Gabo Arora

Gabo Arora
Born
Queens, New York City, New York,
Occupation(s)Professor, Immersive artist, Director, United Nations, Creative Technologist
Employer(s)Johns Hopkins University, LIGHTSHED
Known forVirtual reality, Immersive art, Documentary
Websitegaboarora.com

Gabo Arora is an American filmmaker, creative technologist and Founder/CEO of LIGHTSHED, a studio focusing on emerging technologies. He is a professor at Johns Hopkins University, where he is the Founding Director of the new Immersive Storytelling and Emerging Technology (ISET) program and lab. Formerly, he was a Senior Policy Advisor for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN's first Creative Director,[1] with over 15 years of field experience. He has directed, produced and pioneered a series of virtual reality documentaries (Clouds Over Sidra, Waves of Grace,[2] My Mother's Wing)[3] for the United Nations that have premiered at film festivals, featured at the World Economic Forum in Davos, screened at the White House, and have exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art's inaugural program on immersive storytelling.

His VR experience, "The Last Goodbye", commissioned by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, with the LA Times calling it "game changing" and "transcending all the typical barriers of rectangular cinema."[4]

A native New Yorker, Gabo also holds honors degrees with distinction from NYU and Johns Hopkins University. He is a Davos World Economic Forum Arts and Cultural leader and was nominated for a term-membership[5] at the Council on Foreign Relations[6] by Francis Fukuyama. His work has been nominated for an Emmy, awarded a Cannes Lions, a Sheffield Doc/Fest award[7] for best documentary and has been featured in the New Yorker,[8] the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine, Fast Company, New York Times. He's been featured in the book The Fuzzy and the Techie[9] by Scott Hartley and his work has been covered widely in the Guardian,[10] Vice News,[11] Wired,[12] TED, NPR and PBS Newshour.

  1. ^ "United Nations News Centre - FEATURE: UN uses virtual reality to inspire humanitarian empathy". un.org. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  2. ^ Waves of Grace: A Virtual Reality Experience | WITHIN, retrieved 2017-09-03
  3. ^ "UN Uses Virtual Reality to Raise Awareness and Money". Fortune.com. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  4. ^ Zeitchik, Steven (2017-04-28). "Tribeca Film Festival: Five new VR projects you need to know". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  5. ^ "Membership Roster". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  6. ^ "Arts and Culture at Davos 2016". widgets.weforum.org. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  7. ^ "Sheffield Doc/Fest: Sheffield International Documentary Festival". sheffdocfest.com. Archived from the original on 2019-02-13. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  8. ^ "Lights, Camera, Virtual Reality!". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  9. ^ "The Fuzzy and the Techie: Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World (SSIR)". ssir.org. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  10. ^ Anderson, Mark (2015-12-31). "Can tearjerker virtual reality movies tempt donors to give more aid?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  11. ^ "How Virtual Reality Is Changing the Way the UN Thinks". Creators. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  12. ^ "The UN's New VR Doc Exposes a Forgotten Crisis". WIRED. Retrieved 2017-09-03.