Drawing from the GLOW exhibition's Curiosity Cabinet collection, this talk excavates critical but overlooked contributions to XR technology innovation between 1980-2012. Through an examination of unique artifacts and ephemera – from early haptic interfaces and computational supercomputer designs to ground-breaking Virtual Reality installations and Augmented Reality (AR) eyewear prototypes – the talk reveals how women innovators established many foundational elements of today's XR technologies.

The Curiosity Cabinet artifacts documented watershed developments including the first technique for haptic textures (Margaret Minsky), the first VR movie (Nicole Stenger), groundbreaking computational visualisation systems (Donna Cox), and early AR display innovations that influenced modern smart glasses (Rebecca Allen).

Through these tangible traces, I uncover how experimental and artistic works often fade into obscurity during periods of technological commercialisation, while illuminating the sustained impact of gender-diverse innovation across decades of XR development.

The GLOW Curiosity Cabinet served as both archive and archaeology – preserving crucial creative technology pre-histories while excavating important narratives of innovation that challenge dominant histories concerning the evolution of XR technology.

Speaker Info:

Sarah Atkinson is Professor of Screen Media at King's College London, Editor of Routledge Resources Online: Screen Studies, and co-editor of Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. Sarah has published widely on the screen and immersive industries. As an Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Fellow, she curated GLOW: Illuminating Innovation, an exhibition showcasing ground-breaking creativity by women in technology at various locations on Strand Aldwych, London. The exhibition stems from her forthcoming book with Vicki Callahan: Mixed Realities: Gender & Emergent Media (Wayne State University Press, 2025).