Andrea Shinyoung Kim is an interdisciplinary researcher and multi-media artist based in Los Angeles. Her work explores avatar embodiment, virtual idols, and cultural identity, with a focus on performativity in social VR. She is an alum of the MIT Open Documentary Lab, MIT Comparative Media Studies, and Duke Literature programs, and is currently a Fulbright Open Study/Research Fellow at the Seoul Institute of the Arts, where she looks at storytelling models from Korean mask dance and shamanic performance to design culturally-informed virtual worlds. Her digital media work spans from immersive (XR) and participatory to civic media forms. Previously, she worked with the Center for Global Women's Health Technologies at Duke University as the director of
The (In)visible Organ, a documentary film and an arts-based reproductive health education initiative.
Thesis:
Virtual Worldmaking: A Phantasmal Media Approach to VRChat
