KAREN PALMER

CREATIVE TRAILBLAZER,
AWARD-WINNING AI & IMMERSIVE ARTIST

Storyteller from the Future


SELECTED SPEAKING TOPICS:

Hack the Future

Artful Thinking for Businesses

Parkour Thinking: Moving Through Fear in a Rapidly Changing World

Decolonising AI: Reclaiming the Future of Technology

Microsoft Seattle Campus

"Our brains are blown"

 

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Digital Dozen Breakthrough Award – Recognised twice as one of the 12 most groundbreaking digital experiences in the world

SXSW XR Experience – Winner

Prix Ars Electronica – Honorary Mention

STARTS Prize Ars Electronica – Honorary Mention

Digital Dozen Breakthrough Award for Storytelling – Honorary Mention

Sheffield Doc/Fest Alternate Realities Award – Nominee

Karen Palmer is a former urban music video director and documentary filmmaker turned Futurist and award-winning XR creator, working at the forefront of AI and immersive storytelling. Her immersive films use facial recognition and AI to "watch you back," allowing participants to experience the future today.

Described by The Guardian as “a real-life Black Mirror meets The Matrix”. BBC News, Wired, Forbes, and Fast Company have also featured her work.

A trained freerunner, Karen applies the fearless mindset of parkour to innovation, embracing resilience and adaptability to push creative and technological boundaries.

Past keynotes include Microsoft Seattle, MozFest, SXSW, NBC Universal, Google Cultural Institute Paris, ThoughtWorks Toronto, Vertex Berlin, and AT&T in the U.S.

Karen is also the founder of Hack the Future Labs, a Think & Action Tank focused on developing alternative AI systems grounded in decolonisation, Indigenous knowledge, and human agency.

Exhibitions 

  • Ars Electronica (Austria)

  • Victoria & Albert Museum (U.K)

  • Google Cultural Institute (Paris)

  • MIT (U.S)

  • TEDx Sydney Opera House (AUS)

  • Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taiwan)

  • PHI Centre  (Canada)