Artists from across the UK have been brought together for a transformative journey, exploring the capabilities of AI and immersive realities in art, at the University of Nottingham.
As part of an exciting new collaboration with IJAD Dance Company, and supported by Arts Council England funding, the university's Virtual and Immersive Production Studio (VIP Studio) hosted a week-long intensive artists development programme in October last year in support of the Open Online Theatre (OOT) Arts and Technology Residency 2024/25.
Across the week, 13 multidisciplinary artists were supported with the leading-edge immersive technology research and innovation capabilities provided by the VIP Studio and its researchers.
The six-month OOT residency programme – which culminates this week with OOTFest25, a four-day festival in Hammersmith, London – brought together the artists from across a wide range of disciplines, including dance, theatre, music, fashion and aerial performance. The cohort took part in hands-on training using cutting-edge tools such as motion capture, photogrammetry, volumetric capture, Unreal Engine, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.
Collaborating in this way and supporting the artists residencies has been a positive and enriching experience and has significantly deepened our expertise in relation to live performance capture and hybrid experience design."
The Open Online Theatre is a virtual rehearsal and performance space which aims to elevate the quality of live-streamed performances, and a part of IJAD's interactive live-streaming platform and digital playground.
Each artist brought a distinctive vision to the programme and left not only with new technical skills, but with deeper connections to a growing national network shaping the future of performance.
Professor Kennedy, further added: "Just as important were the rich, challenging conversations that unfolded throughout the collaboration — especially those with IJAD's Artistic Director, Joumana Mourad — where questions of embodiment, presence, and liveness were placed in direct dialogue with the affordances and provocations of immersive technology.
"These exchanges delved into the complexities of hybridity — of bodies navigating both physical and virtual realms — and opened up critical and creative space to consider the ethics of mediation, the politics of visibility, and the poetics of digitally extended bodies. These conversations were as vital as the technical training, forming the connective tissue of a programme committed to experimentation, mutual learning, and the co-creation of new models for creative innovation."
The Virtual and Immersive Production Studio is an innovation and research driven production studio with state-of-the-art sound and vision performance capture capabilities located at the University of Nottingham's King's Meadow campus.
Founded by a team of creative, technical and curiosity led experts, the studio supports a range of researchers, artists, SMEs, creatives and community groups to develop unique immersive experiences in film, TV, games, performance arts production and audience engagement.
The artists from IJAD Dance Company were able to use the fantastic space available in the VIP Studio where they delivered sessions on volumetrics, sensography and motion capture, and were able to produce hybrid work using digital tools to engage audience attention.
Sam, who was one of the OOT Residency 2024/25 participants, said: "I have evolved from a place of ignorance in this area to knowledge about a range of topics, enough to not only imagine concepts and techniques but see if they are actually possible. Seeing how each might be applied to my practice."
The residency – which was brought together under the strategic vision of Professor Kennedy, and Anna Millhouse, Head of Cultural Partnerships at the London College of Fashion, who collaborated on the project to bring further understanding to the essential role of technology in the arts and to community building – provided a space for experimentation, exchange, and the exploration of new models for creative labs and innovation, a rare and vital opportunity for artists to break away from conventional frameworks and collaborate across disciplines.
The full programme was delivered across Nottingham, London, and the Isle of Wight, with expert guidance from leading digital practitioners: Clémence Debaig, Kerryn Wise, Ben Neal, Richard Ramchurn, James Russell, Musen Guan, Leah Hoy, and Marlon Barrios Solano.
