New Works XR

New Works XR (NWXR) supports new voices in the development of creative technologies and embodied practice. XR (extended reality) is 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.

New Works is humbled to engage new voices each season to lead and coordinate unique, cutting edge programming in close partnership with community partners and mentors. In the shifting landscape of new technologies and practices, the program remains curious, investigative, and artist-led.

Coming Up Next

Chimerik’s Virtual Live Art Database Launch Party

Produced in partnership with New Works

Saturday, May 4 - 3pm-6pm | Q7 Studios, 77 E 7th Ave

FREE

Curious about how you can use technology in your own projects but don’t know where to start? This is the perfect place! We are excited to share our research through a compiled living database resource that highlights different softwares, online tools and creative pipelines. Chimerik’s Virtual Live Art Database cultivates a space to learn, grow and network.

You are invited to an afternoon of community dialogue and a guided walk-through of Chimerik’s newly developed Virtual Live Art database. Gather over light snacks and refreshments, and ponder new possibilities for new media technology within a live performance framework

The idea for the Virtual Live Art Database was born at the height of the pandemic, when the live arts sector was challenged with having to shift from a physical stage to a virtual stage, from presenting in person to entirely online. We are thrilled to share what we have learnt thus far with the community and hope we can reflect together on how we can continue to integrate these learnings into the future.

Community Partners:

New Works, Third Space Arts Collective, Active / Passive Performance Society, SummerWorks, Shooting Gallery Performance Series/Future Leisure, interplay_, the PXR Conference, Visceral Visions/CulturalBrew.Art Cinevolution, 5 X Festival/incrowd

We would like to acknowledge the support of this project from Canada Council for the Arts and BC Arts Council.

Past

NWXR Short Circuit Series

March 15-17

Short Circuit Series is a weekend long series of community offerings; from workshops, to discussions and a soiree, New Works invites you to participate in these free events.

Short Circuit Series

Workshops

About the initiative

At Chimerik 似不像, we’ve long observed a gap in the integration of digital technology with live-performance art. It's a struggle many artists encounter, navigating necessary softwares without adequate resources or support, which only further perpetuates the inaccessibility of New Media arts. This is why we developed the Virtual Live Art database, to make technology more accessible to our artistic community. By spotlighting artists and their innovative contributions, we're fostering collaboration and community spirit, focusing on the collective rather than the individual.

HYPER-LINK

Friday, March 15 - 7pm-9pm | Q7 Studios - Studio A

Opening Short Circuit Series with a soiree and community mixer!

7 - 7:30pm - Join us for an artist HYPER-LINK! A speed dating style event where you can meet fellow XR artists, start conversations, and get to know one another.

7:30 - 9pm - Short Circuit Series Soiree - a mixer for us to kick of the start of the series. Featuring music, refreshments* and an XR installation by Simran Sachar!

Interfacing with Experts Panel

Freya Björg Olafson, Caroline MacCaull, prOphecy sun, and Nancy Lee

Sunday, March 17 - 11am-12pm | Q7 Studios - Studio B

Join us for a panel conversation moderated by Erika Mitsuhashi, with artists who are trailblazing the ways we think about movement and XR technology. Light refreshments will be provided.

Workshop | Choreography with AR dance technology - Sarah U

Saturday, April 13 - 3pm-4:30pm | Q7 Studios - Studio A

FREE

This workshop was originally planned for March 16 as part of the XR Short Circuit Series. It has now been rescheduled to April 13.

During this workshop, participants will gain insights into the fusion of choreography and AR as Sarah guides them through her two distinct 3D models.

About the Workshop

Introducing Augmented Reality through the lens of choreography, Sarah will share her AR project which explores themes of evolution and the adaptive capacities of the human body, through a web-based application that utilizes real-time full body-tracking technology. During this workshop, participants will gain insights into the fusion of choreography and AR as Sarah guides them through her two distinct 3D models. Each model is designed with customized data, offering a unique interpretation of movement. Participants will learn best practices and engage with these virtual counterparts, expanding their understanding of the creative possibilities within this innovative realm. The experience continues with a group choreography exercise, where participants will collaboratively craft short sequences of "dances" inspired, revolving around (or not) the use of AR technology. This interactive session encourages exploration of various perspectives, orientations, movement patterns, and spatial relationships, ultimately optimizing the visual and kinesthetic impact of the body in motion on the screen and in real life. Workshop will end with a discussion and sharing on what dance in the future looks like.

