The 6th edition of NUMIX LAB, which took place from December 1 to 5, 2025 in the cities of Budapest, Veszprém, Vienna and Linz, under the theme“Beyond Borders“, marked a significant turning point for the event. Following on from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany, our international, itinerant event dedicated to digital creativity now extends to Austria and Hungary. NUMIX LAB aims to bring together a wide range of cultural venues and creators (creative studios, producers, creative labs, local funds and hubs) to support the development of international projects. It was against this backdrop that the first panel, focusing on new cultural venues, was organized.
With a theme such as “beyond borders”, the challenge of this year’s event was to showcase a diversity of new cultural venues: natural spaces, shopping centers, convention centers and leisure and sports venues. By welcoming these cultural practices, the destination of these venues is transformed, opening them up to new audiences and new distribution models for culture.
Another theme of this year’s event was artistic and cultural hybridity. The aim of this theme was to highlight a range of works and projects that encourage cross-fertilization in the creative industries (video games or TV series), as well as artistic and cultural mixes with the performing arts, music or books.
Last but not least, going beyond borders has also been a challenge for our operators in terms of young audiences, to offer programs that are better adapted to their uses and expectations.
Nota bene :
- During this edition, various What’s New sessions were dedicated to different venues for digital creativity (immersive rooms, festivals, creative labs and museums). Read the presentations HERE.
You can also discover all the content from the workshops held during this 6th edition of NUMIX LAB. Various workshops were organized on the future of museums (led by Museum Booster), the distribution of immersive works (by the Grand Palais immersif), international networks and cultural centers (by the Institut Français) and Europe Creative programs (by the Medias Desks of Hungary and Luxembourg). Find out more about the Workshops HERE.
Tuesday, December 2: FROM THE FRICHE TO THE SHOPPING CENTER: THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF THE DIGITAL ARTS
Monika Tonk (co-founder of Kanvas Global) and the challenge of “flow culture” with PIXIM
Faced with the fact that the majority of the general public don’t spontaneously walk through the doors of cultural institutions, Monika Tonk, of Kanvas Global, proposes to reverse the logic: if the public doesn’t come to art, art will go where the public is. PIXIM presents itself as a structure whose mission is to democratize access to art by setting up directly in high-traffic areas such as train stations, airports and shopping malls. This “ cultural snacking ” concept, led by Monika Tonk, offers passers-by a360° artistic and sensory immersion lasting around 15 minutes, providing an affordable and spontaneous break without the constraints of a traditional museum visit.
Far from the classic ephemeral installation, PIXIM presents itself as a 100 square metre immersive surface that can be easily exploited. For the creative industry, this initiative supports the development of distribution standards that promote the visibility of a diversity of high-caliber artistic works, offering international studios a network of ready-to-use rooms that bypass the usual technical complexity of in situ installations.
This logic, open to new places, is also observable when it is inserted in places where projects like these are not broadcast. Art can provide this enchanting dimension, as demonstrated by Stéphane-Arnaud Roisin representing Moment Factory.
Stéphane-Arnaud Roisin (General Manager Europe & Middle-East at Moment Factory) : Reenchanting physical places, from forests to stadiums
For Stéphane Roisin, digital is far from an end in itself; rather, it’s a powerful strategic lever for reactivating, magnifying and perpetuating existing physical assets. At the heart of Moment Factory’s philosophy lies the concept of“repurposing“, the ingenious art of conferring a second existence, new relevance and enhanced value on pre-existing places, whether natural, heritage or built, through the subtle and immersive integration of multimedia.
This approach takes several forms, the first being theextension of the sites’temporality. Immersive night-time tours, known as “LuminaLumina“are the perfect illustration of this strategy. Creations like Oceana Lumina in Rochefort radically transform the experience. By harnessing technology to create light and sound narratives after dark, the studio offers managers of parks, gardens or heritage sites the chance toexploit their spaces beyond traditional daytime hours. This simple temporal extension has a significant economic impact, potentially doubling their operating window, while attracting new audiences in search of unique and poetic nocturnal experiences.
