Dr Leslie Deere is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she works within the Guildhall Production Studio on questions of digital performance, immersive technologies, and the relationship between embodied presence and virtual environments. Her interdisciplinary formation spans classical dance training, Sonic Arts, and a PhD in Fine Art and Extended Reality Technologies from Glasgow School of Art, and her research and creative practice are mutually constitutive, spanning audiovisual performance, gesture-controlled XR systems, sound installation, and participatory immersive environments.
Central to this work is her concept of 'The Embodied Instrument', which positions the body as both compositional agent and site of perceptual inquiry. This through-line connects her performance practice with her broader investigations into how multisensory, interactive systems generate meaning, agency, and experience for participants and audiences alike. Her work engages questions of spectatorship, co-presence, and the shifting boundaries between performer, system, and environment.
Her practice has been exhibited and performed internationally at venues including MoMA PS1, the BFI, CCA Glasgow, the Whitstable Biennale, and Kew Gardens. Her academic outputs include contributions to the Springer volume Arts and Computational Culture, the Media Art History Journal, and The Palgrave Handbook of Sound and Music Visualisation. Her work has been presented most recently at the 18th Triennial of Art and Technology, Ammerman Center, Connecticut College.
The Embodied Instrument: Gestural Music-Making and Visualisation, Beyond the Interface: Three Degrees of Embodied Instruments. In The Palgrave Handbook of Sound and Music Visualisation
Deere, L. (Accepted/In press). The Embodied Instrument: Gestural Music-Making and Visualisation, Beyond the Interface: Three Degrees of Embodied Instruments. In The Palgrave Handbook of Sound and Music Visualisation. Palgrave Macmillan.
2027
View OutputArray Infinitive
Deere, L. (2025). Array Infinitive: Vibrance Festival of Light and Sound. Digital or Visual Media https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/whats-on/vibrance
2025
View OutputDigital Traces: Investigating movement, live sound making and visual feedback in VR dance improvisation
Deere, L. (2025). Digital Traces: Investigating movement, live sound making and visual feedback in VR dance improvisation: Proceedings of EVA London 2025 (EVA 2025). 146-149. https://doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2025.29
2025
View OutputAction at a Distance: Reformatting the Paradigm of Spectatorship through Virtual Gestures and Audiovisuals
Deere, L. (2024). Action at a Distance: Reformatting the Paradigm of Spectatorship through Virtual Gestures and Audiovisuals. Arteriais: Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes, 10(17), 264–274. https://periodicos.ufpa.br/index.php/ppgartes/article/view/17627
2024
View OutputARray - Turning up the volume in the costume department
Shorten, D., & Deere, L. (2024). ARray - Turning up the volume in the costume department. https://ncace.ac.uk/2024/07/01/guildhall-production-studio-array-turning-up-the-volume-in-the-costume-department/
2024
View OutputA VR Performance
Deere, L. (2024). A VR Performance: Solo Performance and Group Exhibition . Exhibition
2024
View OutputMovement Matters: Embodied expression in VR
Deere, L. (2024). Movement Matters: Embodied expression in VR: Proceedings of EVA London 2024 (EVA 2024). Paper presented at Electronic Visualisation and the Arts, London. https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2024.6
2024
View OutputPerformance and Virtual Reality: The Stage as a Multidimensional Environment. In The Arts and Computational Culture: Real and Virtual Worlds
Deere, L. (2024). Performance and Virtual Reality: The Stage as a Multidimensional Environment. In The Arts and Computational Culture: Real and Virtual Worlds. (1 ed.) (Springer Series on Cultural Computing). Springer Nature.
2024
View OutputMindscapes Exhibition
Deere, L. (2023). Mindscapes Exhibition. Exhibition
2023
View OutputAction at a Distance: Altered states through virtual gestures and audio-visuals
Deere, L. (2022). Action at a Distance: Altered states through virtual gestures and audio-visuals. Paper presented at EVA .
2022
View Output