2026 NTT+ The Young Artists' Atelier – Extended Reality Program
Learning x Practice x Professional Communication
National Taichung Theater (NTT) is dedicated to exploring the convergence between performing arts and technology, actively fostering innovative interdisciplinary artistic dialogues. Since 2020, NTT has launched the “LAB X Arts Interdisciplinary Platform” (hereinafter referred to as LAB X), connecting resources from Taiwan and abroad to create a professional environment for cross-disciplinary exchange. LAB X offers opportunities for creators to experiment with and implement their artistic concepts, while international symposiums and art-tech courses serve as channels for in-depth exchange and creative inspiration.
Within the framework of LAB X, “The Young Artists’ Atelier” (hereinafter referred to as the Program) focuses on nurturing creators aged 30 or under. It encourages experimentation, dedicated learning, and exploration. Through mentorship from field experts and comprehensive support in both software and hardware from NTT, the Program aims to enhance participants’ professional development and interdisciplinary collaboration capabilities, laying a solid foundation for long-term artistic careers.
Each year, the Program highlights different creative fields. In 2026, the focus will be on two core themes: Extended Reality (XR) and Interdisciplinary Dance. The mentor for the XR focus is Thomas Azoug, Creative Technologist of PHI Studio in Canada. Through hands-on guidance and creative companionship, the Program aims to broaden perspectives, strengthen the research and practical capabilities of young creators, and stimulate creative momentum, gradually shaping forward-looking artistic viewpoints.
Introduction
Mentor
Creative Technologist of PHI Studio
By designing innovative technological solutions to support some of the most ambitious immersive experiences of recent years, Thomas guides artists through the design process and the development of unprecedented works. Through his involvement on many award-winning projects, Thomas has developed a multidisciplinary technological expertise that enables him to keep pushing the boundaries of the location-based experience industry.
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Creators
TAM Ho-ieng(Left), CHEN Yen-chi(Right) CHEN Yen-chi is currently studying in the Department of New Media Art at Taipei National University of the Arts.
His practice explores issues of the digital body, agency, and social media algorithms, working primarily with game engines, virtual reality, sound, and real-time interaction.
His works often combine game mechanics, sound design, and performative situations, occupying a space between installation, performance, and game. CHEN is particularly interested in displaced roles, lingering digital traces, and the unstable relationships between humans and machines.
In addition to his individual practice, CHEN actively engages in interdisciplinary collaborations, transforming games, sound, and live performance into experiences that can be intervened in, disrupted, and reconfigured in real time.
TAM Ho-ieng is currently studying in the Department of New Media Art at Taipei National University of the Arts.
Her practice focuses on integrating virtual reality with spatial narrative. Since first encountering virtual reality in 2021, she has been fascinated by the possibilities that emerge at the intersection of game engines and spatial storytelling.
Her work explores the boundaries between the virtual and the real, employing experimental approaches to challenge how audiences perceive and imagine space. Through her work, TAM seeks to prompt reflection on the connections between virtual environments and everyday life.
CHEN Ping-jhen(Upper Left), YANG Han-yu(Upper Middle), YANG Ming-ke(Lower Middle), HUANG Chieh-ling(Right)HUANG Chieh-ling is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the Department of Music at National Taiwan Normal University, specializing in Interdisciplinary Studies in Music and Technology.
Exposed to music, visual art, and dance from an early age, HUANG has long been interested in the relationships between sound, the body, and space. Her practice spans music, theater, and interdisciplinary performance.
Her work often takes cultural, social, and women’s issues as a point of departure, extending into explorations of contemporary physical and psychological states and sensory experience. She approaches theater, movement, and music as interconnected creative languages, while continuing to examine how technology is reshaping the ways we see, listen, and engage through the body.
In recent years, HUANG has expanded her interdisciplinary theater practice into extended reality and virtual reality performance. Through her work, she seeks to reawaken the senses and reconnect audiences with their inner perceptions, while exploring new relationships between the real and the virtual in performance.
YANG Ming-ke is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the Department of New Media Art at Taipei National University of the Arts.
Her practice focuses on interactive systems and immersive media, employing programming and sensing technologies as mediums to explore how human perception and participation shift within digital environments. Drawing on real-time interaction and game-based mechanics, her work creates spatial experiences activated by bodily engagement, allowing audiences to become part of the experience through interaction and feedback. She is particularly interested in the dynamic relationship between system logic and live conditions.
Her work Alcif was exhibited at Ars Electronica Campus (2024) and the Rundgang Annual Exhibition at the University of Art and Design Linz.
CHEN Ping-jhen is currently studying in the Department of New Media Art at Taipei National University of the Arts.
Working across animation, game engines, and extended reality, her practice begins with observations of everyday life, exploring people’s choices, emotions, and inner responses across different situations. She is particularly interested in how people make judgments and take action under conditions of uncertainty or when rules are unclear, incorporating these processes into the structure of her work.
Centered on situational design and interactive mechanisms, her projects invite audiences to enter the work through exploration. Using game-based mechanics, she transforms the absurdities of everyday life and subtle psychological states into interactive experiences.
Through participation, her work seeks to foster resonance and offer sensory experiences that diverge from everyday perception.
YANG Han-yu is currently studying in the Department of New Media Art at Taipei National University of the Arts.
YANG began her creative practice through the intertwined narratives of motion graphics and spatial installations. In recent years, her focus has shifted toward sensory reconstruction within virtual reality. Her work challenges the visual dominance of conventional storytelling, exploring the narrative potential of sound, smell, and haptic perception within digital environments. Through these investigations, she seeks to reshape the relationship between the body and virtual space, opening up new possibilities for sensory experience and spatial engagement.