TLDR;

• I teach AR/MR at Stanford.

• The goal is simple: create AR/MR that is meaningful. (Let’s learn to do more than the usual lazy tech demos!)

• To achieve this, we blend comprehensive theoretical foundations with robust, hands-on learning and creation.

• We also add playfulness, art, and depth – depth is important!

• All courses culminate in students installing site-specific interactive AR/MR experiences all around campus.

People say:

“I was really impressed by what I saw. These experiences were unlike most of the things I've seen in the industry both in terms of depth and creativity.”
(Josh Mao @ Niantic/8thWall)

“This is a really great class! Barna is a very responsible teacher and has tons of experience in the augmented reality art space. I felt like I learned so much in the short span of 10 weeks. And it is so rewarding to see my final project to fruition in the end. Would highly recommend this class to anyone who is interested in augmented reality art.”
(former student, 2023)

”This is one of the best classes I’ve ever taken at Stanford”
(former student, 2022)

2023/2024/2025/2026

Augmented Reality: Placemaking and Storytelling is Stanford's first 4-unit course to explore public AR/MR through a comprehensive interdisciplinary lens. This class weaves together storytelling (storyliving), fine art, user experience design, interaction strategies, ethical considerations both in technology and documentary, XR programming, 3D, and site-specific creation tools and methods. Students don't just study AR theory; over 10 weeks (or an intensive 3-week sprint for some), they design, build, and install their own AR experiences in real public spaces across campus, for real audiences.

The guiding principle is what William Uricchio calls AR's dialogic relationship with physical space: for AR to be meaningful, the site must be an active partner, not a backdrop. Past student installations have included:

• a physical sculpture turned into a playful argument about appropriative art versus AI generation,

• Stanford's untold Black history made visible on the ground where it happened

• empty grassy fields brought alive with native bison and the unsung stories of Chinese workers who built the university

• a dried-out lake got filled with water and life again (reflecting on California's climate crisis)

• time capsules got animated (and told Stanford's history)

• at the Red Barn, audiences helped Eadweard Muybridge capture a galloping virtual horse (recreating the invention of the motion picture exactly where it first happened, in 1878)

• the over-regulated Main Quad became a childhood dreamscape, seen through a young girl's memory

• a Richard Serra sculpture got filled with personal data — passwords, anxieties, search histories — and asked visitors what they'd do with it

• the Rodin Sculpture Garden summoned real people from a life-changing trip to Paris, the bronze figures giving way to something far more personal

  …And the the list goes on!

2022/2023

Prof. Jamie Meltzer and I developed a re-designed course that uses Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality to explore the erased and unseen histories of the Stanford area. Students in this class utilize a variety of tools – Sound recordings, Photogrammetry, Volumetric Capture, 3D modeling, XR Programming – to tell immersive, interactive, and spatial stories. The aim of the projects is to find “forgotten” or neglected histories and bring these lesser-known stories of the past into the present – including but not limited to Stanford’s relationship to Indigenous communities, human rights activism, and the Stanford family.

2019/2020

In an exploratory class called Expanded Cinema, students use the 360 video tools, VR approach and 360 spatial sound design to tell immersive stories. Students use the conceptual framework of experimental cinema and documentary film to inform their work, while also pushing toward a new artistic language in this still-emerging form of VR storytelling. Students work in teams to create a series of short immersive pieces, culminating in a 3-5 minute 360 video and an immersive installation, with a keen emphasis on experimentation.

Acknowledgment

Since 2019, I've had the privilege of teaching XR at Stanford. My journey has been shaped significantly by colleagues and mentors from Budapest to Stanford. I'm deeply indebted to individuals like Jamie Meltzer, Camille Utterback, Jesse Flemming, and Geri Migielicz, who enriched my understanding of XR and pedagogy. Thinkers and writers such as Jaron Lanier, Jeremy Bailenson, William Uricchio, Rob Eagle, close collaborators like Dane Christensen, guest artists like Tamiko Thiel, Nancy Baker-Cahill or the publications/talk series at the MIT OpenDoclab have also profoundly impacted my identity as both an artist and educator. All courses I've taught are a testament to their influence and inspiration.