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Duke-DKU Presence Lab

Presence Lab Description

The Duke-DKU Presence Lab draws from fields within media arts, digital media, and the humanities, in the context of theory, history, critical practice, and global conversations, to explore pressing topics at the intersection of computation, media, and culture. We are interested in the future of reality in a digitally hybrid world, and how embodied, engaged communities can thrive across space and time. The question we are raising is whether we can create a deeper sense of connection across locality through meaningful, sustained, and creative synchronous and asynchronous exchanges. In our initial cycle, the group will focus on questions of presence, virtuality, artificial intelligence, agency, and materiality.

Current Key Projects

As part of an IGHE grant supported by Duke and Duke Kunshan University (DKU), our core team is developing three mini-term courses to be taught at DKU in Spring 2026. Each course will be collaboratively designed by a pair of faculty members, one from Duke and one from DKU. 
 
 
These course topics all intersect with the core themes of the Presence Lab and will serve as a foundation for ongoing research, teaching, media, and art collaborations into 2026-27.
 

Faculty Fellow

DKU Contact: Benjamin Bacon
Duke Contact:  Victoria Szabo