New Works XR

New Works XR (NWXR) supports new voices in the development and exploration of creative technologies and embodied practice. Each season NWXR offers a unique suite of opportunities for movement artists to investigate, learn, and create within the intersecting space of XR (Extended Reality); an umbrella term encompassing augmented (AR), virtual (VR), and mixed reality technologies.

First developed in 2021 between New Works, dance artist Erika Mitsuhashi, and a team of consulting artists and technologists, the program was envisioned as a process-focused space to explore, learn, and expand individual practices on and off screen. Since that inaugural season, NWXR has continued to develop and evolve as a residency, learning, and community building space under the leadership of a different artist each season. Through rotating leadership NWXR offers deepend opportunities across somatic and XR practices as led by artists who are currently creating and questioning within those same creative spaces.

In the shifting landscape of new technologies and practices, the program remains curious, investigative, and artist-led.

NWXR Summer Residency 

Call for Applications

presented by New Works, in partnership with Chimerik 似不像
 
August 6 - 8, 2026
 
NWXR artists are invited to dive into dedicated time and space to explore a new project or new facet of their dance+technology practice. Presented in partnership with Chimerik 似不像, this residency is envisioned as an opportunity for an emerging embodied and new technology artist (or artists) to push the boundaries of their practice, take creative risks, and dive into the process of development. 
Apply Here

The opportunity: 

  • 3 days of residency space at Chimerik 似不像 Chinatown Art Space
  • 6 hours access per day (schedule to be set with selected artists); 18 hours of residency space in total 
  • Artists will have access to on-site projector and transparent projection surface, as well as New Works' gear library 
  • onsite staff support 
  • OPTIONAL: studio showing*
*If supportive to your practice, we'd be happy to support a by-invitation work in progress showing at the end of your residency time. This is an option if useful to you, not an expectation. 
 

 We're excited to support: 

  • Artists who are taking creative risks. A residency is a great opportunity to try, fail, adjust your approach, and try again. We're excited to hold space for that exploration and process.
  • Artists and collaborators who don't usually have access to a dedicated studio or creative space.
  • Artists who are developing work for live performance. You may be at any stage in the developmental process, but you are exploring work with a vision to live performance.
  • Projects that have a strong new technology artistic lead, and a strong dance/ movement artistic lead. These two roles may be help by one person or multiple, but through collaboration or concept, you are clearly developing at an intersection of new technology and dance. 
 

Important dates: 

May 13: Applications open
June 5: Applications close
June 29: Notification of results
August 6 - 8: NWXR Summer Residency

Questions? Please reach out to joanna@newworks.ca 
Thank you in advance for taking the time to apply for this residency opportunity. 

 

Presented in partnership with: 

 

Supported by:

 

Bocci Studio Space Program

Meet the XR Team

NWXR has been generously stewarded by a diversity of voices who have helped to shape, push, and lead the XR program since it’s inception.

Joanna Orr - XR Program Program Coordinator & Assistant Producer 2025-26

Bio
Joanna Orr was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, and is currently a fourth-year student at Simon Fraser University, pursuing a double major in Interactive Arts & Technology and Communication. Her academic and personal background has given her exposure to interactive art, along with a strong understanding of technology and the many forms it can take as a creative tool. Joanna is passionate about storytelling through media, whether she’s creating videos or capturing meaningful moments with photography. "I’m super excited to be part of New Works and to be at the forefront of how technology shapes art and performance. I’m especially passionate about helping build a space where creativity can thrive, and where artists feel supported to experiment, take risks, and push boundaries. I can’t wait to see how it evolves and where it takes us next!"

Gemma Crowe - XR Program Director 2022-23

Bio
Gemma Crowe is a new media artist and recent graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design’s full-residency MFA program. Crowe holds a bachelor’s degree in contemporary dance and has ten years of professional experience in filmmaking and video art, which influences how she approaches an audience of viewers and listeners. Her thesis research is concerned with the illusory potential of sound and the sensory apprehension of movement. Crowe received Canada Council and British Columbia Arts Council funding for her research into spatial sound and the bodily experience as well as a research award through Emily Carr University. Crowe completed a residency at Lobe Studio working with world-class 4DSOUND spatial sound software and delivered a presentation on embodied sonic design at the 2022 International Seminar on Sonic Design. Crowe will continue her research in embodiment, virtual theory, and audience perception in her role as New Works XR Program Director.

