We are a research team based at Näty, Tampere University, working at the intersection of live performance, technology, and innovation.
About us
Why we do this?
To explore how motion capture and virtual avatars transform the art of acting and performance.
We investigate how motion capture, avatars, and immersive virtual environments expand the vocabulary of live performance.
Our work bridges acting, digital embodiment, and audience experience across hybrid stages. Join us as we test new boundaries of theatre in inter-reality spaces.
Acting with digital technologies
This research establishes the foundations of acting with digital technologies, exploring how the actor’s body, stage, play, and pedagogy transform within hybrid theatrical contexts.
At its core, this approach defines the actor’s body as a site for performance where wearables, interactive costumes, and computational augmentations merge with the holistic presence of the performer.
Objectives of this research
1. Hybridization of Performance Spaces
This research redefines the stage as a continuum between physical and virtual realms, integrating immersive, distributed, and networked environments. This is beyond traditional VR or AR—it’s a fully hybrid theatrical ecosystem.
2. Actor as a Cyborg Entity
The actor’s body becomes a site of convergence for organic presence and computational augmentation. This includes wearables, interactive costumes, and psychophysiological sensing—technologies rarely combined in live performance research.
3. Pedagogical Innovation
It proposes new training frameworks for actors and designers to work in hybrid spaces—pioneering because most theatre pedagogy still assumes a purely physical stage.
4. Future-Hybrid Theatre
As digital and physical realities converge, theatre must evolve. This research ensures performance remains relevant in post-digital culture, where audiences expect interactivity and hybridity.
5. Expanding Artistic Possibilities
By merging technology and embodiment, it opens new dramaturgical forms—performances that oscillate between worlds, creating experiences impossible on a traditional stage.
6. Cross-Disciplinary Impact
This research informs gaming, XR design, wearable tech, and human-computer interaction, making it valuable beyond theatre—impacting creative industries and tech innovation.
7. Human-Centered Technology
It prioritizes actor experience and agency, ensuring technology enhances rather than replaces human creativity. This is critical in an era of automation and AI.