effects of the Aural and Visual Experience on Psycho-physiological Recovery in Urban and Rural Environments', Applied Acoustics, 169, 14.

Swenson, A., 2019. 'Immersive technology for tomorrow's lawyers', Solcitors journal, 162 (8).

Non-Peer Reviewed Articles

Swenson, A., Thomas, M., Nigro, B., Courneya, M., heim, H., Aroni, G., England, M., 2025. 'HOW CAN UNIVERSITIES ADAPT TO WEB3?', right click save.

Swenson, A., Cooke, A., Courneya, M., Duffy, J., 2025. 'THE NFT RESEARCH GROUP | SODA', Right Click Save.

Conference Papers

Cho, J., Jung, T., Macleod, K., Swenson, A., 2023. 'Mooting in Virtual Reality: an exploratory study using experiential learning theory', International XR Conference 2022, Lisbon, Portugal, 27/4/2022 - 29/4/2022, in Extended Reality and Metaverse: immersive technology in times of crisis, pp. 99-105.

Miguel, S., Swenson, A., Jung, T., 2020. 'History Makers - Implementing bespoke digital experiences for museum audiences utilising immersive and interactive media', 6th International AR VR Conference, Virtual, 19/11/2020 - 20/11/2020.

tom Dieck, M.C., Swenson, A., Jung, T., 2020. 'Mixed Reality for Fire Marshall Training', 6th International AR VR Conference, Virtual, 19/11/2020 - 20/11/2020.

Swenson, A., tom Dieck, M., Jung, T., Macleod, K., 2019. 'Moot Court VR', International Augmented and Virtual Reality Conference, Munich.

Swenson, A., tom Dieck, M.C., Jung, T., Macleod, K., 2019. 'MootCourt VR: VR Application in Law Education', 5th International AR and VR Conference, Munich, 12/6/2019 - 14/6/2019.

Lee, P.J., Park, S.H., Jung, T., Swenson, A., 2018. 'Effects of Exposure to Rural Soundscape on Psychological Restoration', 27/5/2018 - 31/5/2018, in The Euronoise2018 Proceedings, 8.

Presentations

Biggs, J., Swenson, A., Jackson, D., Trela, A., Cain, A., Birkett, J., Ersin, H.E., Lloyd, J., Green, B., MacDonald, L., Nguyen, K., Jiaotong, X., Noguiera, M.R., Collard, A., Chavez-Dawson, M., Keighley, T., Fox, S., 2024. 'Storytellers + Machines Conference, 2-4 July 2024', Modal Gallery SODA Talk.

Jackson, D., Swenson, A., 2023. 'Building a speculative history machine: AI generative storytelling in The Children of Talos Project', British Library, London.