Hi, I'm Jason Jamerson.
I lead an integrated arts and media enterprise at Louisiana State University, where I direct the
XR Studio and Virtual Production and co-lead the Digital Twin Core Facility. I'm an Associate Professor with a joint appointment across two colleges, and I've built a portfolio of more than $22 million in funded research and commercial work with partners including NASA, NIST, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ExxonMobil, Syngenta, FOX, NBC, Fender, and George Washington's Mount Vernon.
My model is simple: creative infrastructure is research infrastructure. The same facilities, teams, and methods that produce national broadcasts, motion capture for animated features, and original film and television also produce digital twins of NASA manufacturing facilities and petrochemical plants, simulation environments for robotics, and immersive tools for medical training and coastal resilience. Visualization, spatial thinking, and human experience operate as core research capabilities in every project.
I lead more than 50 faculty, staff, graduate assistants, and student employees, and I manage the operating, capital, research, and commercial budgets that sustain them. The facilities I direct accommodate hundreds of productions, classes, research, and public events each year. I've expanded and renovated those facilities, built the teams that run them, and developed the partnerships across campus, industry, and government that keep them growing. Students work alongside professionals at every position in this operation, on real projects for real clients.
I came to this work from two decades in the entertainment industry in New York, as a Design Supervisor and Production Designer for film and television clients including HBO, Netflix, Paramount, and The History Channel, and for productions on and Off-Broadway. That career taught me how creative teams deliver ambitious work on schedule and at scale. I now apply those lessons to institutions.
My mission is to invest in creative students and colleagues, build organizations where research and creative production strengthen each other, and prove what the arts make possible.
Current Projects:
NASA Digital Twin: Visualization Tech. for Advanced Manufacturing
Robot / Human Collaboration Training for Off-World Construction - LSU Big Ideas
Virtual Production and XR Studio Expansion (Louisiana Economic Development)
Off-Broadway Design for an upcoming musical, "The Vampire"
St. Mark's Cathedral of Venice Digital Reconstruction Project
Electron Microscopy Workforce Training VR Simulation
Sports Marketing Content Creation and Innovation
Museum of Art Digital Twin for Exhibit Design and Virtual Galleries
LSU Vet Med Education and Training Simulation Project
Biomedical Hand / Eye Coordination Development VR Game
Selected Conference Presentations and Panels:
USITT 2024* - “Generative A.I. Production Design”
NSF-funded Virtual Expert Panel - “Future Ready Off-World Construction”
Digital Twin Consortium Panel*- “NASA Digital Twin Project”
Astronomy On Tap*- “NASA Digital Twin Project”
USITT National Panel* - “A.I. Ethics and Copyright”
USITT 2023* - “A.I. Tools in the Design Process”
NU Amplify 2021 - “Taking Theatre Virtual”
*Invited
Guest Lectures:
Yale University: Digital Media In Performance - “XR Performance”
Yale University: Building Theatrical Worlds - “Virtual Production”
University of Cincinnati: Production Design Program - “A.I. Tools in Design”
Southern Arkansas University: Chapter of USITT - “Production Design”
Sheridan College, Ontario: Interior Design Program - “Production Design”
University of Nebraska Omaha: AR / VR Design Class - “Virtual Production”
James Madison University: Theatre Department - “Scenic Design”
