Jose Montemayor Alba

Jose Montemayor Alba
Multidisciplinary Artist

Jose is a multidisciplinary artist, XR developer and psychonaut whose work are transcending traditional media. Jose’s multidisciplinary work explores areas ranging from photography, film, 3D animation, virtual cinematography, public speaking, art installations, projection mapping, live visuals for music (VJ), and developing transformative experiences in virtual and mixed reality technologies.

The Death Incubator: Mindful 360 Design in the VR Environment (Case Study)
Saturday, May 2, 2020 — 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

The Death Incubator is a blended digital-analog experiential learning program that provides individuals with the opportunity to explore their relationship to death. It is a collaboration between a visionary artist and VR developer and a mindfulness innovator and clinical psychologist who share a passion to blend ancient and modern wisdom and practices (including Virtual Reality) to create experiences that can transform consciousness.

The Death Incubator is an immersive and mindful deep dive into our beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes towards death and dying. The end of life is a profound and meaningful experience that we often fail to prepare for adequately.

The latest research on the transitions experienced in the dying process point to the benefits of increasing our death literacy. We need training in order to expand our understanding of how to relate to end of life experiences and develop more humane end of life processes and practices. The Death Incubator VR element is an artistic representation of a Near Death Experience (based on research findings from this literature). This is combined with preparatory and integration practices drawn from meditation, creative, psychological and philosophical traditions.

This work brings the best of mindfulness based practices and design principles and blends it with the incredible opportunities provided by the virtual reality environment. Critical in this work is the Mindful360 design approach and integration of mindfulness in the whole process of design, development and delivery. This ensures a mindful relationship to technology and ethical best practice when working with these powerful tools on this important topic.

Technology is often considered the antithesis of mindfulness. We will demonstrate the power of blended approaches that draw on the best of both worlds to support human flourishing and the development of consciousness.

Participants will come away with:

  • An understanding of transformative technology and the power of blending ancient and modern traditions
  • A description and understanding of the Mindful360 Design approach
  • The power of this approach to tackle a particularly important topic – death using data from qualitative studies of near death experiences