But thehybridization between the real and the digital promoted by Moment Factory doesn’t stop at places of culture and nature; it’s also profoundly transforming the world of sports and arena entertainment. Faced with growing competition from the ultra-comfortable, technologically advanced viewing experiences offered by home screens, stadiums and sports arenas are being forced to reinvent themselves. They can no longer be content with being mere amphitheaters for passive spectators.
This is where theAugmented Games concept comes in. Through spectacular and engaging activations, such as those implemented at the UAE Pavilion during the Paris Olympic Games, Moment Factory transforms the sports arena into a giant, interactive playground. The integration of technology – monumental projections, real-time augmented reality, interactive interfaces – serves to gamify the real space. Fans are no longer mere observers; they are invited to become physically and emotionally involved in the event. The technological device acts as a catalyst, enabling the spectator to feel like the hero of his own experience and of the event, thus restoring deep meaning and irreplaceable value to the collective, physical experience of the stadium. The ultimate aim is to create a total immersion that justifies the move and makes the in situ experience superior to any remote digital alternative.
This desire to transform the role of the passive spectator into a committed player, using digital technology as a bridge between the physical and the virtual, is also reflected in Alfa 5’s approach. The company shares the conviction that the future of entertainment, and of sport in particular, lies in an augmented experience where technological immersion enriches and intensifies the live event.
Ana Oliveras Davi (CEO of Alfa 5): offering an augmented entertainment experience
Ana Oliveras Davi’s vision is one in which the virtual paradoxically requires a strong physical foundation. While e-sports and extended realities (XR) have become mass phenomena, Alfa5 XR notes that current infrastructures are not up to the challenge of these new uses. Competitions, which are often relegated to unsuitable multi-purpose venues or held in isolation online, lack venues capable of crystallizing community energy.
The Alfa5 XR project is therefore to fill this gap by developing genuine“XR Arenas“. These hybrid spaces are natively designed for technology, integrating high-speed broadband and immersive scenography, while retaining the conviviality of a traditional venue. The challenge goes beyond mere technical convenience: the aim is to offer institutional legitimacy to these practices. By dedicating prestigious venues to them, we transform gaming into a collective and social experience, giving it the same cultural status as a concert or a major sporting event.
This need to rethink infrastructure to accommodate new cultural experiences is not limited to e-sports and extended realities. It also applies to the fast-growing market for immersive exhibitions exploited by venue logic. This is what GL Events presented.
Claire Pipitone-Couriol (Cultural Development Manager at GL events Venues) : The art of hosting immersive exhibitions
Finally, Claire Couriol put into perspective the crucial role played by reception infrastructures in the economy of cultural “blockbusters”. The market for international immersive exhibitions is booming, but these super-productions often come up against a lack of suitable spaces in city centers, as conventional museums have neither the volume nor the technicality required. GL Events is responding to this challenge by transforming its network of exhibition centers into temporary cultural hubs.
By modulating halls, such as the Hall Tivoli in Strasbourg, into ephemeral museums over periods of four to six months, the group offers producers a secure, technically flawless turnkey solution. This “Venues” strategy not only reduces tour costs for promoters, it also plays a major role in regional development. It allows regions to be irrigated with first-rate cultural offerings, generating massive local economic spin-offs and proving that exhibition centers are now essential links in the cultural network.
The findings of the first day show that digital art can be used as a strategic lever to re-enchant public spaces, whether they are places of flux (stations, shopping centers), heritage sites (forests, historic sites) or places dedicated to sports and e-sports. The question is no longer where to put art, but how can art, via digital technology, multiply the value and meaning of what already exists? If digital technology is a catalyst for reality, can it create new narrative and experiential territories? This exploration of new horizons, extended narratives and spaces was the focus of the second day.
