Hi, I'm

Nikhat 🥀

A creative technologist with a desire for crafting intuitive and immersive experiences that blend art, technology, and storytelling.

My journey has been driven by a passion for innovation and a commitment to designing experiences that engage and inspire. My practice spans interactive installations and cutting-edge applications, with an aim to create meaningful connections between people and digital media.

I hold a MSc. in Interactive Digital Media from Trinity College Dublin, where I am also pursuing a PhD researching in AI Avatars, motion capture technology, animation pipelines and their impact on user immersion. I am particularly interested in collaborating on projects involving extended reality (XR) design & development, narrative design, and user experience (UX) design.

Recent Works

01.
Not I: A VR Theatre Experience
role: XR Designer | Project manager
category
: XR Design
timeline: 4 months
tech-stack: Unreal Engine, Plastic
about: Not I, a dramatic monologue by Samuel Beckett released in the year 1972 was recreated in virtual reality at PIX-ART. The play features two characters: Mouth and Auditor. The aim of this project was to create an environment where the viewer emulates the role of the auditor and moves beyond the passive role of an audience member into a more embodied, participatory actor. This intimate relationship allows the viewer to be wholly immersed into the play. When the viewer puts on the headset, the space they are welcomed into is a dark room, with grass on the floor for embodiment, and the mouth greets the viewer. It is visualised higher than the eye-line of the viewer in a scaled-up form to add to the immersion.

My role in the project was to cover the technical and design aspects. This included developing the Mouth character using Unreal Engine's MetaHumans, and capturing facial performance with the Live Link Face app. I handled the facial animation pipeline: from recording, cleanup, and integration to documentation, ensuring that the expressiveness of the monologue was preserved in real time.

Not I was showcased at the University of Edinburgh in June, 2025.

Team: Neill O'Dwyer (Principal Investigator), Nicholas Johnson (Creative Director), Enda Bates (Sound Designer), Brenda (Voice Artist / Actor)

02.
Spacescape: An Interactive Journey Through The Cosmos
role: XR Designer | Project manager
category
: Extended Reality Design
timeline: 3 months
tech-stack: Unreal Engine, Touchdesigner, Ableton, Github
about: The aim of my team for Spacescape was to achieve a real-time interactive immersive experience that would take the viewer on a memorable journey through space in a live setting. The narrative takes the viewers from one universe into another through a wormhole which eventually leads to experiencing nothingness in the face of a blackhole. Kinect Azure was used for motion detection and up to two viewers could interact with the visual objects and audio in the scene. A set up was also arrange for the audience to enjoy the experience without interacting with it.

As the Project Manager, I was responsible for overseeing the timely delivery of the project while ensuring it achieved its highest cinematic potential. I handled planning meetings, set clear deadlines and goals, and liaised with external partners to arrange equipment, space setup, and technical support. Beyond managerial duties, I also took on key production responsibilities, including asset management, workflow structuring, and designing the interactive elements in the scene: visual interactions across all levels. Please visit here for more videos and images capturing the whole journey.

Spacescape was presented at the Science Gallery for the IDM Showcase 23, Dublin and a non-interactive VR version of it was shown at Rendr Festival 24, Belfast.
4 people raising their hands towards a projected graphics.Two people in front of space projected blackhole.Two people in front of space projected graphics.A couple watching the space visuals projected on the wall.
03.
Kildare Youth Theatre VR Play: A Workshop
role: Technical Demonstrator
category
: XR Design, Community Collaboration
timeline: 1.5 months
tech-stack: Unity, VR Chat
about: KYT VR Play is a collaboration with the Kildare Youth Theatre group to explore social VR and for the young artists from outside of Dublin to gain exposure to creative projects with technical integration. Over a short but intensive workshop, participants were guided through the process of developing a virtual play. Without a fixed script or structure, the workshop encouraged the group to familiarise themselves with VR tools, brainstorm collaboratively, and shape a creative journey that culminated in an interactive, game-like virtual performance with a live virtual audience on presentation day.

For this project, I worked as a Technical Demonstrator. I supported participants in using VR headsets, setting up a private virtual space within VRChat, and guided them through avatar design. I helped integrate their custom avatars into the VRChat environment, ensuring that their creative ideas were fully realised in the final performance. I also facilitated group discussions and ideation by helping translate abstract play ideas into VR mechanics, encouraging collaboration between participants, and ensuring each young artist felt empowered to contribute.

Note: Due to ethics & GDPR reasons, the supporting video hasn't been uploaded on the website. Please reach out to view the play in its video format.

04.
delirium
role: Game Designer
category
: Game Design, Narrative Design
timeline: 1 month
tech-stack: Twine, Html, Javascript, CSS
about: delirium is a horror fantasy narrative fiction game created to enthral the player in a dimension from where there are little ways to escape. Heavily narrative based, it follows a linear structure with multiple life-changing endings. This project was designed and developed for the Games Design module at IDM in Trinity College Dublin.

"When you wake up where you aren’t meant to be, what do you do? When there’s a disassociation between your body and mind, what do you? Explore the darkness that shares your world and what happens when it notices you."
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