Work
What I make and study.
Two crafts that turned out to be one: researching how stories carry knowledge, and making films that try to carry some. Here’s a selection of both.
Research
Since 2018 I’ve been a researcher in the Media Creation group at USTP, the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten. The question underneath almost everything: how can new media — VR, AR, 360° video, interactive film — help people actually understand something, rather than just be impressed by it? Most of the answers so far involve museums, archives, small towns, and a healthy suspicion of shiny technology. Right now that includes Industrie im Dorf, a citizen-science project on the rural industrial heritage of Lower Austria.
- 2020–2023
RegioBioGraph
What can a village archive tell us — and how should it tell it? Interactive narratives that turn local history, biographies, and old footage into stories visitors can steer.
- 2018–2022
Immersive Media Lab
Four years, five use cases, a lot of headsets: what interactive storytelling can do in VR and AR — from live-action film to explaining surgery to patients.
- 2020
Carrot’s Journeys
Where does your carrot come from? An interactive stereoscopic 360° video about regional food production — and a how-to guide so others can make their own.
- 2018–2019
Woodworking Revisited
Capturing old woodworking craft in 360° video — and figuring out how to make viewers look at the chisel instead of the ceiling.
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Does Interactivity Make VR Feel More Real?
My master’s thesis: one five-minute 180° VR film in two versions — linear and interactive — to find out whether choices change how present you feel.
Film & TV
Before research there was film, and film never really left. Live television, student broadcasts, short films, a documentary on conspiracy theories, and a TV pilot about fortune cookies that come true. I’ve done most jobs on a set at least once — usually badly the first time, which is how you learn.
- 2020
Unfortunately, Eva
An unsuccessful writer takes a job at a Chinese restaurant, starts writing her own fortune-cookie messages — and they start coming true. A six-episode series, written; one pilot, shot.
- 2014–2020
c-tv, Live TV & Set Work
Twenty-odd student TV productions, a few years in live television, and a list of set jobs from audio to second assistant camera — the apprenticeship before the research.
- 2019
Verschwösterreich
Regional conspiracy theories in Austria, examined on camera and live in the studio — a 12-minute documentary plus a one-hour live broadcast.
- 2018
Stifado
A short film by Marios Glöckner and the final project of my bachelor’s programme — where I learned what an assistant director actually does all day.
Also
- 2026
Website Rebirth
A calm, static, Markdown-first rebuild of clemensbaumann.at, plus a sister site for the writing — built to make publishing feel light again.