Tobías Palma Stade

Dr Tobías Palma Stade is a Chilean-Italian scholar, filmmaker, writer, and storyteller, with a strong professional interest in interdisciplinarity. He holds a PhD in Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media by Creative Practice from the University of York. His dissertation focused on hands-off, instinct-based interactive models for cinematic virtual reality, adapting standard filmmaking methods into virtual reality workflows.

After his PhD, his practice has been oriented to the study of VR’s potential to generate and enhance feelings of empathy, particularly around humanitarian causes. Through the project FIST: Fundraising and Immersive Storytelling, driven by the Digital Creativity Labs in the University of York and the Council for British Archaeology, Tobías has experimented in the production of VR documentaries for fundraising and volunteering purposes.

On the side of his research in film and media, Tobías has developed a strong interest in decolonization and decolonial narratives. Since 2019, he has been one of the heads of Conferencia Ventana, an independent academic conference focused on decolonization and decolonial studies in and from Latin America, driven by postgraduate students and early-career researchers from Latin America and Africa. Ventana has been supported by the IGDC since 2020 and has established networking links with the Universidad Autónoma de México, the Universidade Estadual de Ceará in Brazil, and the journal Tensões Mundiais.

His research interests include participatory practices in audio-visual media, participatory storytelling, decolonial narratives, post-human condition in the arts, interactive storytelling, among others. He is also a published novelist, musician, and generally a jack of all trades.