Congratulations to Dr Néill O’Dwyer, Department of Drama, School of Creative Arts, and Principal Investigator of PIX-ART, funded by Research Ireland, on the publication of his new co-edited book which explores the varied and complex intersection between drama and extended reality technologies.
Edited with Dr. Joanne Scott (independent artist-researcher) and Dr. Gareth Young (Assistant Professor in SCSS at Trinity College), this cutting-edge volume examines how emerging extended reality (XR) technologies – virtual, augmented and mixed reality – are reshaping twenty-first-century performance and design practice. It brings together the diverse perspectives of leading artists, designers and researchers from across Europe, North America and Asia to explore the creative, theoretical and ethical dimensions of XR in performance, presenting a comprehensive overview of the field’s current methods and future directions.
The book introduces the concept of a Spectrum of Extended Reality Performance (XRP), mapping how scenographic practice now extends between physical and virtual environments. Through case studies that span geo-located sound walks, augmented-reality stagings of Samuel Beckett’s Play, mixed-reality theatre installations and fully virtual worlds created in social VR, contributors reveal how XR enables new modes of storytelling, embodiment and audience participation.
Foregrounding practice-based research, Extended Reality Performance privileges the practitioner’s voice, treating creative work as a site of theory generation. Each chapter reflects critically on the processes, tools and dramaturgies involved in making XR performance, offering valuable insight into the “doing-thinking” that drives innovation in digital scenography. The collection also situates XR within wider socio-technological debates, questioning how artists can intervene in the evolving landscape of the metaverse to propose more humane, ethical and imaginative uses of immersive media.
Together, these essays articulate an emerging grammar of XR performance – its material, aesthetic and experiential vocabularies – and demonstrate how performance design can lead technological understanding rather than merely respond to it. The book provides an essential resource for practitioners, scholars and students interested in the convergence of theatre, design and immersive technology, and establishes scenography as a vital framework for analysing and creating work across the reality-virtuality continuum.
Extended Reality Performance is published by Bloomsbury Methuen | Drama and is available now. Please read more about the book on the Bloomsbury UK website.
For further information please email Dr Neill O’Dwyer at ODWYERNE@tcd.ie