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Emily Kirwan
Emily Kirwan is a Ph.D. researcher in communication design, funded by Northumbria University, Newcastle. Her research is in human connection in virtual reality dance performances, looking at how forms of connection, such as social, empathetic and communicative, contribute to meaningful experiences for audiences of technology-mediated performance. The title of her thesis is ‘Human connection in virtual reality dance performances: A framework for meaningful experiences’. Emily has an MA in digital media arts from Hertfordshire University, a BA in dance from Roehampton University, London, and a BA in graphic and media design from Hereford College of Arts. She also studied advanced labanotation at the Dance Notation Bureau in New York. Her MA final major project ‘Digital choreography’ explored the use of technology in the choreographic process, with the aim of increasing creative output, offering new approaches to choreography and reducing rehearsal time. She also took part in the 2018 European Dansathon competition in Belgium and came first place with her group’s VR piece entitled Cloud Dancing. Emily has presented at the 2018 Electronic Visualisation and the Arts conference in London, the 2022 Extended Senses and Embodying Technology conference in London and presented and moderated at the 2023 Media Arts Histories ReSource conference in Venice. Emily is currently an associate lecturer in communication design at Northumbria University (2023–24). She recently published a paper entitled ‘Performer/audience experience, performer perception, and audience immersion’ in Intellect’s Special Issue of ‘Virtual Creativity’ (2023). She also co-wrote a paper entitled ‘A virtual hybridity: A new place to do design?’ published in the AMPS (Architecture, Media, Politics, Society) proceeding Applying Education in a Complex World (2023).
Contact: Art, Design and Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK.
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