Panellists

• Roma Patel

  Makers of Imaginary Worlds (Chair)

  Roma Patel is a scenographer and artist that make work for site-specific performance, theatre and interactive installations in UK and Europe. She develops performances that extend and explores the audience relationship to scenography.

  Her work lies at the intersection of theatre and interactivity. She has designed several site-specific performances for Irish Theatre Company, Corcadora, one of which was acquired for the permanent collections by Victoria and Albert Theatre Museum in 2008. Her work frequently included experimenting with technology for projection design, 3D modelling, VR and AR. She is currently a Visiting Artist at the Mixed Reality Lab, University of Nottingham, and is involved in artistic research that explores the potential of interactive scenography for Theatre for Young Audiences. Since 1998 she has designed installation, sets and worked in partnership with several arts organisation and Museums, Nottingham City Museums and Art Galleries, City Arts, Theatre Hullabaloo, London International Festival of Theatre, Theatre Centre, and Manchester Library Theatre.

• Caspar Addyman

  Dr Caspar Addyman is a developmental psychologist, writer and technologist. He has spent two decades studying how babies learn, with research on early cognition, language acquisition, time perception, and the developmental role of laughter. Formerly director of the InfantLab at Goldsmiths, University of London, he is currently Chief Insights Officer at PlayTandem.com, an AI start-up building tools for early childhood, and an extraordinary lecturer at Stellenbosch University heading an AI project for the Global Parenting Initiative.

  In 2016 he collaborated with Grammy-winner Imogen Heap to create The Happy Song, a piece of music scientifically designed to make babies happy. His books include the popular science book The Laughing Baby and the Babies Laugh picture book series published by Campbell Books. He has created & performed shows for audiences of babies at the Chelthenham & Northern Ireland Science Festivals, He is currently developing a new show based on his Babies Laugh books in collaboration with director Sarah Argent. Find out more at babies.lol.

• Caroline Zheng

  Caroline is a designer and researcher working at the intersection of creative design, Human-Computer Interaction, soft robotics and haptics design. Her work explores how robot might touch us humans in a way that feel safe, trusting and caring, alongside the social expectations, norms and ethics that shape robotic touch in care contexts.  

  She holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art in UK in Information Experience Design, where she designed a soft robotic sleeve simulating stroking touch which had been adopted in the Cancer Research UK-funded project ‘Improving care through soft robotic tactile intervention – towards a smarter compassionate experience in cancer treatment (SOFTLI)’ (2019-2021). She later led a postdoc fellowship at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, designing soft robotic touch systems for women’s health and care. 

  Caroline is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham and contributes to the UKRI Turing AI World-Leading Researcher Fellowship Somabotics: Creatively Embodying AI. As a parent of two young children, she shares a keen interest in how soft robotics can contribute to the wonderful world of childhood and early parenthood. She has contributed in the Garden project at the The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge, a workshop on Maternal Machines: Imagining Experiences in Perinatal Care (CHI2025), and the upcoming one in London: Amid Wonder and Discomfort: Pregnancy as a Design Space for Play (still open for registration), during the ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference 2026 playful touch technologies for C&C conference 2026.

• Siri Dybwik

  After graduating, Siri Dybwik moved to Stavanger where she was the initiator of dance in Cultural school, upper secondary school and college level. Working as a dance artist since 1990, she has been committed to developing her region, with a strong  focus on children and young people. She recieved the Stavanger Municipality Culture Award (2006) and the Rogaland County Council’s Culture Award (2022), in addition to receiving support from the Norwegian Directorate of Culture for the 2025-2028 period. Since dybwikdans was established in 1999, she has toured her artistic works in Norway, Europe, Asia and the USA building a repertoire of productions designed for children under five. Siri, together with Nils Christian Fossdal, is the initiator of Elephantteateret, which is Norway's first professional stage for children between 0-5 years.

  In addition to her practice with dybwikdans, she is a professor at the Faculty of Performing Arts, UiS. She led (October 2018- December 2021) the dissemination and research project “Performing Arts for ALL Children” which is a democratic art project aimed at ALL children, regardless of social class, ethnicity, cultural affiliation and religion. She currently is a member of the research group FILIORUM focusing on the artist's performer knowledge in the encounter with the youngest audience. Also, In the period August 2023 - December 2027, she will lead the artistic project "100 happy days" in Elefantteateret, a project that is an artistic, but also political project that focuses on children's rights to participate in art and cultural life, regardless of living conditions.

• Emily Godden

  Emily Godden (They/Them) works as an Academic, Artist and Creative Technologist in the space of immersive storytelling and social justice. They are the founder of Virtually There Studio CIC, set up to support humans with digital literacy and creativity. They are Course Director and Senior Lecturer for the Digital Media Production Course at Anglia Ruskin University. Emily completed their PhD titled: The Dunwich Rose: Exploring Sustainable Approaches to Developing Virtual Heritage with StoryLab which won the Jury Prize at the Innovate UK Immersive Tech Awards 2025.