DUET
A movement ritual for virtual reality—an embodied, co-located duet guided by interactive music and light.
Idea
Most VR experiences are solitary and screenlike. There’s little exploration of how co-located interaction can feel natural, safe, and meaningful between real people.
What I built
Prototyped and shipped a two-person, co-located Meta Quest experience where participants are guided through a shared, movement-driven interaction system.
Result
Presented publicly as a live, audience-witnessed experience—demonstrating VR as collaborative, embodied performance rather than isolated play.
Overview
DUET is a two-person, co-located VR piece that treats movement as a shared input system rather than a solo game mechanic. Participants follow music, light, and spatial cues to build synchronization in real time.
The work reframes VR as embodied collaboration: clear enough for first-time users, expressive enough for live performance, and structured enough to run reliably in front of an audience.
Key Contributions
- Led technical direction for the two-person interaction model and translated choreography goals into reliable system behavior.
- Prototyped movement-driven state logic so both participants received synchronized feedback in real time.
- Designed guidance loops (audio, light, pacing) that taught interaction through feel, not heavy interface instruction.
- Built onboarding and comfort guardrails for live sessions: calibration flow, pacing controls, and fail-safe recovery moments.
- Iterated in performance contexts to balance participant safety, audience readability, and artistic intent.
Visuals
Credits & Context
Creative Director & Choreographer: Brandon Powers
Technical Director: Alisia Martinez
Lead Developer: Aaron Santiago
Presented at New York Live Arts, Live Artery (2022)