Dr Aneta Postek

Bio

Dr Aneta Postek-Mioduszewska is a researcher, academic and creative technology practitioner whose work brings together immersive media, virtual production, film, animation, design and emerging technologies. At UCA she is a Senior Lecturer in Immersive and Emerging Technologies and Course Leader for BA (Hons) Virtual and Augmented Reality at Farnham. She leads the strategic development of the course and contributes to teaching across Digital Art, Games and the Film School, including school-wide elective Virtual Production. Her studio teaching connects technical fluency with concept development, critical reflection and professional collaboration. Accessibility, inclusive learning and the development of an independent creative voice are central to her approach.

Aneta holds a PhD in Media Production from Bournemouth University, an MSc in Creative Technology and an MA in Theology. Her doctoral research, Exploring tensions between practitioners’ experiences of realism and formalism in animatronic-led virtual production, examined how physical performance changes as it enters real-time and in-camera workflows. Using a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach, she brought animatronics and virtual production into dialogue with film theory. This research established the foundation for her interests in perceptual realism, embodiment, presence and the relationship between handmade and computational processes.

Her current research spans stop-motion, animatronics, robotic performance, real-time rendering, in-camera visual effects (ICVFX), XR and artificial intelligence in virtual production. She is particularly interested in how established craft disciplines such as animation, model-making and cinematography are being reshaped by LED stages, game-engine rendering and generative tools. Her aim is to develop critical and practical frameworks that help artists work confidently with emerging technologies without losing their judgement, authorship or individual voice.

At UCA, Aneta leads an immersive reconstruction and interpretation of Stonehenge that combines virtual reality, real-time rendering, LiDAR, Gaussian Splatting, archaeology and astronomy. Its winter-solstice phase uses Chaos V-Ray, Vantage and Arena with live performance and LED display technologies to explore ritual, landscape and the relationship between physical staging and digital space. The project reflects her wider interest in making heritage experiential while recognising that reconstruction is interpretive rather than a single, fixed account of the past.

She supervised Black Wasteland, developed through collaboration between Solent University and the Royal College of Art, which uses real-time screen space as a site for ritual performance. Her related article, Alchemy in the Screen Space: Ritual Performance through Virtual Production in Black Wasteland, was published in Media Practice and Education. Her forthcoming Peter Lang chapter examines how AI is transforming creative authorship, cinematic realism and production practice. This research grows directly from her own creative practice in painting, collage, felting and puppet-making, rooted in a fine-art background and the Polish stop-motion tradition. She also co-leads Onerica, a music collaboration with Markus Reuter of Tuner and Stick Men.

Aneta is leading the introduction of a virtual-production stage using Chaos Arena and Vantage, alongside a Foundry Nuke Stage pilot at UCA. Her industry and knowledge-exchange network includes Chaos, Foundry, Assimilate, AVimmerse, Mo-Sys, ARRI and Evokes Studios. In 2026 she chaired the Future of Virtual Production panel at the BFX Festival. Beyond UCA, she is a Visiting Tutor on MA Animation Production at Arts University Bournemouth, an Editorial Board member of TIRAD, an Advisory Board member of the XR Asia Summit, a member of the Centre of Excellence in Media Practice and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is also an External Advisory Panel Representative at Liverpool John Moores University, contributing to programme review, curriculum development and quality enhancement.

Before moving into higher education, Aneta worked internationally as an Art Director and Creative Director in Warsaw, Tokyo and Rome. That experience continues to shape her emphasis on visual communication, creative leadership and turning ideas into finished experiences. Across her teaching and research, she wants students and artists not only to operate new tools, but to question what those tools are for and use them with purpose, responsibility and imagination.