I am Your Mirror

1 February 2025

How can you create an innovative immersive experience which blends neuroscience, immersive technology, and movement, for an inclusive audience? This project seeks to explore the research landscape to give firm foundations for their multimedia installation.

Ideas Exchange 2024/2025

I am Your Mirror Installation

‘I am Your Mirror’ is an interactive multimedia installation already in development that uses creative technology & movement to activate our mirror neurons & create social connection. It is a unique immersive & interactive VR experience that that unveils the social connection that is possible when we shed our everyday identities, and move and play within a virtual space, using bodies vastly different from our own.

This work is based on two key neuroscientific concepts:

Mirror Neurons: The part of the brain responsible for the deep bonding that occurs when humans mirror one another’s movements.
‘Homuncular Flexibility’: Within virtual reality, the part of the brain that controls the body can easily adapt to be able to control bodies that are different to our own

The I Am Your Mirror installation was developed with co-creative Director Pod Bluman (Bluman Associates), the project arises from a year-long Arts Council funded period of artistic research, where both digital and low-tech methods of extending or augmenting the body were explored, in partnership with neurodiverse & disabled participants.

What will it involve?

The researchers will use this Ideas Exchange to meet for interdisciplinary discussions that will help them to learn more about the research landscape, pin down the research questions that could inform this project, and to give a firm foundation for creative work going forwards.

The outcomes will lay the groundwork for the next phase of I am Your Mirror, and will be pivotal in unpacking and refining the key concepts behind the piece, as well as building team expertise and relationships.

Who are the team and what do they bring?

Lisa May Thomas (School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol) is a contemporary dance artist who has worked extensively with body-technology relations in performance-making practices, and has experience creating projects for disabled participants.
Ruth Mariner (Freelance) is a Creative Director and Narrative Designer and storyteller for VR, XR and video games, with a background in theatre & participatory collaboration.
Pod Bluman (Bluman Associates) is a Creative Technologist, Experience Designer and Artist with a passion for creating environments that foster pathways for connection between human beings in an authentic manner.
Perpertua Png (Freelance) is a dancer, creative technologist, and neuroscientist, currently studying for an MA in neuroscience in UCL. Perpetua is a disability-led arts advocate living with dyspraxia.