Sara Thacher Explained
Sara Thacher is an American game and experience designer. She is one of the founders of the San Francisco-based immersive experience The Jejune Institute and works as a creative director and senior R&D Imagineer at Walt Disney Imagineering, including creative leadership on the two-day immersive Disney experience.[1]
Education
Thacher studied glass at the Rhode Island School of Design and earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Social Practice at the California College of the Arts.[2] [3]
Career
Thacher was one of the creators of the multi-chapter interactive experience The Jejune Institute[4] in San Francisco, with Jeff Hull and Uriah Findley. She served as a lead producer and experience designer for Nonchalance after answering a Craigslist recruiting ad.[5] [3] She is featured in the 2013 documentary about The Jejune Institute, The Institute.
She later worked for The Go Game[3] and was a producer and designer on FutureCoast, a future forecasting game by World Without Oil's Ken Eklund that ran in February 2014.[6] FutureCoast was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Columbia University's Polar Partnership.[7]
The game explored climate change, its effect on polar ice, and rising sea levels through a series of voicemails from the future.[8] The game also used in-person experiences, geocached items, and social media to engage audiences.[7] [9]
Thacher works as a senior creative director and research and development Imagineer at Walt Disney Imagineering. Her work includes creative leadership on the two-day immersive Disney experience,[10] the Themed Entertainment Association Award-winning Haunted Mansion: Ghost Post,[11] [12] [13] and alternate reality game The Optimist,[14] a game set around Anaheim, California and inside Disneyland that served as a promotional tie-in to the 2015 film Tomorrowland.[15]
Notes and References
- Web site: Gartenberg . Chaim . A look aboard Disney's $6,000 per stay, immersive Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel . The Verge . 26 February 2022 . 25 February 2022.
- Book: Purves . Ted . Thacher . Sara . Revelry and Risk: Approaches to Social Practice, Or Something Like That . July 2007 . California College of the Arts . 978-1430321286.
- Web site: Paulas . Rick . Last Chance: The Mysteries of San Francisco's Creepy Jejune Institute . The Awl . 24 February 2022 . 11 March 2011.
- Web site: Lagorio . Christine . Jejune Institute and Elsewhere . Bomb . 24 February 2022 . 1 April 2010.
- Web site: Rogers . Sol . Five Inspiring Creators Working In The Immersive Industry . Forbes . 24 February 2022 . 6 March 2020.
- Web site: Paulas . Rick . Voicemails From The Terrifying Future . The Awl . 27 February 2022 . 14 April 2014.
- Web site: Pyper . Julia . New Climate-Fiction (Cli-Fi) Game Sends Players Clues from the Future . Scientific American . 27 February 2022 . 1 May 2014.
- Minchew . Brandie . Voicemails from the Future Explore the Impact of Climate Change . Wired . 24 February 2022 . 4 February 2014.
- Pfirman . S.L. . Stephanie Pfirman. Eklund . K. . Thacher . S. . Orlove . B.S. . Diane Stovall-Soto . G. . Brunacini . J. . Hernandez . T. . FutureCoast: "Listen to your futures" . AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts . December 2014 . 2014 . 2014AGUFMED52A..04P .
- Web site: Marino . Valerie . A Stay at the New Star Wars Hotel Comes With Lightsaber Training and a Visit to Batuu . Conde Nast Traveler . 27 February 2022 . 7 October 2021.
- Web site: Doctorow . Corey . The Haunted Mansion Ghost Post wins a Themed Entertainment Award! . BoingBoing . 27 February 2022 . 23 April 2017.
- Web site: Institute Board . The Immersive Experience Institute . 24 February 2022.
- Web site: The Haunted Mansion Ghost Post: Designing Immersion Beyond Location . Women Talk Design . 24 February 2022 . 2017.
- Web site: RISD Alumni in VR, AR and Immersive Worlds Industry Conversation . RISD Alumni . 24 February 2022 . 18 August 2020.
- Web site: Bishop . Bryan . How Disney Imagineering revealed the secrets of Tomorrowland two years ago . The Verge . 24 February 2022 . 23 May 2015.