Wednesday, December 3: BEYOND FRONTIERS: BETWEEN SPACE AND NARRATION
Moderated by Violeta Vasileva of Mimic Productions, this panel explored the crucial issues of storytelling and setting a variety of projects in space. The discussion focused on how creators are transforming existing worlds, whether from video games, the world of series or music, into immersive, hybrid experiences, where place and story merge to push back the traditional boundaries of entertainment.
From screen to reality: How Ubisoft extends immersion with Location Based Entertainment Location Based Entertainment
Amy Jenkins-Le Guerroué – Director of Strategic Alliances at Ubisoft (France). To open this session, Amy Jenkins detailedUbisoft ‘s Location Based Entertainment (LBE) strategy. The challenge for the video game giant is no longer simply to create games, but to bring its virtual worlds to life in physical space to engage fans differently. Amy Jenkins stressed the importance of extending immersion beyond the home screen through spectacular collective experiences. She illustrated this approach with concrete examples such as “Assassin’s Creed Symphonic Adventure“an immersive concert featuring a symphony orchestra and video projections, or immersive exhibitions that explore the historical and artistic aspects of Ubisoft’s franchises, transforming the player into a cultural visitor.
While Ubisoft materializes its virtual universes in the real world, Ristband proposed the opposite route: transporting live performances from the real world to the metaverse.
Reach new audiences by offering online broadcasting – A solution provided by Ristband
Anne McKinnon, Director and Press Officer at Ristband, made a lucid assessment of the current music industry: faced with the prohibitive costs of touring and the saturation of the streaming market, artists are looking for new ways to monetize.
Ristband is tackling the problem of access for young audiences by creating immersive “digital twins” of concerts in game engines such as Unreal Engine 5. This strategy targets Gen Z in its digital environments, not to replace the physical experience, but to augment it and make it accessible worldwide. The example of the “Future of Music” showcase at the SXSW 2023 illustrates this effectiveness. The physical event, limited to 400 participants, saw its impact multiplied tenfold by a much larger, simultaneous virtual audience, thanks to Ristband.
This initiative proves the power of the physical-digital synergy. Ristband transforms a local event into a global experience, considerably amplifying the audience and opening up new avenues of development and monetization for the events and music industry.
While Ristband connects audiences at a distance, the next speaker focused on the technology that brings crowds together in the same physical space for a shared virtual adventure.
Industrializing collective VR: lifting the barriers of scalability and logistics – Univrse / XRoam (Spain)
David Bardos (Co-founder and CEO of Univrse and XROAM) focused his talk on a major operational issue: how to transform virtual reality, often perceived as a solitary and complex niche activity, into a mass-market cultural product capable of welcoming industrial visitor flows? The central challenge for Univrse is to solve the scalability equation by drastically simplifying the technical infrastructure. By developing a proprietary tracking technology that eliminates the need for computer backpacks in favor of synchronized autonomous headsets, Univrse removes the barriers of maintenance and cost, enabling any empty space to be converted into a massive narrative playground capable of accommodating up to 100 people simultaneously.
The strategic challenge of this approach is to guarantee profitability for operators while preserving total freedom of movement for the public. David Bardos illustrated this model with the “ Gaudí, l’Atelier du Divin ” experience, proving that it is possible to reconcile a demanding cultural narrative with high throughput requirements (up to 1,000 visitors per day). With the XRoam platform, Univrse is offering not just a technological feat, but a truly standardized distribution tool. The aim is to enable creators to deploy their works anywhere in the world with light logistics, transforming VR into a social, collective and economically viable experience.
To close this panel, the discussion moved away from the predominance of the image to explore another dimension of space, that sculpted by sound.
When sound becomes space: the example of MONOM (Germany)
William Russell invited the audience to rethink space not by what we see, but by what we hear. As Creative Director of MONOM in Berlin, he defends the idea that “sound is a space you enter”. He presented the 4DSOUND system, a sound spatialization technology installed at Berlin’s famous Funkhaus, consisting of 48 suspended omnidirectional loudspeakers. The challenge for MONOM is to restore sensory balance in a society dominated by the visual, by offering “sound cinema” experiences where listening becomes an act of deep attention. He spoke of artistic collaborations, such as the one with musician Superpoze or the work Lost Spaceswhich prove that narration can be purely acoustic, creating invisible architectures as tangible as physical walls.