Avideh Saadatpajouh - XR Program Coordinator 2024-25

Bio
Avideh Saadatpajouh is a multimedia artist and design activist who explores the intersections of technology, performance, and eco-consciousness. With the motto "Explore, Experience, Enhance," she embraces a holistic approach to her practice.

Avideh, born in the western part of Asia and now a resident of Canada, is pursuing her MFA at Simon Fraser University, School of Contemporary Arts. Her artistic work, rooted in her interdisciplinary background in architecture, industrial design, and new media art, investigates how human-centric worldviews shape environments. She explores the concepts of knowledge mobility and accessibility through low-footprint impact models.

Her interactive projects include the responsive inflatable sculpture "Pulse-Fiction," which explores making invisible frequencies visible, and "Sinusoidal Fiction," a performance art piece with a responsive stage that delves into surveillance dynamics, digital navigation, and AI image detection models. As the new XR program coordinator, Avideh aims to foster innovative XR experiences that bridge art, technology, and social engagement, contributing to the dialogue around contemporary performance art.

email: avideh@newworks.ca
Website: www.avideh.cc
Instagram: @where_the_dada_is

Photo by: Sardar Farrokhi

Sierra Megas - XR Program Manager 2021-23

Bio
Sierra Megas is an artist and arts administrator grateful to be living on the traditional and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Her practice attends to physical materials through dance, embodiment, and improvisation and has recently involved list making, long-distance friendships, collecting foods and trinkets to connect with ancestors, making ephemeral sculptures, and observing minutiae in natural environments. As an extension of her practice, Sierra seeks to work meaningfully towards greater sustainability for artists through community programming, producing, curation and outreach. She has worked with Still Moon Arts Society, The Dance Centre, Vancouver New Music, Dumb Instrument Dance, Mascall Dance, and EDAM Dance. Alongside Francesca Frewer, Erika Mitsuhashi and Antonio Somera Jr., she is a co-producer-curator of Here For Now Collective. Together they produce the bi-annual, multidisciplinary art showcase Here For Now, and co-manage the beloved DIY performance venue, Boombox. Sierra has been supporting New Works XR since its Pilot program in 2021 and is delighted to continue creating spaces for dance and movement artists to experiment with new technologies.

Alexandra Caprara - XR Program Coordinator 2023-24

Bio
Alexandra Caprara (she/her) is a queer interdisciplinary artist from Tkaranto, Ontario whose practice is grounded in performance making and design, with a focus on devised processes, movement, interactivity, and design lead creation. Her work often centers themes of femininity, autonomy, somatics, and queer ecology, and believes in making and producing work that center queer joy. She has worked internationally as a director, performer, and designer for lighting and video projection, and has presented her work across Canada alongside companies such as WorkMan Arts, Factory Theatre, Theatre Replacement, and Good Woman Dance. She is currently concluding her MFA at Simon Fraser University, where her research focused on developing devised methodologies that centered harmonious relations with technology, performance interactivity, and ways technology can embrace the organic in both form and content. You can find out more about her work at alexandracaprara.com. She is thrilled to be a part of the New Works team! // Photo by Chelsey Stuyt

Erika Mitsuhashi - Program Founder 2021-22

Bio
Erika Mitsuhashi is an interdisciplinary artist and performer living and working on the unceded, ancestral, and occupied, traditional lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nations of the Coast Salish peoples, known as Vancouver, British Columbia. She studied at Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts receiving a BFA (hons) in dance.
She has had the pleasure of interpreting the work of dance artists including Justine A. Chambers, Ziyian Kwan (Dumb Instrument Dance), Sasha Kleinplatz (Wants&Needs Danse), Rob Kitsos, Vanessa Goodman (Action at a Distance) and Judith Garay (Dancers Dancing) in festivals and platforms such as Vancouver International Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge Festival, Re-FUSE presented by the Vancouver Art Gallery and PuSh International Performing Arts Festival 2020. Erika’s work has taken the form of performance for stage, installation, experimental film, site specific/responsive performance, scenography and projection design. Most recently she has been experimenting with live-stream video and digital spaces as sites for intimacy and choreography of attention. Her work and collaborative projects have been presented locally and internationally by PAUL Studios Berlin, Powell Street Festival, Toronto Love-In’s PS:We are All Here series, Surrey Art Gallery’s InFlux, Kinetic Studio’s Open Studio Series, Shooting Gallery Performance Series, Upintheair Theatre’s rEvolver Festival and La Serre's OFFTA festival of live art. She has been supported by organizations including New Works, SummerWorks, VIVO Media Arts, plastic orchid factory, Dance West Network, Boca De Lupo, Theatre Replacement and Company 605 in the creation and development of her works to date.

