Showcase

Meet the innovative Start-Ups and Immersive Technology Exhibitors at EDGE26.

The Immersive Zone is produced by Culture Works in collaboration with Eirmersive, University of Galway’s Centre of Creative Technologies and Atlantic Technological University.

START UP ZONE

Black Hole Studio

Black Hole Studio is a creative multimedia studio based in the West of Ireland, working across photography, video, animation, audio and mixed‑media production. We specialise in visual storytelling that bridges artistic practice, cultural value and commercial impact, helping organisations, creatives and communities communicate with clarity, purpose and emotional resonance.

Our approach is concept-led and collaborative. From early idea development through to final delivery, we provide end‑to‑end creative production rooted in strong narrative thinking, thoughtful craft and close partnership with our clients and collaborators. While we work with contemporary, professional production tools, technology is never the driver; instead, it serves the story, the message and the people at the centre of each project.

Talegate Media & Publishing CLG

Talegate connects overlooked story-makers with curious audiences worldwide.

Talent is universal. Opportunity is not.

We believe that compelling stories don’t come from the usual sources; they are born in the rural and overlooked communities that legacy industry consistently doesn’t see.

We bypass traditional gatekeepers, returning cultural and economic value to the story-makers who earned it. Remote-first isn’t a pivot—it’s our standard. We bring collaboration, investment, and expertise to every stage of story-making, from raw spark to audience delight.

From digital content and film to immersive games and page-turning prose, at Talegate we make Good Stories, Well Told.

ScriptGuru

ScriptGuru by Mekkato is an ethical, creator-first AI platform for scripted content development — built for screenwriters, development executives, and creative teams at production companies, streamers, and broadcasters worldwide.

Developed by Mekkato CreaTech Studio Ltd., an Irish creative technology company headquartered at CREW Hub Galway, ScriptGuru is currently in alpha and demoing exclusively to key industry stakeholders ahead of a Q1 2027 public launch.

Backed and supported by the Western Development Commission, PorterShed, Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers, and the NDRC Pre-Accelerator. Top 5 Finalist, Creative Business Cup 2024.

Starilum

Starilum is a creative tech company founded by Dora Jean Gillespie, a multi–award-winning artist who is now scaling her proven formula for success to the music industry.Starilum helps music rights owners unlock the full potential of their catalogues through AI-driven intelligence, combined with an outsourced art department specialising in animation and immersive audience experiences.We empower music owners to make smarter release decisions that expand reach, boost engagement, and reduce the effort required to analyse data and create trend-driven visuals designed to connect communities with culture. Unlike traditional “shoot-in-the-dark” release strategies, our solution delivers predictive, dynamic, and interactive visuals including AI-powered immersive and AR experiences that captivate and connect audiences.

Solasine

Solasine is a Dublin-based multimedia studio and artist collective creating interactive, immersive, and digitally driven experiences where art and science meet. Drawing on decades of combined experience across events, film, architecture, advertising, and visual art, Solasine works across projection mapping, interactive installations, augmented and virtual reality, animation, motion graphics, and 3D design. Led by artists Joey Baker and Conan Wynne, the collective blends traditional art practices with emerging technologies to build work that is tactile, atmospheric, and exploratory, from festival environments and public artworks to large-scale visual storytelling projects such as Lonnaigh do Sholas / Shine Your Light for Dublin Winter Lights.

Fogcore

Fogcore is an Irish video games company and we’ve created a demo for a third-person retro mystery game steeped in Irish mythology and folklore. Set in the throes of the 2008 crash, the games events take place the week of Samhain and utilise Irish culture and mythos as a core USP. Wayside is a dying industrial town in rural Ireland where myth and superstition are part of everyday life. Devastated by the economic state post-Celtic Tiger, it feels like a place lost in time.

We were awarded funding from the first IndieDev Prototype Fund and created our company in September of 2024 and we plan to launch on Steam in Q3 of 2026.

