About the project

After their successful collaboration in 2024, NIDA and the ANU School of Cybernetics (SoCy) are partnering again in 2026 to explore new frontiers in performance technology, this time bringing together creative practitioners, educators, researchers, technicians, performers and alumni to contribute to a practice-based research initiative around responsive stages.

We asked the question: “what if stories could not only be seen and heard, but also felt?”

The collaboration kicked off with a two-day workshop in Canberra in May 2026, and is currently investigating how AI-driven scenography, dynamic lighting, haptic feedback and biometric sensing can create a closed, real-time feedback loop where emotional and physical states dynamically shape an environment.