Seminar Series: Dr. Thomas Tucker
February 9 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Thomas Tucker is an artist, researcher, and Associate Professor of Creative Technologies in the School of Visual Arts at Virginia Tech, where he also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology. His work explores immersive XR environments, animatronics, and multisensory systems that merge real-time computation with physical and performative experience. Through large-scale installations and research projects such as Drosera Obscura, Tucker investigates how data, embodiment, and interaction can form responsive, living systems. His research spans art, technology, and human-centered design, emphasizing experiential learning, transdisciplinary collaboration, and the creative potential of real-time data-driven systems.
Location: Blocker 220 and Zoom
Zoom ID: 974 9688 4861
Passcode: 923446
Embodied Data: XR Artworks as Living Systems
This talk presents immersive XR artworks as data-driven, living systems where computation is experienced through space, movement, sound, and physical interaction. Focusing on projects such as Drosera Obscura, the presentation explores how sensor data, performer input, and environmental signals are transformed in real time into responsive XR environments and animatronic behaviors. Rather than treating data as an abstract analytic resource, these works position data as an artistic and experiential material. Using Unreal Engine as a real-time orchestration platform, computational logic, state systems, and feedback loops drive visual, spatial, and physical responses that evolve through interaction. The artworks function as interpretive data systems, where meaning emerges through embodied experience rather than post-processing or visualization alone. The talk highlights how XR art can offer alternative models for human-centered data systems, emphasizing interpretability, agency, and sensory engagement, while opening new pathways for collaboration between data science, creative technology, and immersive design.