NPAPW25: creativity at the speed of light

The Network Performing Arts Production Workshop (NPAPW), the joint initiative by GÉANT and Internet2 that has brought together the performing arts, scientific research, and advanced technologies for more than fifteen years, returned in 2025 with an edition rich in innovations and insights from the world of creativity meeting the digital realm.

This year, the workshop was broadcast live from The New School in New York, offering two intense days of presentations, demonstrations and distributed performances. After the opening remarks by Ann Doyle (Internet2), Chris Brezil (The New School) and Domenico Vicinanza (GÉANT), the event opened with an overview of the history of networked artistic performances by Justin Trieger (New World Symphony), who retraced the evolution of technologies for remote music, theatre and dance from the 1990s to today. It was a reminder of how we moved from the first experiments in remote performance to the ease with which we can now be “together at a distance” on a global scale.

Advanced technologies for real-time collaboration
 The morning continued with an update on the technical developments that make low-latency artistic collaboration possible. Claudio Allocchio (GARR) and Miloš Liška (CESNET) outlined the latest innovations in LoLa and UltraGrid, tools that have become essential for distributed performances in the research and arts communities.
 Following this, CESNET, the Manhattan School of Music and the Royal College of Music presented new use cases of MVTP, demonstrating how teaching, coaching and rehearsing remotely are becoming part of artists’ everyday lives.

Remote learning and boundless creativity
 The second day opened with a presentation by Tania Lisboa and Dainora Daugvilaite (Royal College of Music), who presented a study on the effectiveness of online music teaching, placing the learner’s experience at the centre.
 The Crossing Domains session then explored the creative potential that emerges when disciplinary boundaries are crossed, with three presentations dedicated to theatre, dance and scientific sonification.

Tom Gorman (Coventry University) shared the experience of the Telepresence in the Theatre project, which enables students to perform Shakespeare from different cities as if they were on the same stage.
 Maria Isabel Gandia Carriedo (CSUC) showed how dance can take new forms through distributed choreography.
 Finally, Domenico Vicinanza illustrated how scientific data can be transformed into sound compositions, turning natural, physical and cosmic phenomena into music.

Accessible technologies and distributed performances
 In the afternoon, researchers and artists from Europe and the United States presented emerging tools and applications designed for non-specialised environments: homes, studios, schools and community centres. The message was clear: distributed musical performance is becoming increasingly accessible.

A concert between New York and Miami: LoLa centre stage
 One of the most eagerly awaited moments was the distributed concert between New York and Miami Beach. Thanks to LoLa, the ultra-low-latency audio/video technology developed by GARR and the “Tartini” Conservatoire in Trieste, a string trio performed together over more than 1,600 km with a delay of just 30 milliseconds — less than the time it takes for sound to travel across a concert hall.

The result was remarkable: the musicians breathed, phrased and interpreted in unison, offering the audience a unique experience that showcased the extraordinary potential of research networks as true cultural infrastructures.

In their closing remarks, Chris Brezil, Domenico Vicinanza and Ann Doyle emphasised that NPAPW is far more than a technical workshop: it is a space where technologies and the arts meet, where research networks become tools for human expression, and where the community grows through collaboration.

The 2025 edition, hosted in the heart of New York City, once again demonstrated the power of this vision: creativity, innovation and a spirit of community really can travel at the speed of light.

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