Requirements

Participant requirements: smart phone/iPhone (not older than Iphone 4) with a functional camera, Notebook. AR experience is accessed by a QR code; no preparation or download needed.

Motion Capture Workshop with danielle Mackenzie Long

Sunday, March 17 - 2pm-4:15pm | Q7 Studios - Studio B

We will discover and practice one strategy of how to create the opportunity for our physical movement to live beyond ourselves.

About the Workshop

Together we will move through space, learn to run a short motion capture using only a phone, and work through the process of applying this data to a non-human character in the animation software Blender. We will make structures that lack human resemblance take on our movement and inhabit our pathways. At the end we may see curtains, rib cages, or springs dancing our dances. This is a space to try something new for the first time, to use new technology we may never have touched, and be okay with failing and asking many questions. Knowledge in conducting motion capture, animation or use of Blender is not required.

Requirements

Participant requirements: Charged Iphone, charged laptop with Blender installed (only if interested in following along with Blender portion of the workshop). // Accessibility requirements: To practice community care, mask wearing is highly recommended for this workshop.

Meet the XR Artists

About Simran Sachar

Simran Sachar is an East Indian/Punjabi contemporary and street dance artist, choreographer, and actor. She is a captivating anomaly in this industry who consistently works in ground-breaking spaces. In this present time and through interdisciplinary work, the themes she is uncovering are distorted memories and how they disfigure us, the duality of relief and grief, and identity. Simran’s latest film with XR technology, premieres in 2024. Her first XR film, BETA बेटा was presented at Luna Arts Festival 2021. In 2020, her first film ‘LUNACY’ was a part of the National Arts Centre time capsule and premiered at F.O.R.M Film Festival and won the Official Selection of the Audience Choice Award. She made her acting debut in 2023 as the lead actor and assistant choreographer in Alberta Theatre Projects showing of Bombay Black as Apsara. Simran is the Winner of 2023’s Release Yourself Whacking Battle in Montreal at Artfulness Festival. Simran’s credits include Netflix, CW Riverdale, The Vancouver Opera, Dairy Canada, The Vancouver Art Gallery, Dancing On The Edge, OFF-Parcours Danse, F.O.R.M Festival, Apple TV, National Arts Centre, Fringe Manila and more. // Photo by Maya Francis

About Sarah U

Sarah Hin Ching U 余衍晴 (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian dance artist/choreographer, trained and influenced by a multitude of styles including Latin Ballroom, contemporary, ballet and hip hop. I gravitate towards stories about human desire, identity, and relationships. My main intentions in my practice are 1. investigate the integration of new media tools in performance-making, pushing the boundaries of choreography beyond physical movement. 2. Explore the cross-pollination between contemporary dance and street dance. // Photo by Carla Alcántara https://www.sarah-u.com/

About danielle Mackenzie Long

danielle Mackenzie Long, a queer emerging interdisciplinary artist, resides on the stolen and unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm nations. They seek to use new media/film to liberate gender non-conforming dance artists to create work that surpasses gendered bodies through various means of visual presentation and audience access. Currently their creative practice is being expanded through engagements with Vanessa Goodman, Festival of Recorded Movement, Co.ERASGA, and Lamont. Spaces they have recently been in residence with include Toronto Dance Theatre (Tkaronto) and New Works. Occasionally danielle studies Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia with the aspiration to infiltrate and challenge the academic world by navigating it with an emphasis on curiosity, refusal, and rest.

About Freya Björg Olafson

Freya Björg Olafson is an intermedia artist who works with video, audio, animation, motion capture, XR, painting, and performance. Her praxis engages with identity and the body, as informed by technology and the Internet. Olafson’s work has been exhibited and performed internationally at the Bauhaus Archiv (Berlin), SECCA - SouthEastern Center for Contemporary Art (North Carolina), LUDWIG museum (Budapest), and The National Arts Center (Ottawa). Olafson has benefitted from residencies, most notably through EMPAC - Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center (New York), Oboro (Montreal), and Counterpulse (San Francisco). In spring 2020 Olafson was one of the longlist ‘Sobey Art Award’ recipients through a nomination by Video Pool Media Arts Center and in July 2021 her work was selected for the 'Lumen Prize for Art & Technology' longlist. Olafson holds an MFA in New Media from the Transart Institute / Donau Universität. In 2017 Olafson joined the Department of Dance at York University as an Assistant Professor in Screendance. As of July 2021, Olafson is an Assistant Professor in Digital Media at the University of Manitoba School of Art. // Photo by York University. www.freyaolafson.com

