Avatar Studies: Inquiries into the Digital Medium

How do digital tools shape the images we see and the selves we imagine? “Avatar Studies” is an afternoon of conversations organized on the occasion of Lu Yang’s exhibition DOKU! DOKU! DOKU!: samsara.exe. Bringing together artists, game designers, and scholars, these panels explore how motion capture, game engines, and 3D models enable artistic practices that reflect new conceptions of embodiment and identity impacted by contemporary media and entertainment. Rather than discussing digital art solely in terms of its content, “Avatar Studies” emphasizes digital media’s technical infrastructures, borrowed tools, and economies of software.

This event is organized in collaboration with Outland, a nonprofit supporting initiatives in publishing and education about art made with emerging technologies. Following the panel discussion, the conversations will be transcribed and published by Amant and Outland in 2026 in print and digital form.

WIth Julian Cordero, Brian Droitcour, Flan Falacci, Julia Kaganskiy, Sam and Andy Rolfes, and Xin Wang.