Nikola Kunzová
PhD Student
Visual Explorer & Digital Experimentalist
I am a PhD student at the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. I earned my Master's degree in Graphic Design in 2023 and Bachelor's degree in Computer Graphics and Image Processing in 2020 at the same university.
Since my childhood I have been feeling a strong desire to create. This made me become a versatile creator finding home in graphic design and entertainment fields like game development and movie production. My main focus is currently on visual arts overlapping with interactive digital narratives and immersive worlds.
Research Interests
In September 2023, I started my PhD studies devoted to the research topic called Enhancing the Reading Experience with Virtual Reality. This journey already began with my Master's thesis, in which I explored the current state of the art of reading fiction through virtual reality. I found out that this potential genre of reading has not been explored in depth yet, and decided to make it my main research focus.
My intention is to find a balanced fusion of the traditional reading experience, digital narratives, and extended realities. I aim to identify, study and blend narrative aspects specific for reading and VR experiences, and demonstrate their combinations in various VR reading prototypes.
Upcoming Events
I am happy to tell you that I am going to present our paper Stories with Style: Narrative, Virtual, and Imaginary Spaces of Reading Fiction in Virtual Reality at the 23rd International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM 2024) happening from 1st to 4th December in Stockholm, Sweden!
Feel free to come to see my presentation on 2nd December within the section Interaction Techniques of XR, happening between 11:00 - 12:30.
Research Projects
Bookwander
2023
2023
A prototype exploring different approaches to reading fiction through VR.
Publications
"Bookwander: From Printed Fiction to Virtual Reality—Four Design Approaches for Enhanced VR Reading Experiences",
with Daniel Echeverri, in Interactive Storytelling (2023).
Awards
2023 Best Paper Award in the Student Paper category for the paper
"Bookwander: From Printed Fiction to Virtual Reality—Four Design Approaches for Enhanced VR Reading Experiences"
at the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS)
2023 Dean's Award for an Outstanding Final Thesis for Master's thesis "Immersive Reading in VR"
at the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
2020 Dean's Award for an Outstanding Final Thesis for Bachelor's thesis "3D Printed Fabric"
at the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Special Mentions
2024 Special Mention in the #Students Demo Competition
at LAVAL VIRTUAL 2024
Nikola Kunzová | PhD Student, Visual Explorer & Digital Experimentalist
Feel free to contact me at nikkun (at) mail.muni.cz .