Kyueun Kim

As an inaugural theatre and technology fellow at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, I presented a public lecture on “How VR Technology is Changing Theatre” at Bruno Walter Auditorium, NYPL for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center on May 1, 2023.

Description: Virtual Reality (VR) has been quietly changing the field of contemporary performance and giving new perspectives to audiences. This lecture by Kyueun Kim, the inaugural Theatre and Technology Fellow at the Library for the Performing Arts, explores how VR technology is changing theatre. In the course of her fellowship, Kim worked on a project titled “VR for Theatre Research and Archiving,” in which she used VR as a method to explore, expand, and examine questions related to VR and theatre. Kim documented the oral histories of VR artists, interviewing directors and performers who created and participated in VR projects, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In the lecture, Kim will give a brief history of VR and theatre as well as a map of a global network of contemporary VR performances. She will demonstrate how she conducted and archived interviews with artists in VR and showcase the VR Research Archive Gallery she created in the “metaverse.” Using South Korean media artist Kwon Hayoun’s participatory VR performance XXth Attempt towards the Potential Magic (2021) as an example, Kim’s objective is to explore not only how VR technology is changing theatre, but also how theatrical and performative practices can reshape and open up new avenues of VR discourse and practices. The VR interview archive materials will be included as a digital appendix to Kim’s dissertation. 

Kyueun Kim in conversation with Doug Reside, Curator of the Billy Rose Theatre Division at the NYPL for the Performing Arts