Designer
Studio Bahia

Renia Papathanasiou is sound engineer and XR designer, developer, and producer. She completed her studies at the Department of Music Technology and Acoustics of the Hellenic Mediterranean University in Rethymno, Crete and she holds a Master of Arts in "Art, virtual reality and multi-user systems of artistic expression" (a collaboration between the Athens School of Fine Arts and the department of Arts and Technologies of the Image of the Paris 8 University). Since 2013 her research concentrates in extended reality systems and artistic interactive installations as well as in the involvement of extended reality systems in education especially addressed to special-needs populations via ludic environments. Her individual and team works have been presented in several conferences and festivals, including the IEEE VR2015 in Arles, the Digital Storytelling in Times of Crisis in Athens, the International Conference: The Future of Education, 5th Edition (2015) in Florence-Italy, Festival Miden in Kalamata, the 5th International eLife Dual Congress in Greece, the Invisible Cities Conference (University of Athens, Communication and Media Department) in Athens, the exhibition “Dream Minds in Virtual Bodies” at the metamatic Taf gallery in Athens, in Layer One Conference Greece 2018 etc. Since 2016 she works also as a tutor in several educational seminars on design and creation of immersive interactive experiences using XR technologies and
game development, in collaboration with the Onassis Foundation, Panteion University and Space Under and since 2018 she co-organizes the Global Game Jam Athens. She is the co-founder and Managing Director of ViRA | Virtual Reality Applications, a company founded in 2016 based in Greece that focuses on the design and development of XR applications and game development. Since 2019 works in Pausilypon Films and Documatism as a project manager focusing mainly on interactive documentary films and installations. Currently she is a PhD Candidate at the School of Film of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.