The Embodiment Lab @ University of Derby

Welcome to the Embodiment Lab at the University of Derby. Conceived in 2025 by Professor Denise Doyle, the Embodiment Lab acts as a vehicle for collaborative research inside and outside of the University, nationally and internationally, bringing artists, practitioners, philosophers, designers, performers, programmers and theorists together as an embodied network. Members of the research lab have been focused on embodied practices for many years: investigating how embodied experience can bring us closer to understanding the climate crisis, how we can and do experience digital avatars as an extension of ourselves.

Aims

An Interdisciplinary lab drawing from a range of fields of theory and practice including Arts, Arts and Technology, VR/XR, Digital Media, Dance, Performance, Cognitive Science, Arts for Health, AI, Gaming and Computer Science aiming to place the body at the centre of the research that we undertake.

We aim to understand embodiment and embodied experience through both theoretical/philosophical and practiced based inquiry and apply our research to address current societal issues.

Themes Explored:

Director of the Lab:

Dr Denise Doyle, Professor of Arts and Technology

Denise is Professor of Arts and Technology at the University of Derby and Adjunct Professor of Digital Futures at Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U), Toronto, Canada. She has published widely on digital embodiment and the arts, the experience of the avatar body in virtual worlds and game spaces, the use of virtual worlds for creative practice, and arts, science, and technology methodologies. Her monograph Digital Embodiment and the Arts: Exploring Hybrid Spaces through Emerging Technologies (2024) charts the relationship between embodiment and the arts in the context of emerging technologies and is published by Intellect and available as Open Access. She became Principal Editor for the Journal of Virtual Creativity, Intellect in 2017.

Other Members of the Lab

Associated Published Works

Digital Embodiment and the Arts (2024), Dr Denise Doyle, Intellect Books, Bristol & Chicago.

Book cover of book called Digital embodiment and the arts by Denise Doyle - Exploring hybrid spaces through emerging technologies

Collaborators

Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory, University of West London – working with the Embodiment Lab with a focus on dementia and multisensory experience.

University College London (UCDIC) - working with the Embodiment Lab with a focus on dementia and multisensory interface design.

Lumen Prize for Arts and Technology – working with the University and the Embodiment Lab to disseminate best practices for artists engaged with new technologies.