About Jessie
Jessie Hughes is an internationally-recognised Australian new media artist and creative technologist, her works having exhibited most notably at Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Tate Gallery of London, and Marche Du Film Festival De Cannes. Hughes holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interactive and Visual Design, having completed her studies at Brisbane’s Queensland University of Technology, Australia; San Diego State University, USA; Royal College of Art, UK; and Sonoda Women’s University, Japan. Jessie has developed innovative media works all over the world for the likes of Oculus, Adobe, and many international non-for-profits, to inspire and drive social change. In 2016, Hughes was named one of Australia’s Future Changers by the Foundation for Young Australians for her commitment to using digital innovation for positive social impact. She has presented on panels including Australian Centre for Moving Image Conversations, Australian Virtual Reality Film Festival, Girls for Change Leadership Summit, State Library Summer Festival, Network Ten’s Children’s TV shows, and has been featured in over 70+ media articles in radio, newspaper and TV, discussing emerging mediums. In late 2016, Jessie was invited to Facebook Headquarters by Oculus, to direct and lead the creation of a multinational virtual reality project, with her piece since having toured eminent film festivals and has been used to inform and inspire political delegates. In 2017, Hughes was supported by the Foundation for Young Australians Young Social Pioneers program to further developed her social enterprise in VR creation, specifically in the field of VR for social impact and education. In 2018, Jessie was selected to represent Australia at the United Nation’s Sustainable Developmental Goals Innovation Lab, Unleash, bringing together 1,000 innovators from 130 different countries to build lasting solutions to The Global Goals. Hughes’ solution won Gold in Singapore and was named the winning solution for SDG4 ‘Quality Education’. Hughes was also awarded the prestigious Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artist Fellowship that year. In 2019, Hughes was awarded the nationally-competitive Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to investigate best practices for VR storytelling as a tool for social impact. Jessie is currently interviewing leaders at the forefront of emerging media and technology for social good, with her findings to be shared with the not-for-profit community to further advance understanding in the space of using XR for good. This year, Hughes also co-founded a ‘virality’ data-analytics product, currently under construction with intent to make waves in the music industry using patterns in digital meme culture. In addition to her work in the tech sphere, Jessie has worked in the not-for-profit sector for the past five years, driving fundraising efforts for both national and international nonprofits. Committed to education and knowledge-sharing, she regularly shares her learnings with students of ranging backgrounds, and is a loud advocate for using technology creatively for social change. Professionally, Jessie works as a Design Strategist, Interaction Designer and Creative Technology Consultant, playing at the cross-intersection of design, technology, art, research and strategy for social innovation.
