We are Less Media Group, a group of XR enthusiasts running the educational program as an industry initiative in the region of Eastern Europe & Central Asia for the third year in a row. Working in VR since 2015, we’re inspired to share the knowledge and see more creative and talented artists working in the space.

Alina Mikhaleva, founder of Less Media Group and creator of the educational course, has been in the XR industry since 2015 following the early release of the Oculus headset. Alina specializes in Narrative XR and has been part of the industry attending leading immersive Festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, Cannes, and Venice Film Festival since 2016.

In 2020 & 2021 Less Media Group partnered with Venice Biennale to showcase Venice VR selection in Moscow as part of the Venice VR Satellite program.

In 2021, Alina was invited as Production Tutor to Venice VR College to mentor selected projects. Since 2020, Alina works in the social VR field running virtual events for the world’s largest companies on the ENGAGE XR platform.

In 2024, Alina was invited to be a judge on the immersive section of the Malta International Film Festival.

Projects produced by Less Media Group have been selected for College Biennale Immersive, European Creators’ Labs, Venice Production Bridge, New Images and many other leading festivals in the industry.

The program is developed in close partnership with the French Institute in Moscow.

To take a deep dive into XR as an art field. To spend 10 days with us, and meet some of the most amazing industry creators that work in immersive space. To travel across virtual worlds in the metaverse to find hidden artistic gems and explore some of the best experiences in the social VR world.

What do we offer?

The format is fully online and fully virtual. We will use Zoom to meet lecturers and learn about their work, but the majority of the class time we will be spending inside virtual reality worlds on platforms like ENGAGE, VRChat, Spatial, Resonite.

During 10 days, we will meet online for evening lectures and interactive deep dives over the weekends. From theory to practice – we’ll introduce you to the most cutting-edge tools that can be used to create VR from within VR and quickly prototype your experience.

We want you to imagine your dream exhibition space in XR, and come up with your first idea. During the course, you will be inspired by all the works that you’d see and your idea might change. At the end of the course, we will ask you to present your idea again and pitch it in virtual reality to a group of mentors and industry peers from around the world. After the course, we will help one selected idea to develop an XR exhibition prototype space. The results of the work will be presented at the Pitch event on December 10th, 2024.

We can not guarantee that your project idea will be funded immediately, but we can explain how project development is done and put your project in front of the decision-makers and industry experts who can help take your project forward.

What we can guarantee is that you’ll visit new virtual places, you’ll see some of the best and most important VR works and you’ll grow your network of people actively working in the field.

To participate. To be ready to dedicate your time (evenings on weekdays and daytime during weekends) to participate in the educational deep dive.

Communication languages for the project: English & Russian. It’s better if you have a level of comfort with both.

Hardware: you’ll need to have some equipment. You don't have to have a VR headset, but it is a big benefit if you already have it. PC or Mac is enough to start. You need to have a stable internet connection, you need to be able to join Zoom meetings, and download/install free apps on your devices.