Luvenia Kalia is a classically-trained dancer who works in XR. We catch up with her to understand how performance art and XR can impact each other.
By Eeyan Chuah
Luvenia Kalia is a multidisciplinary artist with dance as her primary art form. She was trained in Ballet, Jazz, and Tap as well as classical Bharatanatyam amongst other dance forms and describes herself as ‘a young kid who wanted to do a lot of dancing’. After high school she went on and did her diploma in dance at Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. Upon graduation, she stayed on to work as a performer at Universal Studios before heading to America to pursue her degree in dance. She was entering her last year when Covid interrupted. She then decided to move back to her hometown, Penang, and finish her course online. Since her return to Penang, she has been actively performing in collaboration with local artists.
Aside from her ongoing independent artistic career, Luvenia is also the Arts and Culture Producer at Maitree House, an immersive storytelling XR company based in Australia and Asia. I called her up on Zoom to chat with her about her crossover as a performer to a digital content producer.
How did a dancer and performer such as yourself become a producer in XR?
Maitree House works a lot with artists in their content curation. I was actually brought into the company as a dancer for one of their projects but I have always been active in production and organisations throughout my education. I organised a lot of youth events when I was in high school and was involved in musical theatre production even back then. So when I heard they were looking for a project manager, I decided to jump on the opportunity.
The technology was not really hard to grasp as there are a lot of intersections between performance and VR creation, it was just a matter of being open minded for me. The world of XR is still experimental for everyone at this point. Everyone is coming from a place of curiosity and openness and I find comfort knowing that I am not the only one who is new or still figuring things out.
Kalia trialling the concept of AR story spheres in public spaces around George Town. Image by Moey Fuken.
You are the project manager for Cahaya XR, which recently had its first edition during GTF 2022. Can you tell us in brief how Cahaya came to be part of Maitree and what this platform is about?
Maitree House is a digital studio originating in Australia but with an office here in Penang. The founder, Peta Kahn lives between Malaysia and Australia and considers Penang her second home. In short, Cahaya is an initiative we started to preserve the heritage, arts, and culture of Penang in the Metaverse by using XR technology.
In order for us to do that we have to first familiarise Penang with XR technology. First of all, we want to build a community in which people are given a platform to explore XR technology or any sort of immersive technology.
Next, we would like to encourage the merging of sectors. We always say in Penang, things tend to be very segregated. Arts is Arts, Tech is Tech, Non-profit is Non-profit. We are kind of in the middle where we want to see the intersection and interweaving of things going on. There are these amazing artists doing wonderful things. Organisations with treasurable archives. With our technology know-how at Cahaya XR x Maitree, we can help make these content accessible to a much wider audience.
Besides the work that you do at Cahaya XR x Maitree, have you been involved in other immersive projects?
In terms of technology, I had zero knowledge about how XR works before I joined Maitree. Of course now I have a better grasp on the matter, but I understand the word ‘immersive’ to be very broad. It can also be used to describe a site-specific dance—how about immersive theatre?—or any walk through experience, really. So yes, I would say I have done many immersive projects.
How do you find, does your multidisciplinary background feed into the immersive art experience?
I have always enjoyed exploring new ways of creating and I find both of these disciplines to have a lot in common. There are a lot of crossovers like spacial awareness and stage design. You are essentially creating an experiential space. In one of our previous projects, we worked with a stage designer to design a virtual environment. So spatially, it is very translatable in terms of performing arts and immersive VR experiences.
Kalia working as a facilitator to teach movement at Flat PPR, Jalan Sungai, part of Projek Seni di Komuniti: Gempak 100 by ArtsEd.
What is next for you?
I left Penang when I was 17 to further my studies and dance practice. Of course, I came back to visit family but I never actually lived here as an adult. So for now I am very much enjoying my time back and my work with Maitree. Other than that, I am working a lot with Aida Redza on dance performances; doing some freelance work with ArtsEd. Every now and then I do Cendana-funded collaborations with artists in KL. On the side, I also teach yoga and movement classes for kids. For the future, I am definitely interested in pursuing my Masters, moving towards dance anthropology and community engagement.
For anyone who would like to learn more on how XR can contribute to their practice, work or business, you can get in touch with Maitree House to see how you might be able to collaborate.
Eeyan Chuah—from Penang, lives in Penang. Writing is one of her very few skills.