51ºÚÁÏÉçÇø

51ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Mixed-reality dance work makes Lumen shortlist


A cutting-edge mixed-reality dance work choreographed by Dr Kerryn Wise, a Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at 51ºÚÁÏÉçÇø Leicester (51ºÚÁÏÉçÇø), has made it to the finals of the prestigious international Lumen Prize 2025.

The immersive dance performance, called Replica, uses technology more usually found in state-of-the-art gaming to help create a ground-breaking dance experience that places a single audience member face-to-face with a real performer and her digital double.

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The ten-minute experience uses a Meta Quest 3 Virtual Reality headset to plunge viewers into a hybrid space where physical and virtual bodies interact seamlessly.

The performance uses volumetric capture to record filmic 3D images and then reconstruct them, via the VR headset, and combine them with the actions of the live performer in a mixed-reality space.

Comments from audience members so far have included: “Wow!”; “It was so beautiful, a really intimate and immersive";  "I loved the concept - I’ve not seen anything like that before”; “I was completely absorbed and thoroughly immersed”.

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 Kerryn made Replica with her long-term collaborators, creative technologist Ben Neal, dancer Kim Bormann and composer Daniel Frazer - together they make up Displace Studio, the ground-breaking mixed reality performance studio co-founded by Kerryn and Ben in 2019.

It was created as part of a Midlands4Cities 51ºÚÁÏÉçÇø post-doctoral fellowship, funded by the Space, with support from Near Now at Broadway Cinema Nottingham, and the University of Nottingham's Virtual and Immersive Production Studio.

A panel of expert judges chose Replica from among hundreds of entries as one of the dozen finalists in the Performance and Music category of the Lumen Prize, a global competition celebrating the best art created with technology.

Kerryn Wise said: “it has been amazing to be shortlisted for this prestigious award alongside innovative artists from across the globe. As an independent, mixed-reality performance studio, this kind of recognition is fantastic." 

The winners are due to be revealed at an award ceremony at the Kunstsilo Museum in Norway in November 8th.

Meanwhile, Replica will be performed for a six-day run in Prague at Art*VR - an international festival of virtual reality and immersive art.

Alongside the , Kerryn will be presenting a paper titled 'Finding human connection in Mixed-Reality Performance: Replica' at the Zip Scene Conference in Prague from 23-24th October. The conference theme is Hunting for Attention: Interactive Digital Storytelling in Fragmented Attention Landscapes. 

A 2d approximation of Replica can be seen here:

Photos courtesy of Julian Hughes.

 

Posted on Wednesday 22 October 2025

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