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.

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.