Established in September 2012 at the University of Southern California's famed School of Cinematic Arts, Alex McDowell R.D.I.'s World Building Institute and its World Building Media Lab emphasize the power of using technology as a vehicle to enhance storytelling capabilities, and the power of world-centric narrative design practices to reimagine the future of both fiction and reality. With explorations into Virtual and Augmented Reality, the WbML has established itself as a leader at the forefront of technological-based entertainment.

Working on multiple projects with well-known clients, the WbML shows how the principles of cinematic storytelling can enhance any experience that has a built-in world – and how applying the lab's processes can help define the shape of that world. Focused on the underlying belief that technology and narrative create an everlasting feedback loop, with one constantly improving the other, the lab continually tries to ask questions that push on the boundaries of established beliefs. As the WbML helps carve out a new space that is not quite movie nor game, it introduces new methods of interactivity that advance previously unforeseen experiences.

I worked on multiple WbML/Wbi projects, first as a student and then as the Creative Director. Writeups on several of these projects – The World in a Single Cell, and Spaceship Earth 2050, Wonder Buffalo, Dry City, and Project Tesseract – are available elsewhere in this section.