Kanthi Ananthagopal is associate designer at MODE Studios, assisting the chief creative officer in the design development and the creation of concept development assets. Originally from Bangalore, India, she is a trained architect practiced in creating human spaces in real life, who is using that expertise to design human experiences in virtual worlds.
Bob Bonniol: What moment or event in your life set you on the path to a creative profession?
Kanthi Ananthagopal: It’s strange because I come from a family of engineers and educators but from a very young age I was certain that a traditional career wasn’t for me. I was always inclined to the arts and entertainment and spent a lot of time honing my craft but I wasn’t sure it was a lucrative career choice. After university, I went through the motions and got a corporate 9-5 job, but I discovered I wasn't content professionally. After almost two years of working as a licensed architect in India, watching more "find your passion" keynotes than I'd like to admit, and assuring my parents a career in entertainment was a viable option, I moved across the world to learn and work with the best in the industry.
BB: Tell me about the architectural education. Why did you head in that direction? How did you discover that you wanted to practice more than just architecture?
KA: An education in architecture was actually a compromise between my parents and me. Like most South Asian parents, they wanted me to have a traditional degree to fall back on and I could only explore my options after graduating. Since I was confident that the sciences were not for me, I suggested that I study architecture, which I thought would provide a nice mix of design and technical expertise. The best thing that ever happened to me was becoming an architect. It not only gave me a strong design foundation but also instilled in me the conceptual framework of visualizing human experiences and designing places based on the concept of interactivity and provoking an emotional response. Working with a studio on hospitality and commercial projects reminded me of my interests in entertainment and guest experience design. My background made the career transition quite seamless as well as giving me a unique set of capabilities in this crazy industry.
BB: Tell me what changed coming out of California Institute of the Arts. What did you see that interested you?
KA: CalArts was the ideal place for me to crossover from being an architect in India to being a designer in the United States. It was a very supportive community where my existing abilities were not only valued, but also nurtured and grown in order to help me be the best creative I could be. I was able to explore my artistry in numerous mediums through collaboration during my time at CalArts—from theater to film, themed entertainment to immersive experiences, I was able to do it all!
My passion for creating shared experiences permeated through all of my endeavors; I wanted to create thought-provoking, engaging, community-driven events. The pandemic definitely compelled me to consider how I may transcend the boundaries of conventional entertainment concepts and that has been my primary focus.
BB: How do humans best share community experiences? What moves them the most?
KA: Shared community experiences are evidence of a fundamental part of being human. We all have stories to share. Of our families, our jobs, and our life experiences. We refer to myths, folklore, and characters from TV shows to explain things to ourselves and to others. We construct internal narratives to help us make sense of the world. We can share information through stories in a way that elicits an emotional response. They help us to understand that information and each other, and it makes the information memorable. While we may now share tales in a variety of ways, there's still something to be said for gathering together. For both the presenter and the audience, the encounter creates something special. It's all about cultivating a personal relationship with your audience, whether it's one person or a hundred. Because you know the participants have a role to play, you draw them in and make them feel welcome in the experience.
While we don't all share the same experiences, we do all share a similar array of emotions, fears and hopes. When those feelings, anxieties, and hopes are presented to us as part of a narrative, a film, a concert, an experience, they create a connection between the audience and the performer. That relationship, which recognizes our commonalities while also encouraging understanding despite our differences, is the backbone of building a strong community.
BB: What is the future of shared experiences? How will the metaverse change things?
KA: Music, theater, cinema, and immersive experiences all have a well-constructed arc of characters, narrative, and presentation, according to a conventional definition of entertainment. In that light, these were experiences that one could select when and how to consume. As I see it, the future of shared experiences will be woven throughout our lives, in virtually every context. In one sentence, the metaverse is basically like stepping inside the internet. The metaverse is a platform that will eliminate all disparities in access, physical limitations, and paradigms. Social media and other media platforms presently are quite one-dimensional and limit users in their capabilities for communication and engagement. With the advent of the metaverse, humans will have no limitations except imagination.
Just like the internet was unrecognizably elementary in the 90s, the metaverse is also still bare bones and unpolished. However, it doesn’t take too much imagination to foresee the future applications of the metaverse, especially once new VR, AR, network, and graphics technology renders the metaverse looking near-identical to real life.
Bob Bonniol is the chief creative officer at MODE Studios and the founder of metaMODE, where he brings his extensive experience on web3, blockchain, NFTs, game engines, and immersive experiences to drive strategy and metaversal engagement in the first hybrid experience agency in the metaverse. He has shared his experience in the industry as an educator at the California Institute for the Arts, Yale University School of Theatre, North Carolina School for the Arts, and the Banff Center.