Our annual small, in-person event in central Edinburgh. Come for inspiration, innovation, and community and build your networks across academic, games, XR+, and GLAM sectors for positive social impact.
We're focusing this 2-day event on inspiring projects, community-building, and hands-on sessions. Meet Dr. Glaire Anderson, members of the DLIVCC team, and get to know others in the local, regional, and international community.
Early Bird rate £80 - ends 1 May 2026
Regular rate £90
Registration Deadline 1 June 2026
If you are planning to join please register as early as possible. This greatly helps our planning - thank you!
Places are limited.
Digital Lab Days explores the intersections of Islamic visual culture, digital innovation, and creative practice. This event brings together academics, artists, game developers, and cultural heritage experts to advance collaborative projects in games, XR, and GLAM institutions.
Join Dr. Glaire Anderson and speakers for inspiring discussions, fostering new ways to engage with Islamic art and heritage.
Confirmed speakers and bios below - check back for further details, coming soon.
Hosted by DLIVCC Founding Director & Principal Consultant
Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art | Deputy Director, History & Games Lab University of Edinburgh
Muzaffer Özgüles:
This presentation/demonstration will introduce his existing mobile apps, Timeline Travel and Palimpsest Cities, for architectural heritage alongside three interconnected future projects he is currently developing.
About
The Barakat Trust Research Fellow, The Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford Asst. Prof., Alanya University, Dept. of Interior Architecture
Muzaffer Özgüleş received his BSc in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU) in 2003. He also received his MSc from METU in the Science and Technology Policy Studies program. He received his PhD in History of Architecture from Istanbul Technical University in 2013.
He taught architectural history at Plato Higher Education College in Istanbul between 2010 and 2014. He received the Barakat Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and spent the 2014-2015 academic year at the Khalili Research Centre at the University of Oxford.
He worked at Gaziantep University’s Faculty of Architecture as an assistant professor between 2016 and 2021. He was the coordinator of the Erasmus+ project entitled “Timeline Travel: An Alternative Tool for Architectural History Learning and Teaching”, which was chosen as Good Practice Example. He is also writing, translating, editing and proof-reading architectural history and children’s books; and writing for Kumbara and Mini Kumbara children’s magazines since 2009.
He has been working at Alanya University as an assistant professor since September 2021. His recently funded Erasmus+ KA220 HED project started in December 2022 and is going to be completed in April 2025.
Mounir Saifi:
This presentation explores how the Andalusi past is reinterpreted, mobilized, and circulated in contemporary Arabic historical television drama and digital media environments.
About
Mounir Saifi holds a PhD in Human Sciences from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2025), completed within the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network Mediating Islam in the Digital Age (MIDA). His research focuses on the contemporary afterlives of al-Andalus in visual and digital culture.
Isabella (Izzy) Inskip:
Izzy's paper will examine her 8-month internship experience with the DLIVCC and how she has integrated some of the methods she used while researching for Digital Munya 3 into her current Doctoral research.
About
PhD Candidate, University of Edinburgh
Isabella (Izzy) Inskip focuses on South Asian and Mughal visual culture, using digital visualisation to explore the social and political significance of Mughal encampments during the 17th c.
She is currently a PhD candidate in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, where she also works as a Multimedia Technician in the uCreate Makerspace.
Izzy has an undergraduate degree in Fine Art and a Master’s (MSc) degree in Global Premodern Art from the University of Edinburgh. During her undergraduate degree, Izzy studied Sculpture and History of Art, developing her practice as a digital sculptor as well as her interest in pre-modern Islamic visual culture.
She is passionate about historically - informed storytelling and creating accessible outputs from academic research.
Also speaking at this year's event - check back soon for further details
About
Art and Cultural Management & Policies | Curation | Art History | Creative Writing
Mona Arafat is a multilingual arts and culture professional with over a decade of experience shaping interdisciplinary projects across the SWANA region and Europe. She specializes in bridging artistic practice with cultural heritage, community engagement, and political and ecological inquiry.
From producing refugee-centered radio programs to advising on contemporary art biennales, she has worked with artists, curators, and communities to reimagine the role of culture in times of crisis. Her work is deeply informed by her interest in decolonisation, Orientalism, and the representation of SWANA cultures in video games and digital media.
She is particularly passionate about transforming heritage into a living tool for ecological resilience and creating platforms that amplify the voices of underrepresented individuals through art, digital media, and storytelling.
About
Researcher | GLAM
Deniz Vural specialises in Ottoman and Islamic Art History, and fashion history (MA, MScR, History and Art History, University of Edinburgh).
Her award-winning MSc thesis on the self-presentation of women in late Ottoman art looked specifically at the paintings and photographs of the artist Mihri Hanim (1885-1954).
Deniz was born and raised in Istanbul, and her areas of specialty include cultural exchanges and Westernisation in the Ottoman Empire, self-Orientalising in Ottoman and Turkish media and the representation of the Ottoman Empire in Western art and media.
Her experience is grounded in her work on Glaire's consultancy and collaboration with Ubisoft on Assassin's Creed Mirage, and our internal games R&D projects, including our follow-on Digital Munya 3 collaboration with Ubisoft World Design Director Maxime Durand.
She is interested in the possibilities that new media and especially video games offer for making Islamic visual and cultural history more accessible.