ALAN NGUYEN

Centaurs

Centaurs is an experimental live performance that brings physical and digital bodies together on stage. Using Unreal Engine, real-time motion capture and live cinematography, performers inhabit and transform digital characters and environments as the work unfolds. Across two interconnected stories, Centaurs explores relationships between humans and emerging technologies, developing a theatrical language in which actors can exist simultaneously as physical performers, virtual bodies and cinematic images.

The two chapters of the work, Magpie Swoops and The Merman, are set in a near future world where technology's influence on interpersonal relationships has become even more complex. The stories intersect and climax on the first eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

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Performance Pipeline

At the core of the project is a real-time performance pipeline in Unreal Engine 5. Our current development has used Perception Neuron Studio motion-capture suits and the Dollars MoCap system to drive MetaHuman characters live, allowing performers’ movements to be translated directly into digital bodies and placed within responsive virtual environments. We are also beginning to explore video-based motion capture and hybrid approaches that can offer greater flexibility across different scenes, staging conditions and performer configurations.

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Next Phase

The next phase will expand this established pipeline into a more robust and bespoke system for the specific dramaturgical demands of Centaurs. This includes supporting multiple performers and digital characters within the same live scene, integrating motion capture with theatrical lighting and live cinematography, developing custom characters beyond standard MetaHumans, and building richer digital environments that actively shape narrative, atmosphere and point of view. The aim is not simply to make the technology more reliable, but to deepen the way it functions as an expressive part of the performance itself.

 

Creative Team

Alan Khoi Nguyen is an internationally award-winning writer, artist and designer working across screen, live performance and emerging technologies. His work spans television and film, theatre, immersive installation, with collaborators and presenters including SBS, NBCUniversal, Disney+, Melbourne Theatre Company, Asia TOPA, National Museums Liverpool, the Royal Ontario Museum and EyeJack.  

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Sam Mcgilp is a new media artist based on Wurundjeri country in Naarm. He creates collaborative modes of making with performers through playful experiments that expand the potential dramaturgies of live performance. Sam’s body of work include hybrid digital/performance works (CTM Festival Berlin, Zerospace New York, ACC Korea, DAC Taipei) and films (Sydney Opera House, Melbourne International Film Festival). 

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Monica Lim is a composer and sound artist whose work spans installations, performance art, contemporary dance and screen. She is interested in new cross-disciplinary genres and forms as well as combinations of new technology with music. Her work has been presented at Arts House, Science Gallery Melbourne, AsiaTOPA, Now or Never, White Night, Liquid Architecture, Melbourne Fringe, Arts Centre Melbourne, Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Venice Biennale Architettura, Sydney Dance Company and WorldPride as well as international symposiums such as ISEA, SIGGRAPH Asia and NIME.

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Daniel Jenatsch is a multimedia artist and composer based in Melbourne. His work combines hyper-detailed soundscapes, music, text and video to create experimental documentaries, installations, radio works and performances. In 2021 he received the John Fries Award for The Close World, at UNSW Galleries. His work has been presented at the MCA, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, the Athens Biennale, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Liquid Architecture, and Next Wave Festival.

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​Michele Lee is a multiple award-winning Hmong-Australian writer for stage, screen, audio and live art. Across her work, she aims to centre the stories of those historically on the margins—women, people of colour, poor people and working-class people, and people from her community, the Hmong. Michele is under commission from Griffin Theatre and Melbourne Theatre Company.