VAMORI

VAMORI is a division of Global VAM Ltd focused on transforming how businesses onboard and train their teams. It creates, bespoke, immersive and on-site orientation and induction experiences tailored for industries such as construction, retail, and hospitality. Designed to be accessible in hundreds of languages, VAMORI ensures inclusive, engaging, and efficient onboarding that helps organisations integrate staff quickly and effectively while improving workforce readiness and consistency.

Ireland Exclusive

Ireland Exclusive provides exclusive corporate gifting, branding, and design services, creating bespoke, high-quality products for clients in Ireland and abroad.

At Ireland Exclusive, our mission is to celebrate Irish design & craftsmanship by creating designing heritage inspired products. We support local talent, foster sustainability & aim to grow Ireland Exclusive into a globally recognised brand showcasing the best of Irish design worldwide.

Rún Stiúideo

Rún Stiúideo is a Conamara based game development studio that create video games inspired by Irish folklore and mythology. Their debut game, The Corner Cafe, has been featured by District Magazine, The Weird Ireland Podcast, RTÉ Radio 1, BreakingNews.ie and more. They also provide tailored services for clients, ranging from engineering & development to music composition.

Stray Street

Stray Street is an animated series for ages 4-8, in which you follow a curious stray cat as every day he moves in with a new family and learns about what makes them special. The project has been in development for just under a year. The primary focus is to educate children on diversity, whether culture, religion, disability or anything else.

Saorla

Saorla is an Irish medical innovation company designing solutions for paediatrics, family care, and women’s health. We focus on improving clinical experiences by combining human-centred design with real clinical insight, creating products that support both patients and the people caring for them.

Fíbín Films

Fíbín Films is a vibrant home for brilliant creative people who share their passion for original movies and television. They bring a unique perspective from the edge, producing progressive work with cultural relevance that reaches international audiences.

Table Topple

Table Topple is a teller of tales that bend and branch. We are an innovator in interactive entertainment, aiming to make reading more accessible, develop media literacy and spark lifelong passions for storytelling.

Studio RÚCAĊ

Studio Rúcach is an independent game development studio that does contracting and service work alongside creating our own IP game projects.

Nuwa

Nuwa is a meeting point for creatives and technologists. We build: B2B2B platforms that connect organisations across sectors to deliver services neither could build alone.

We operate across four domains. In humanitarian response and civil protection, we support preparedness and disaster risk reduction. In cultural heritage, we help galleries, libraries, archives and museums share history across borders. In the creative and performing arts sector, we strengthen social cohesion through shared experience. Each platform is designed to grow the business of our creative industry partners while serving institutional end clients.

Our direct customers are European creative and cultural industries who build on our infrastructure. Their clients include GLAMs, international humanitarian organisations, UN agencies, civil protection authorities, national and local governments, and emergency services.

IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY ZONE

Algorithm Productions with Cartoon Saloon

Dublin-based creative studio Algorithm partnered with the award-winning Cartoon Saloon to reimagine their vibrant animated worlds for location-based entertainment (LBE) venues.

Using elements from Cartoon Saloon’s hit preschool series Silly Sundays, the team launched a collaborative research project to explore what it takes to bring 2D stories to life in 360° environments. From artistic adaptation to immersive technology, this team dove into the process, challenges, and surprising possibilities of transforming traditional animation into unforgettable spatial experiences.

Algorithm Productions is an award winning creative production studio with experience in location based entertainment and XR. Algorithm blends creativity and cutting-edge technology to create stunning visual experiences. In short, the entire studio is built around one central motivation – creating beautiful and memorable experiences that bring people together.

Cartoon Saloon is an award-winning Irish animation studio based in Kilkenny, known for its distinctive hand-drawn style and storytelling. Its films, including The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers, have earned international acclaim and multiple Academy Award nominations.

Glasseye

GLASSEYE is a creative technology production company specialising in immersive, architectural-scale experiences that transform how organisations communicate, engage and connect with audiences.

