Theatre · Video game · 2026

2021

My roleProjection Design + Technologist

Projection design and show technology for 2021, created by Cole Lewis, Patrick Blenkarn and Sam Ferguson and produced by Guilty by Association. It premiered in January 2026 at the Under the Radar Festival in New York and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver.

A daughter rebuilds her late father from fragments of data. An audience member plays him — Brian, an unhoused veteran in his last weeks in a New Jersey hospital — in a video game projected across the stage, while she narrates and a musician plays live.

The show runs on three computers: one for the language model, one for speech-to-text, and one for the game and the projections, which reach four places on stage. Live camera images are fed into the game world itself. The projection system runs in TouchDesigner with the Unity game engine, and the player’s screen sits in a case made to look like an Apple Macintosh II.

  • Created by Cole Lewis, Patrick Blenkarn and Sam Ferguson
  • Guilty by Association
  • Under the Radar Festival at Theater Mitu, Brooklyn, New York, 9–18 January 2026
  • PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Vancouver, 23–24 January 2026
  • Workshops: Festival of Live Digital Art, Kingston, June 2025; The Chrysalis, Toronto Metropolitan University, December 2025
Guilty by Association: 2021 ↗PuSh Festival ↗Georgia Straight: preview ↗
2021: a pixel-art bar projected across the back wall, a dialogue box reading “Hell is that Brian Lewis? You look like you need a drink.”, the player at a desk below

Images

2021: a pixel-art hospital room projected over the stage, the player at an old computer on the left, the musician on the right
2021: the same hospital room as an empty 3D space, projected wide, a television at the front of the stage
2021: technical rehearsal with the house lights up, a close-up of a face projected beside the game
2021: the player’s screen in a case shaped like an Apple Macintosh II, showing a test pattern, on a stand on the stage

Credits

  • Co-creation, Data Curation, PerformanceCole Lewis
  • Co-creation, Programming, PerformancePatrick Blenkarn
  • Co-creation, Programming, Music + Sound DesignSam Ferguson
  • ChoreographyHeidi Strauss
  • Scenic DesignHelen Yung
  • Lighting DesignItai Erdal
  • Projection Design + TechnologistWladimiro A. Woyno R.
  • Dramaturgical ConsultantFatma Sarah Elkashef
  • 3D Modelling and EnvironmentsEric Ing
  • 2D Illustration and AnimationClarissa Picolo
  • AI ConsultantDavid Rokeby
  • Early phase collaboratorsEmma Cuzzocrea, Ezri Fenton, Laura Maieron, Shaan Tahir-Mehdi, Daibei Wang
  • Technical DirectionAlex Grozdanis
  • Disability ProducerAnika Vervecken

Process

2021, video system block diagram: the show computer running TouchDesigner and Unity, the projector, the player’s monitor, the onstage television and two cameras