Extended Reality Performance
Scenographic Practice in Virtual and Augmented Reality Technologies
Published on 30. October 2025
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-1-350-50743-2 (ISBN)
Description
This pioneering collection illuminates the immersive world of Extended Reality Performance (XRP), where avant-garde digital performance-makers push the boundaries of creativity using cutting-edge extended reality (XR) technologies.
In an era dominated by rapid advancements in hardware and software, XR technologies have surged in popularity, allowing everyone with a smartphone, tablet or head-mounted display to partake in digital experiences. This collection serves as a portal to the merger of the physical and the digital, encompassing augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies.
It offers a broad selection of practice-based perspectives by leading artists and companies creating and presenting work across Asia, South and North America and Europe. Through their invaluable insights, this book delves into the birth of this revolutionary genre while also offering a fresh perspective, unravelling the creative processes that define XRP. It provides a compilation of artistic position papers, which respond to the need for performance designers to invent imaginative experiences within virtual and mixed reality landscapes. These experiences redefine performer-audience dynamics, centring spatial exploration and discovery.
Whether you're a tech enthusiast or an art aficionado, this collection invites you to witness the birth of a new era in performance design.
In an era dominated by rapid advancements in hardware and software, XR technologies have surged in popularity, allowing everyone with a smartphone, tablet or head-mounted display to partake in digital experiences. This collection serves as a portal to the merger of the physical and the digital, encompassing augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies.
It offers a broad selection of practice-based perspectives by leading artists and companies creating and presenting work across Asia, South and North America and Europe. Through their invaluable insights, this book delves into the birth of this revolutionary genre while also offering a fresh perspective, unravelling the creative processes that define XRP. It provides a compilation of artistic position papers, which respond to the need for performance designers to invent imaginative experiences within virtual and mixed reality landscapes. These experiences redefine performer-audience dynamics, centring spatial exploration and discovery.
Whether you're a tech enthusiast or an art aficionado, this collection invites you to witness the birth of a new era in performance design.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
33 colour plates & 14 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 276 mm
Width: 116 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
572 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-50743-2 (9781350507432)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Neill O'Dwyer is the principal investigator of PIX-ART (Performative Investigations into Extended and Augmented Reality Technologies) at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Jo Scott is an artist-researcher based in central Portugal and collaborating researcher with i2ADS, University of Porto and CEIS20, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Gareth W. Young is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science (Graphics and Vision) in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Jo Scott is an artist-researcher based in central Portugal and collaborating researcher with i2ADS, University of Porto and CEIS20, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Gareth W. Young is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science (Graphics and Vision) in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Content
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction, Neill O'Dwyer (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), Jo Scott (Artist-researcher, Portugal) and Gareth W. Young (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
1: Geo-located Sound and Augmented Reality: Walking with Digital Spirits in the Smart City, Jo Scott (Artist-researcher, Portugal)
2. Spatial Sound and Site-specific Performance: On the use of 3D audio in Limbik's Rebel Rabble, Ben Samuels (Artistic Director, Limbik, UK)
3. Liveness, Audio Mixing & Participatory Theatre: Hacking the Familiar in Binaural Dinner Date, Kesia Guillery (University of Greenwich, UK), Jorge Lopes Ramos (Executive Director, ZU-UK) , Persis Jade Maravala (Artistic Director, ZU-UK) & Bart Simon (Concordia University, Canada)