Internationally recognised for work across large-format LED environments, XR and interactive media, GLASSEYE combines cinematic storytelling with advanced real-time technologies to turn complex ideas into powerful, experiential content.

With over 20 years’ experience in enterprise communications and creative production, GLASSEYE work with enterprise, cultural and public sector partners to apply immersive technologies across learning, engagement, brand experience and public storytelling. Our approach helps organisations simplify complexity, increase understanding and create meaningful, memorable interactions.

From flagship installations like The Summer Palace and The Intelligence Garden at Outernet London to bespoke enterprise environments, GLASSEYE is helping organisations move beyond static content—towards dynamic, programmable spaces that inform, educate and inspire.

RealSim

RealSim supplies digital city twin solutions to city authorities and semi-state bodies to help plan and deliver and cities future development.

JunieXR

JunieXR is designing the infrastructure for accessible and inclusive media on VOD and streaming platforms. ‘Junie AccessStream’ is an API-connected plugin that enables personalised accessibility for audiences, with sign language provision and adaptive captioning. Helping media services providers achieve regulatory compliance and increase the availability of accessible media on their existing platforms.

JunieXR is an innovation start-up, based in Greystones, Co Wicklow. Founded by Grace Dinan to bridge the gap between cutting-edge technology and the communities, industries, and use cases that are too often overlooked. With a core focus on accessibility and inclusivity, we ensure that emerging technologies are designed for everyone — so no one is left behind.

ICØN

ICØN combines legally verified identity + contract-backed rights, creator-controlled licensing guardrails (permissions, pricing, revocation), and platform rails so brands and platforms can deploy AI likeness legally, safely and compliantly at scale.

ICØN operationalises consent with digitally documented approvals and audit trails, then convert rights and usage boundaries into repeatable licensing workflows that protect talent while unlocking compliant revenue across sport, media, and brand partnerships.

Monster Theory

Monster Theory is an award-winning immersive design studio based in the northwest of Ireland, specialising in immersive storytelling and interactive experiences. We provide creative and technological services across virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR), projection mapping, animation, and experiential design. With over 10 years of experience, we help brands, cultural institutions, and event organisers engage audiences through compelling immersive content, both locally and internationally.

VP West

VP West is a virtual production studio operating from Galway. Our scalable team delivers production-ready locations—from library environments to bespoke builds—so you can capture more setups in one place. One stage, many locations—zero unit moves.

Using real-time digital environments, camera tracking and LED display technology, we change the world on the stage—cutting travel, transport, weather risk and downtime. The result is a predictable, cost-controlled alternative to multi-location shoots with faster turnarounds and consistent results.

With our established delivery network we can quickly assemble the right package: LED wall supply, studio space, virtual production supervision (on-set leadership), tracking, camera/lens, robotics/motion control—and green screen when needed. We also provide training from virtual production fundamentals to on-set workflows. Meet us at EDGE26 and explore creative options that are often impractical on a traditional schedule.

YOU ARE HERE is a creative wellbeing project using 360° film, VR, soundscapes and sensory objects to bring the restorative power of nature to hospital settings. Developed since 2023 by artists Manuela Corbari and Yvonne Cullivan and supported by Saolta Arts, it has engaged patients, families and staff at Galway University Hospitals. Participants experience short, immersive journeys to natural environments, supported by tactile, tsingle use sensory boxes. Following successful pilot phases and an exhibition, the project aim to expand through further research, refining participatory methods, exploring ways to measure wellbeing, and enhancing the use of emerging technologies to deepen impact across healthcare and cultural contexts.

Brú Theatre

Brú Theatre are a theatre company based in Galway, started in 2018 . They work bilingually between Irish and English and tour internationally with work that explores the landscapes,language and literature of where they are from through a contemporary lens. They recently won a UK OFFIE award for Not A Word at the Barbican in London.

