Alexander Porter

At Johns Hopkins, Alexander Porter is a lecturer in the MA in Film and Media program.

He is an Emmy Award-winning director, visual artist, and educator who specializes in spatial documentary filmmaking and immersive technologies. His work focuses on adapting experimental photographic techniques, particularly three-dimensional scanning and volumetric capture, to create complex interactive narratives that explore environmental justice, mental health, urbanism, and ecology.

Over the past decade, Porter has invented techniques for filming human beings using 3D scanners, creating “holograms” for interactive films and visual effects. He founded a leading immersive studio and created widely adopted software for volumetric video production, creatively adapting tools originally designed for surveillance and military applications into instruments for humane storytelling. His practice is dedicated to building grounded experiences that counter typical uses of technology for escape or domination, instead encouraging close attention and connection.

Porter’s current project, “Topography,” investigates histories and futures of land use through multi-platform documentary storytelling. His recent works include “Strata” (Transmediale, 2023), “Truth or Consequences”(Rotterdam, 2020), and “The Changing Same VR” (Sundance, 2021; Emmy nomination). He served as director for “Blackout” (Tribeca Storyscapes, 2017) and the speculative “Styles & Customs VR” installation (Carnegie Museum of Art, 2017). His contributions to “Zero Days VR” (Sundance, 2017) earned him an Emmy Award. He has created immersive experiences and visual effects in collaboration with artists including Brian Eno, Thom Yorke, and Rag & Bone.

Porter teaches courses on artificial collaboration and virtual production and was an invited speaker at institutions including MIT, Museum of Art & Design, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.