The Art of Performance & Music
Celebrating Performance & Music through The Lumen Prize's New Award Category
Performance Art has & Music have always been powerful spaces for innovation, but in recent years, we’ve witnessed an explosion of groundbreaking work that fuses technology with live expression. From choreography intertwined with cryptography to AI-driven dance collaborations, these works are redefining the possibilities of digital performance. It’s this creativity that has inspired The Lumen Prize to introduce a dedicated Performance & Music Award—a new category spotlighting artists pushing the boundaries of technology and movement.
Throughout our past, we’ve seen remarkable pieces that merge human presence with machine intelligence, real-time data, and generative art. These projects are not just performances; they are living systems, interactions, and dialogues between code, body, and audience. Below, we highlight a few of the most inspiring performance and music-based works from past Lumen Prize editions that helped shape this new award category.
Pontus Lidberg & Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm, CENTAUR
CENTAUR – Pontus Lidberg & Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm
The title CENTAUR refers both to the mythical half-human, half-horse creature and a computer-science concept that combines human and artificial intelligence. This performance explores what happens when dancers interact with a unique AI system developed for the work. The AI, trained on planetary movements, swarm technology, and Greek tragedy, actively co-creates the performance, making each show a one-of-a-kind, unpredictable event. Through this dynamic exchange, CENTAUR questions whether technology changes us—or simply mirrors who we have always been.
Kat Mustatea, BodyMouth
BodyMouth – Kat Mustatea
BodyMouth is an innovative sound-movement instrument that turns the body into an organ for speech using body-worn sensors and real-time speech synthesis software. It challenges our perception of language and communication, as dancers literally ‘speak’ with their bodies. By superimposing the musculature of the mouth onto the body, BodyMouth creates speech that is both humanlike and otherworldly. The work reflects on alternate forms of voicing and resistance, drawing inspiration from Romanian folklore’s ‘ielele’—mythical female creatures whose songs could render men mute. The emotional and neurological implications of this work make it a mesmerizing and deeply affecting experience.
Operator, Human Unreadable
Human Unreadable – Operator
Human Unreadable is an embodied generative artwork that unfolds in three acts, bringing together choreography, blockchain, cryptography, and generative art. This piece plays with the tension between visibility and obfuscation, with the human body hidden within layers of code and movement. Each choreographic sequence is stored on-chain, gradually revealing itself through a process that culminates in live performance. The work challenges the modernist ideals of a universal voice, instead embracing risk, chaos, and vulnerability within rigid technical systems. With its unique approach to digital performance, Human Unreadable breathes life into code, making movement an integral part of its existence.
Sougwen Chung, Drawing Operations
Drawing Operations – Sougwen Chung
In Drawing Operations (Duet), Sougwen Chung collaborates with AI-driven robotic arms to create live, improvised drawings. The performance explores three key themes—Mimicry, Memory, and Future Speculations—tracing the evolving relationship between humans and machines. As Chung and her robotic partners engage in a visual dialogue, the piece challenges our understanding of authorship, creativity, and collaboration in the digital age. The interplay of human gesture and machine precision results in a truly hypnotic performance.
Enter the Lumen Prize Performance Award
These works have demonstrated the vast potential of performance-based digital art. By introducing the Performance Award, The Lumen Prize aims to provide a platform for artists experimenting with live performance, technology, and new media.
The Lumen Prize celebrates the very best art created with technology through a global competition. Now in its 14th year, The Lumen Prize has distributed more than $125,000 in prize money and created opportunities worldwide for the artists selected as finalists and winners. If you are a performance-based artist working with technology, we invite you to enter the prize today.
