Projects
Pixel Puppets
Pixel Puppets
Pixel Puppets is a live digitally interactive comedy show for grown-ups, where you join 3D animated characters for a playful power-up for anyone tired of adulting. Purpose-built for traditional theatre stages, it gives venues an easy gateway into incorporating XR tech and reimagines what a night at the theatre can be through real-time audience control.
Pixel Puppets is a ground-breaking theatre project aiming to revolutionise live performance by integrating real-time game engine technology. Our creative vision is to craft a digitally interactive, comedic 60-minute theatre production aimed at adult audiences, addressing contemporary issues such as well-being, digital overwhelm, and the pressures of adulthood.
Experiment
£20,000
Pixel Puppets taps into the universal nostalgia of children’s television, with vibrant characters and absurd humour, while cleverly subverting it through mature themes and sharp social commentary.
Aims of the project
The project’s ambition is to democratise virtual production technology, demonstrating to the theatre industry and creative communities how these powerful tools can be leveraged affordably and effectively.
Our goal is to showcase a sustainable, indie-driven approach to immersive storytelling, enabling theatres of various scales to adopt innovative digital practices without prohibitive investment in equipment or infrastructure.
Meet Pixel Puppets
Ben Carlin
Creative Director and Technologist
he/him
Ben is a award-inning creative producer and director who builds ambitious interactive and real time experiences that merge theatre, film, gaming, and emerging technology. His work prizes playfulness and a sense of magic, creating moments that spark joy, awe, and wonder. Since 2014 he has led projects nationally and internationally across games, public art, live performance, and immersive media.
Joe Duggan
Creative Producer
he/him
Joe Duggan is a creative producer and digital specialist working across film, XR and live theatre. As Head of Digital and Communications at the National Youth Theatre, he pioneered the UK’s first national AI upskilling programme for the performing arts in partnership with Microsoft, and led the creation of the UK’s first large-scale live VR theatre production experienced simultaneously by 300 audience members in headsets.
Daniel Bacchus
Lead Developer
he/him
Daniel is a creative technologist, researcher and educator specialising in immersive technologies (VR/AR/XR), animation, interactive design, music and digital installation. He recently completed a PhD that explores the design of non-fiction experiential narratives with XR technologies, his digital artworks have been exhibited internationally and in 2023 he won the award for ‘Impact, Innovation and Artistic Ingenuity’ at the 2023 London Art Biennale.