Past Seasons

NWXR activities have been supported by a broad community of mentors, workshop leaders, panelists, partners and audience-in-residence members. Learn more on each tab:

NWXR past seasons:

2025-26
Joanna Orr – NWXR Program Coordinator 2026

Gemma Crowe – NWXR Facilitator
Olivia C. Davies – NWXR Facilitator
Kevin Kerr – NWXR Facilitator
James Gnam – NWXR Facilitator
Jen Pearson – Collaborating Artist

Sabrina Chang– Collaborating Artist

Mermaid Li – Collaborating Artist

Sai Arun Modekurti – Collaborating Artist

Jason Kitikul– Collaborating Artist
Nazanin Shoja – Collaborating Artist
Vinicius Oliveira Batista – Collaborating Artist
Aditi Chaudhury– Collaborating Artist
Sidi Chen – Collaborating Artist
Mario Matias– Collaborating Artist
Jae Eun Kim – Collaborating Artist
Hana Rutka – Collaborating Artist
Andy Dongan Liu – Collaborating Artist
Tricia Trinh – Collaborating Artist

Avery Ebenal – Collaborating Artist
Richa Daiya – Collaborating Artist
Rainbow – Collaborating Artist
Learn More
2024-25
Avideh Saadatpajouh – NWXR Program Coordinator 2025

Sarah Finn – NWXR Facilitator
Ghazal Majidi – NWXR Facilitator
Alexa Mardon – NWXR Facilitator
Samira Banihashemi – Collaborating Artist

Kaili Joei Che – Collaborating Artist

Sam Davis – Collaborating Artist

Andy Dongan Liu – Collaborating Artist

Mermaid Li – Collaborating Artist
Lance Lim – Collaborating Artist
danielle Mackenzie Long – Collaborating Artist, XR Artist in Residence
Ghazal Majidi – Collaborating Artist
Kevin Jesuino – Collaborating Artist
Ove Holmqvist – Collaborating Artist
nazanin oghanian – Collaborating Artist
Kira Radosevic – Collaborating Artist
Niloufar Samadi – Collaborating Artist
Aleksandar Zecevic – Collaborating Artist

Megan Gibbons – Documentation
Aidan Ferrar – Documentation
Niloufar Samadi – Documentation

Justine A. Chambers – External Eye

Learn More
2023-24
Alexandra Caprara - XR Program Coordinator

Caroline MacCaull - XR Artist
Chimerik 似不像 Collective - XR Artist
danielle Mackenzie Long - XR Artist
Freya Björg Olafson - XR Artist

Nancy Lee - XR Artist
prOphecy Sun - XR Artist
Sarah U - XR Artist
Simran Sachar - XR Artist

Gemma Crowe - XR Program Director

Sierra Megas - XR Program Manager
Learn More
2022-23
danielle Mackenzie Long - XR Artist, Artist in Residence 
James Albers - XR Artist, Artist in Residence 
Simran Sachar - XR Artist, Artist in Residence
Sarah U - XR Artist, Artist in Residence

Gemma Crowe - XR Program Director 

Freya Björg Olafson - XR Mentor 
Ian Garrett, Toaster Lab - XR Mentor 
Ian Lavery - XR Mentor
Nancy Lee - XR Mentor 

Sierra Megas - XR Program Manager

Carey Dodge, Boca del Lupo - XR Partner
Caroline MacCaull, Chimerik 似不像 Collective - XR Partner
Casey Koyczan - XR Partner 
Emily Carr University of Art + Design - XR Partner
Emmalena Fredriksson - XR Partner
Jay Dodge, Boca del Lupo - XR Partner 
New Media Gallery - XR Partner
Sammy Chien, Chimerik 似不像 Collective - XR Partner

Learn More
2021-22
Erika Mitsuhashi - XR Program Director

Ian Garrett, Toaster Lab - XR Mentor
Jacob Niedzweicki - XR Mentor

Kevin Li - XR Artist
Eric Cheung - XR Artist

Sierra Megas - XR Program Manager

Learn More

Top: NWXR Creation Lab Participants with Olivia C. Davies & Sophie Dow, 2026. Photo by Joanna Orr.

Images: Creation Lab Sessions, 2026. Photos by Joanna Orr.