XR Performance and Previsualization: ACCAD Professor Norah Zuniga Shaw Partners with Doris Duke Foundation to Convene National Leaders in Performance and Technology

COLUMBUS, Ohio— Professor Norah Zuniga Shaw, Director for Dance and Technology at The Ohio State University’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) and Department of Dance, is partnering with the Doris Duke Foundation (DDF) to lead a national research exchange exploring how extended reality (XR) and generative AI are transforming the future of live performance. Central to this partnership is a high impact convening, May 7–10, 2025, at ACCAD, bringing together a cohort of national leaders in performance—including artists, curators, presenters, producers, and technology researchers. “We are gathering an extraordinary group of thinkers and makers working at the intersection of performance and technology,” said Zuniga Shaw. “Through this partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation, we’re exploring how XR and AI can help us reimagine the future of performance—making it more accessible, more collaborative, and more sustainable.” 

Participants in the convening include internationally recognized leaders from across the performing arts landscape selected from a cohort of allied projects submitted to the Foundation’s open call for the Performing Arts and Technology Lab. “Following our spring 2023 open call, we identified an opportunity for meaningful collaboration among the projects and approached Norah Zuniga Shaw about heading up this special initiative given her and ACCAD’s leadership in this area. We are thrilled to partner with them to explore how pre-visualization, and related XR design approaches will increase artist access to theatrical experimentation," said Ashley Ferro-Murray, program director for the arts at the Doris Duke Foundation. "It is important that artists and arts workers are leading this technological research to meet their evolving creative needs." This is Ohio State’s first award from the Doris Duke Foundation Performing Arts area for an academic unit.

The convening will spark new ideas and collaborations through hands-on labs, creative and critical engagement with technology, interactive discussions, and immersive prototyping sessions focused on XR performance and previsualization. At the core of this effort are ACCAD’s XR Sandboxes—experimental, immersive environments that allow performance creators to prototype and refine artistic ideas in virtual and physical space. “The XR Sandboxes offer a rare opportunity for deep experimentation and embodied design in virtual space,” said Zuniga Shaw. “With DDF’s support, we’re making space for artists and technologists to push the boundaries of performance-making in ways that center care, access, and collective imagination.” 

XR Previsualization, or “XR Previs,” allows artists to prototype and refine creative ideas in immersive digital environments before bringing them to the stage, gallery, or public sites of performance. By blending physical and virtual design elements, Previs enables performers, designers, and directors to collaboratively explore spatial relationships, lighting, sound, and choreography in new ways. This integration of digital tools with embodied practice opens new possibilities for performance—bridging the gap between concept and live production, and allowing for more responsive, inclusive, and sustainable production workflows. 

Zuniga Shaw’s leadership in this initiative continues her longstanding commitment to humane technology research through interdisciplinary embodied practices. Her ongoing work in this area has received significant funding from Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme and additional support from the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts. Her acclaimed projects—including Synchronous Objects with William Forsythe, Upwelling, Livable Futures, and Climate Banshee—have earned international recognition. She is co-editor for the Routledge Companion on Performance and Technology and is currently exploring previsualization in XR for site-specific and community-based performance, including OASIS XR, a mixed reality public opera with composer Byron Au Yong. “This convening is about gathering the people who are actively shaping what’s next in performance,” said Zuniga Shaw. “Our partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation makes this possible—not just as an event, but as the beginning of a longer-term shift in how we create, connect, and imagine.” 

ACCAD’s leadership in performance technology is rooted in decades of interdisciplinary innovation, bringing together artists, designers, engineers, and scholars to explore the future of creative practice. Faculty and staff at ACCAD play a vital role in this initiative, including Vita Berezina-Blackburn, a specialist in motion capture and virtual reality whose expertise in immersive media deeply informs the XR Sandboxes, and Jeremy Patterson, ACCAD’s XR developer and systems designer, who has led the development of custom interactive tools and environments that power real-time collaboration and previsualization. Their expertise, alongside contributions from ACCAD faculty and staff members Alex Oliszewski, Michael Hesmond, and Jean-Yves Münch, as well as the Ohio State graduate students working with them, reinforces ACCAD’s reputation as an international hub for research and experimentation at the intersection of performance and technology.