The Duke-DKU Presence Lab Portal Project (2026-2027)

Please note that this is a joint Duke-DKU team that will include faculty and students from both institutions. Applicants should be excited to work collaboratively across institutions and should expect to coordinate meetings across time zones. 

Background

As digital and physical environments increasingly blend, universities face a pressing question: how can communities experience meaningful presence across distance? The emerging Duke-DKU Presence Lab brings together media arts, digital humanities and computational design to explore how new technologies — including virtual reality, telepresence systems, projection mapping, environmental sensing and AI — shape human connection in a hybrid world.

The Lab’s guiding question is whether sustained creative exchange across the Duke and DKU campuses can foster a deeper sense of connection, community and shared imagination. Themes such as presence, virtuality, materiality and agency are central to this work. Three Spring 2026 DKU mini-term courses — on performance in electromagnetic space, speculative bodies and sound art in virtual environments — will generate concepts, prototypes and relationships that the 2026-2027 Bass Connections team will extend.

Project Description

This team will design and build experimental “portals” — creative, technologically mediated experiences — that support synchronous and asynchronous exchanges between Duke and DKU. Following a speculative design and computational media approach, the project will develop multiple prototypes exploring how presence can be co-created across space and time.

Possible portal modalities include:

• Virtual reality documentaries and immersive narratives
• Telepresence systems and live performance exchanges
• Projection mapping of one campus onto the other
• Augmented reality installations overlaying campus histories
• Shared world-building in metaverse platforms (e.g., Spatial.io)
• Agent-based and AI-driven experiences based on Duke and DKU cultural content
• Environmental and biometric data visualizations (“digital haunts”)
• Networked sound art and cross-campus concerts or performances

The project will unfold through a structured learning and creation pathway:

Foundations, ideation and proposal development
Team members will study immersive media theory, critique existing tools and learn technical methods through readings, tutorials and guest lectures. Using insights from the DKU Spring mini-term courses, students will collaboratively develop several portal concepts. These proposals will be presented at the Fall Duke-DKU Presence Lab Symposium for feedback.

Design, creation, testing and exhibition
Working groups across campuses will prototype selected portals; iterate through design, code and testing cycles; and document their work for public dissemination. The year will culminate in a joint Duke-DKU exhibition, with co-located events staged simultaneously in both locations and mirrored in virtual space.

Anticipated Outputs

• A joint Duke-DKU exhibition, including live or networked performances, interactive installations and immersive media works
• An interactive website featuring project documentation, videos, tools and reflections
• Media arts artifacts (cinematic pieces, audio releases, photographic collections)
• Custom code libraries, plugins or other computational tools
• Conference papers, presentations and future publication pathways
• A written report assessing what forms of “presence” were most effective across the project

Student Opportunities

The team will include 3 graduate students and 10 undergraduate students across Duke and DKU. Ideal backgrounds include:

Duke:

• Art and media (photography, animation, video, media arts)
• Computer science and engineering (interactive media, web development, physical computing)
• Literature, history and documentary studies (archival research, writing)
• Game design and XR (Unity, Unreal, interaction design)

DKU:

• Computation and Design; Arts and Media
• Skills in speculative design, interaction design, web development, physical computing, machine learning, VR, projection mapping, digital fabrication, installation and gaming environments

Students will gain experience in:

• Immersive and interactive media design
• 3D modeling, creative coding, generative media and sound design
• Physical computing, projection mapping and XR production
• Exhibition design, curation and documentation
• Collaborative design across cultures, campuses and time zones
• Critical thinking about virtual presence, ethics, sustainability and digital culture

The team structure includes weekly full-group meetings led by faculty, plus skills-development coworking sessions facilitated by graduate students or advanced undergraduates.

In Fall 2026, this team will meet on Fridays from 9-10 a.m. EST in Smith Warehouse Bay 10 A233. DKU collaborators will join the meeting by Zoom.

Timing

Summer 2026 – Summer 2027

Summer 2026 (optional):

• Virtual project kick-off 

Fall 2026:

• Readings and workshops on immersive media
• Exploration of tools and technical approaches
• Portal concept development
• Proposal presentations at the Duke-DKU Presence Lab Conference

Spring 2027:

• Prototype design, coding, testing and iteration
• Documentation and archiving
• Exhibition design and public presentations across campuses

Summer 2027 (optional):

• Faculty and selected students continue project work and prepare publications

Crediting

Academic credit available for fall and spring semesters