THE RING is an interactive audio-visual installation that investigates the shifting relationship between audience and artist within contemporary club culture. The project emerges from an interest in how immersion, participation, and authorship are transformed by commercialisation, social media visibility, and rapidly evolving digital technologies.

The initial prototype of THE RING consisted of a circular formation of eight vertical LED strips, controlled in real time by a motion-capture glove. Physical gestures directly shaped light behaviour, allowing the performer to “play” the space rather than operate it from a distance. The next phase expands this structure to sixteen LED strips and introduces audio-visual game mechanics, further decentralising control and inviting audience participation.

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At its core, THE RING questions the recently established hierarchy of the nightclub, in which the DJ is elevated as the central focal point and the audience is rendered increasingly passive. Historically, many club and rave environments operated through more horizontal structures, where attention was distributed across the room and the collective experience took precedence. In many contemporary club environments, attention is now fragmented by screens, documentation, and self-presentation, shifting focus from collective experience to individual consumption. THE RING proposes an alternative: a participatory environment in which sound and light respond to bodies, movement, and decision-making in real time. The audience is no longer a backdrop but an active component of the system.

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The installation operates as a shared instrument. Through spatialised light, reactive sound, and rule-based interactions, participants influence the evolving audiovisual state of the space. Game-like structures encourage collaboration, competition, or collective problem-solving, without relying on scores, avatars, or external displays. This approach reframes “gaming” as a physical, social activity embedded in real space rather than mediated through screens.

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A central concern of THE RING is the convergence between physical reality and digital experience. Rather than simulating virtual worlds, the project treats the installation itself as a digital environment—one that exists fully in physical space. There are no headsets, no screens, and no separation between participant and system. The body becomes the interface, and perception becomes the site of interaction. In this sense, THE RING explores a form of embodied virtuality: a hybrid space where computation, light, sound, and human presence merge.

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By removing fixed performer roles and encouraging shared authorship, THE RING seeks to democratise the club space. It asks whether immersive technologies can be used not to isolate individuals, but to strengthen collective experience; not to reinforce spectacle, but to create conditions for presence, attention, and connection.

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Ultimately, THE RING functions as both an artwork and an experiment. It tests how interactive systems can reshape cultural rituals of dance, listening, and gathering, and whether new hybrid art forms can reclaim immersion from commodified spectacle—returning it to the shared, transient moment of being together in sound and light.