Hinterlands

Mixed-reality dance experience | Animation and visual effects by Alexander MacKinnon

Hinterlands brings together live dance, motion capture, spatial sound and mixed reality to explore speculative futures of human evolution. Inspired by extremophiles—organisms that survive in exceptionally inhospitable environments—the experience invites audiences to consider relationships between bodies, technology and the natural world.

Participants wear headsets that combine their physical surroundings with digital layers, which respond at particular moments to a dancer’s movements. MacKinnon contributed animation and visual effects to the project, conceived and directed by choreographer Rebecca Evans, with lead creative technologist Clemence Debaig. The work was presented at the Digital Body Festival in November 2024.