Phygital D: Lu Yang – DOKU, The Binary World

A high-energy audiovisual experience with real-time motion capture, live performance and virtual avatars in Hong Kong and Sydney

7-9.10.2022

Shanghai-based new media artist Lu Yang premieres the live motion capture performance DOKU, The Binary World as a real-time collaboration between dancers in Hong Kong and Sydney. Interacting in a shared virtual environment, the dancers and avatars at Freespace and the Sydney Opera House shuttle simultaneously through multiple binary realms.

The high-energy audiovisual experience draws on Buddhist philosophy, club culture, video games and the aesthetics of anime. Embodying the avatar forms of Lu Yang’s genderless digital reincarnation Doku – Dokusho Dokushi, “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 performance includes music by liiii and virtual visual effects manipulated live by an Xbox controller.

Lu Yang’s work has been presented around the world, and is featured in The Milk of Dreams show at this year’s Venice Biennale.

The performance is accompanied by two events offering insight into the creative process:
Phygital D: Demonstration workshop – The creative possibilities of motion capture on 8 October 2002, a sharing with digital production studio MetaObjects about the technology used in the performance 
Panel Discussion: Beyond Binaries: Digital Performance In a Post-COVID Era on 28 September 2022