From photography to musician websites to Flash to now AR, Lafiya Watson Ramirez combines visual and experience creation with storytelling. She tells her own story about how she moved from photography to web and interactive design into being inspired by Pokemon Go to pursue Augmented Reality (AR) through Snap Studios and a residency there. She shares some of her projects and her ideas for future projects.

Guest: Multidisciplinary artist Lafiya Watson Ramirez

Lafiya Watson Ramirez is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in AR development, web development, graphic design, and photography. Her strength lies in combining her array of skills to produce unique digital content. Over the years, Lafiya has created websites for musicians, artists, and non-profit organizations. Her photographs of musicians have been featured on billboards, various publications, and television programs including on BET and PBS NewsHour. For eight years, Lafiya worked as the Coordinator of Electronic Media at Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts. She returned to freelancing in 2019 to pursue her latest passion, Augmented Reality. She was part of an artist residency program at Snapchat in 2020 and has since become a verified Snapchat developer. Lafiya has been a part of a few hackathons including MIT Reality Hack, 5th Wall Forum, and the Musical Theatre Factory XR Garage experience. She has also developed AR filters for clients, most notably for The Museum of the City of New York. Most recently, she worked on a proof of concept with artist and choreographer Koryn Wicks for a location based AR walk through LA’s Cobb Estate. Lafiya’s main focus is on creating engaging and interactive storytelling games and experiences, especially for use with wearable devices.Mentioned Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/badchickstudios
• @Spectacles showcase: https://twitter.com/Spectacles/status/1538515192249720833
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/badchickstudios/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lafiyawatson/ 
• Bad Chick Studios: https://badchickstudios.com 
• Emily Wapnick, https://www.emiliewapnick.com/
• TEDxBend: https://www.ted.com/talks/emilie_wapnick_why_some_of_us_don_t_have_one_true_calling 
• Big Magic: https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/big-magic/ 
• Wikitude: https://www.wikitude.com/ 
• Vuforia: https://www.ptc.com/en/products/vuforia
• Unity: https://unity.com/ 
• Flash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash 
• Ghosts in the Machine, with Koryn Wicks, location-based AR walkthrough LA’s Cobb Estate: https://korynwicks.com/ongoing/ 
• MIT Reality Hack: https://www.mitrealityhack.com/ 

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