About Caroline MacCaull

Caroline MacCaull (she/they) is a queer interdisciplinary artist based on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, colonially known as “Vancouver, BC”. Her artistic practice focuses on the blending of movement, performance art, video, and technology, as a way to explore the intersection and in-between space of art forms. Her work often explores themes on spirituality, reality, perception and dynamic intersections that can exist between virtual and physical realms. She is very honoured to be a recipient of the 2023/2024 Chrystal Dance Prize. Caroline is the Associate Artistic Director of Chimerik 似不像 , a multi-award-winning interdisciplinary nonprofit organization consisting of artists from underrepresented groups from various age groups, backgrounds, levels of experience, and disciplines. // Photo by You-Wei Chen. www.chimerik.com

About prOphecy Sun

Dr. prOphecy sun is an interdisciplinary performance artist, queer, movement, video, sound maker, and mother of three. Her practice celebrates both conscious and unconscious moments and the vulnerable spaces of the in-between in which art, performance, and life overlap. Her recent research has focused on ecofeminist perspectives, co-composing with voice, objects, surveillance technologies, and site-specific engagements along the Columbia Basin region and beyond. She is the Arts Editor for Ecocene: Cappadocia Journal of Environmental Humanities and sessional faculty at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She performs and regularly exhibits in local, national, and international settings, music festivals, conferences, and galleries and has authored several peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and journal publications on sound design, installation, performance, and domestic spheres. // Photo by Reese Muntean. https://prophecysun.com

About Nancy Lee

Nancy Lee 李南屏 is a Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary media artist, curator, DJ and cultural producer. Nancy is a co-founder of Chapel Sound, an electronic music and art collective supporting emerging artists, and CURRENT Symposium, an intersectional and multidisciplinary initiative featuring artistic and educational programming for women, gender diverse artists and artists of colour.Nancy directed the first contemporary 360 dance VR film "Tidal Traces" in collaboration with Emmalena Fredriksson with the National Film Board of Canada. Nancy’s interdisciplinary works have been presented at Cannes Film Festival, SXSW, MUTEK, Berlin International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, and more. They are an XR instructor at IM4 Media Lab at Emily Carr University, board director of Love Intersections Society and artistic mentor at Festival of Recorded Movement. They also run a small DIY studio in Vancouver Chinatown hosting cross-genre shows, workshops and residencies. As a Sundance Institute New Frontier Alumni, Nancy has been collaborating with Kiran Bhumber on a speculative sci-fi exhibition “UNION”, exploring 3D scanning/printing, XR, and multi-channel sound and video installation. Nancy recently finished an XR artist residency, SATELLITE, at Society of Art and Technology in Montreal and will be starting another residency in their Satosphere immersive dome theatre 2023 summer for MUTEK Montreal. They currently are co-directing a dance-sculpture-XR research series with Ralph Escamillan’s Fakeknot called HOLD_xyz. www.nancylee.ca / @whichnancy

Meet the XR Team

Alexandra Caprara - XR Program Coordinator

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

Gemma Crowe - XR Program Director

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.

Sierra Megas - XR Program Manager

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.

Be a part of our XR Newsletter to receive updates on performances, workshops, events and call for applications.

Two Year Cycle

2023-24 marks the first of an annual two year programming cycle which will see New Works sustainably balance XR resources between community building and direct artist support.

NWXR 2023-24 will be a Community Building year. This season will see New Works focus resources on supporting the wider ecology of artists and audiences engaged at the intersection of dance and XR technologies. We recognize that artists need more than space and funds to investigate their craft; NWXR looks to support education of audiences, cross-pollination of practices, and the fostering of critical conversation.

Watch below as workshops, peer-to-peer work sessions, open studio time, and more are announced throughout the season!

We are working towards NWXR 2024-25 as an Artist in Residence year. This season will provide direct support for dance makers and embodied practitioners in the early stages of creation involving technologies that fall under the umbrella of XR. Following an application process, selected artists will enter a developmental residency with access to skills building workshops, mentorship with senior artists, consultation with technologists, access to gear and studio space, and XR resource sharing.

Past Seasons

NWXR 2022-23

NWXR 2021-22

Top Photo: Carla Alcántara.