4. Augmented Reality Performance: A Site-specific Volumetric Video Experience of Samuel Beckett's Play, Neill O'Dwyer (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), Gareth Young (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), Nicholas Johnson (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), and Aljosa Smolic (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland)
5. Combining Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality: Reflecting on Hybrid XR Performance Practices in Bury the Wren, Beth Kates (Theatre designer, Canada), with contributions from Neil Christensen (Media designer, Canada)
6. Embodied Experience in XR Performance-making: Collaborative Design of XRP Experiences through Performative Prototyping, Joris Weijdom (HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, Netherlands)
7. Live Music, Motion Capture and VR: Creating New Immersive Environments for Music Performance and Composition, Sophy Smith (University of the Arts London, UK)
8. Volumetric Capture in VR Dance-theatre: Encounters with Self and Other in Facades, Kerryn Wise (De Montfort University, Leicester, UK)
9. Embodiment of a Digital Human: Re-claiming our Inner Hero and Humanity through Virtual Reality in Stay Alive My Son, Victoria Bousis (Director and founder of UME Studios, USA)
10. Theatre and VR: Exploring the Realities of Virtual Scenography in Emperor 101, Camille Donegan, Jo Mangan, and Tom Swift (The Performance Corporation, Ireland)
11. Find WiiLii and Beyond: Exploring Memory and Reality in Immersive Theatre through Extended Reality - A Conversation with Mina Hyeon, Yong Suk Yoo (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) and Mina Hyeon (Technical Artist, Studio Realive, South Korea)
12. Live Performance in Social VR: Using the Affordances of Social Virtual Reality to Create Audience-centred Live Performance Experiences, Deirdre V. Lyons and Stephen Butchko (Founders, Ferryman Collective, USA)
13. Virtual Worlds in Social VR: Scenographing Namuanki through Procedural Modelling, Emergence and Discovery, Kevin Mack (Digital Artist, USA)
References
Index
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction, Neill O'Dwyer (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), Jo Scott (Artist-researcher, Portugal) and Gareth W. Young (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
1: Geo-located Sound and Augmented Reality: Walking with Digital Spirits in the Smart City, Jo Scott (Artist-researcher, Portugal)
2. Spatial Sound and Site-specific Performance: On the use of 3D audio in Limbik's Rebel Rabble, Ben Samuels (Artistic Director, Limbik, UK)
3. Liveness, Audio Mixing & Participatory Theatre: Hacking the Familiar in Binaural Dinner Date, Kesia Guillery (University of Greenwich, UK), Jorge Lopes Ramos (Executive Director, ZU-UK) , Persis Jade Maravala (Artistic Director, ZU-UK) & Bart Simon (Concordia University, Canada)
4. Augmented Reality Performance: A Site-specific Volumetric Video Experience of Samuel Beckett's Play, Neill O'Dwyer (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), Gareth Young (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), Nicholas Johnson (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), and Aljosa Smolic (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland)
5. Combining Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality: Reflecting on Hybrid XR Performance Practices in Bury the Wren, Beth Kates (Theatre designer, Canada), with contributions from Neil Christensen (Media designer, Canada)
6. Embodied Experience in XR Performance-making: Collaborative Design of XRP Experiences through Performative Prototyping, Joris Weijdom (HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, Netherlands)
7. Live Music, Motion Capture and VR: Creating New Immersive Environments for Music Performance and Composition, Sophy Smith (University of the Arts London, UK)
8. Volumetric Capture in VR Dance-theatre: Encounters with Self and Other in Facades, Kerryn Wise (De Montfort University, Leicester, UK)
9. Embodiment of a Digital Human: Re-claiming our Inner Hero and Humanity through Virtual Reality in Stay Alive My Son, Victoria Bousis (Director and founder of UME Studios, USA)
10. Theatre and VR: Exploring the Realities of Virtual Scenography in Emperor 101, Camille Donegan, Jo Mangan, and Tom Swift (The Performance Corporation, Ireland)
11. Find WiiLii and Beyond: Exploring Memory and Reality in Immersive Theatre through Extended Reality - A Conversation with Mina Hyeon, Yong Suk Yoo (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) and Mina Hyeon (Technical Artist, Studio Realive, South Korea)
12. Live Performance in Social VR: Using the Affordances of Social Virtual Reality to Create Audience-centred Live Performance Experiences, Deirdre V. Lyons and Stephen Butchko (Founders, Ferryman Collective, USA)
13. Virtual Worlds in Social VR: Scenographing Namuanki through Procedural Modelling, Emergence and Discovery, Kevin Mack (Digital Artist, USA)
References
Index