OutlinesLu Yang: DOKU, The Binary World Screening + Q&A
An innovative motion-capture performance, created by renowned Shanghai-based artist Lu Yang. Dancers in Sydney and Hong Kong, meet in the same virtual environment creating a high-energy audiovisual experience that draws on Buddhist philosophy, internet culture, video games and the aesthetics of anime.
Two dancers in two cities meet in Lu Yang’s innovative motion-capture experience
DOKU, The Binary World is a premiere screening of the live motion-capture performance by Shanghai-based artist Lu Yang, originally staged in 2022 as a real-time collaboration between: Hong Kong's Freespace, West Kowloon Cultural District and the Sydney Opera House.
In a remarkable networked performance, motion-captured dancers in the two geographic locations interact in the same virtual environment, creating an innovative artistic collaboration between two major cultural institutions.
The high-energy audiovisual experience draws on Buddhist philosophy, internet culture, video games and the aesthetics of anime. Embodying the avatar forms of Lu Yang's genderless digital reincarnation DOKU - from the Buddhist phrase 'Dokusho Dokushi', or 'We are born alone, we die alone' - the dancers present binary combinations of deities from the six realms of Buddhist reincarnation: Heaven and Hell, Human and Animal, Hungry Ghosts and Asura - jealous gods.
The screening is followed by a Q&A with Lu Yang and producer Mat Spisbah, moderated by The Guardian writer Michael Sun.
Outlines
Outlines is a playful, provocative showcase of artists that are embracing and disrupting digital platforms and technology to imagine new forms of performance.
This free online season celebrates and champions boundary-pushing contemporary artists, technologists, and visionaries whose work interrogates motion-capture, artificial intelligence, machine-learning, 3D animation, generative art, decentralised performance and experimental film techniques.
Meet the artists
Lu Yang
Lu Yang is a Shanghai-based artist who works across video, installation, animation, performance, motion capture and games. Lu Yang graduated with an MA in New Media Art from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou. The artist’s work explores existential issues about the nature of life through references to Chinese medicine, neuroscience, popular culture and religion. Lu Yang has presented solo exhibitions at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, 2021; Spiral, Tokyo, 2018; M Woods Museum, Beijing, 2017, and others. In 2015, Lu Yang was selected for the Chinese Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale and winner of the BMW Art Journey initiative in 2019.
Credits
Core Team
Artist: Lu Yang
Musician/Composer: liiii
Production and Development (Sydney): Exhibitionist
Production and Development (Hong Kong): MetaObjects
Hell Environment 3D Design: Extreme John
Hong Kong Live Performance
Producer: Dr Ashley Lee Wong
Technical Lead: Andrew Crowe
Technical Assistant and AV Coordinator: Edwin Lo
Choreographer and Dancer: Kenny Leung
Sydney Live Performance
Producer: Mathew Spisbah
Motion Capture Technician AV Coordinator: Dr Sam McGilp
Choreographer: Harrison Hall
Dancer: Taiga Kita-Leong
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