Ar Ais Arís, an Irish language VR experience, had a sold out national tour as part of the Arts Council Brightening Air festival and the Galway International Arts Festival and has just toured to Washington DC and Toronto. The core team is Artistic Director James Riordan and Producer Jill Murray.

Sit Stand Smoke

With separate but overlapping practices, Linda Curtin & David Keating are fascinated by the process of making co-authored work. Curtin’s background is as a visual artist and participatory filmmaker working in immersive art. Keating comes from screenwriting, feature film directing and physical theatre.

Sharing a passion for emerging technologies, immersive narratives, and character-driven stories – especially when they combine in virtual reality – they both approach subjects such as how best to engage audiences in questions such as “what constitutes real?” and “where is the edge of reality?”. About SIT STANDS SMOKE: Artwork in VR by CURTIN // KEATING

Set in 1921 and the present day, SIT STAND SMOKE inhabits three interlocking worlds.

Exploring motivations for artist Seán Keating to create his iconic Irish War of Independence painting Men Of The South; SIT STAND SMOKE advocates a quiet revolution that could still rise from a host of lost promises from 100 years ago.

Provocative, poignant, personal, shot in 360 stereoscopic + volumetric capture; this 18 minute 3DOF VR experience unfolds in a fine-art packing crate, a VR studio casting session, a ghostly encounter, and the lush Irish landscape.

Centre for Creative Technologies

The Centre for Creative Technologies is the first research centre of its kind in Ireland, bringing together researchers, artists, technologists and communities to explore what becomes possible when creative practice and emerging technology meet.

Based in the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies at University of Galway, we work with collaborators across the University – from Computer Science and Engineering to Medicine, Geography, and Education – as well as with artists, cultural organisations, and industry partners. Together we explore how creativity and technology can address some of the most pressing challenges of our time: from healthcare and climate change to the future of how we learn, make, and tell stories.

Rocío Romero Grau

Rocío Romero Grau is a multidisciplinary artist and PhD candidate in the Centre for Creative Technologies working with emergent neurotechnologies able to capture and analyse brain activity. She repurposes electroencephalographic headbands (EEG) to convert brain data into visual and musical forms, opening the scope of alternative representations and interpretations of neural signals. Through this interdisciplinary approach, she bridges art, science, and technology, inviting audiences to reflect on the relationship between mind, machine, and creative expression, as well as the possibilities of reimagining data as a material for creative inquiry.

Hermano Luz Rodrigues

Hermano Luz Rodrigues is a PhD Candidate at the University of Galway Centre for Creative Technologies and holds a Master in Design Studies Degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His research explores how visualisation technologies shape understanding and decision-making in contemporary urban design and public art projects.

About the work: “Day–Night Photos: Backyard” is an interactive, AI-driven visualisation built around a static photograph. A physical dial serves as a control interface, allowing the viewer to manipulate simulated lighting conditions. As the dial is adjusted, the image appears to shift through different times of day (morning, noon, night) despite the underlying photograph’s contents remaining unchanged.

Jane Cassidy

Jane Cassidy, a Galway City artist and educator, works across installation, video, music, electronics, and theatre design. She creates immersive audiovisual environments that evoke synesthesia, merging sound and image into meditative experiences. Her practice is driven by accessibility, ecology, embodiment, and collaborative, multi disciplinary engagement.

Imvizar

Imvizar revolutionises storytelling through truly immersive, storytelling experiences. We are pushing the boundaries through our user-centric interaction design process to create experiences which evoke emotion and connection unlike any other. Over the last three years we have launched over 100 augmented reality experiences in 11 countries, for clients such as Salesforce, Bupa, Spike Island, Grant Thornton and many more. This year we will open spatial storytelling to creators around the world by launching Lureo, the world’s first no-code spatial storytelling platform.

5G Share

Learn more about ATU’s 5G SHARE a European project which develops Extended Reality (XR) labs powered by a private 5G standalone network and on-campus edge computing delivered by Vodafone Ireland.

Save the Date - EDGE26 - 21 May 2026