After exploring the possibilities offered by storytelling for investing in the virtual world, the second part of the day focused on festivals and the challenges they face in terms of digital creativity.
After Wednesday’s in-depth exploration of the many ways of pushing back the boundaries of narrative and space, by moving from the virtual to the real (Ubisoft and Univrse), from the real to the metaverse (Ristband), or by reconfiguring space through sound (MONOM), Thursday’s focus was on artistic and cultural hybridity, which broadens the reflection on the crossroads between disciplines, formats and technologies, not only in storytelling and space, but in the creation and dissemination of art and culture in general.
Thursday, December 4: ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL HYBRIDITY
This panel, moderated by Lauriane Albert, Head of Development and Financing at MUTEK (Canada), opened in a highly symbolic context, marking the Montreal festival’s 25th anniversary of digital creativity. The main theme of the discussion was the exploration of hybridity, not simply as a trend, but as a structural response to contemporary cultural challenges. Speakers sought to demonstrate how the intersection of traditional artistic disciplines and emerging technologies can redefine models of creation, dissemination and audience engagement.
Opera Now! (ALL): When technology opens the doors of the opera to everyone
Fehim Seven, co-founder of Opéra Now! opened the session by tackling one of the most codified and historically charged of genres: opera. Her talk drew attention to an art form facing an aging audience and a persistent perception of elitism. With the Opera Now!initiative, he is proposing a radical overhaul of the operatic experience, articulated around the concept of “Opera for everyone”. She detailed how her organization uses immersive technologies (XR, VR) to literally and figuratively break down the walls of opera houses. The aim is not to replace vocal performance, but to create new points of entry for uninitiated audiences, especially young people (“Young Opera”). By developing hybrid and nomadic formats, Opera Now! moves opera towards the audience rather than waiting for the audience to come to it, transforming a static institution into a living, accessible material.
While opera is trying to break out of its gilded walls to win back the public, the book world is facing a similar challenge of disaffection, requiring the act of reading itself to be reinvented.
Increasing reading to reach audiences far removed from books (CNL – France)
Gaëlle Philippe, Head of Digital Audiobook and Forecasting at the Center National du Livre (CNL)Gaëlle Philippe, in charge of the digital audio book and foresight mission at the Centre National de Livre (CNL), took a closer look at the “reading crisis”, particularly among teenagers, who are captivated by screens and social networks. She presented the CNL’s strategy, which refuses to pit books against digital, preferring to use the latter as a strategic ally in bringing young people back to “reading for pleasure”. Hybridization becomes a powerful tool for cultural mediation. She dwelt at length on the example of the “Madeleine” project, an immersive experience designed around the figure of resistance fighter Madeleine Riffaud and based on the biographical comic strip by Bertail, Morvan and Riffaud. This project is a perfect illustration of the CNL’s ambition: the digital experience (headset, interaction) doesn’t just stand on its own, it acts as a spectacular “loss leader”, arousing curiosity and ultimately encouraging people to open the printed work. In this way, Gaëlle Philippe has demonstrated that technological innovation can serve historical memory and literary heritage.
Leaving behind the intimacy of augmented reading, the discussion turned to scenography and architecture, reminding us that hybridization must above all serve to create social links in physical space.
Mirari Studio (CAN): Invisible technology at the service of collective emotion.
Thomas Payette, co-founder of Miraristudio, offered a critical perspective on the use of technology, defending a resolutely humanist approach he calls “Storytelling first”. For him, successful hybridization is that which becomes invisible: technology must fade into the background to make way for the magic of the moment and collective emotion. He insisted on the distinction between the isolated virtual experience (the individual VR headset) and the shared experience in a public place, which Mirari favors. He backed up his point by detailing the revitalization of theEspace St-Denis in Montreal, transformed into a modern entertainment venue, and the tribute to Jean-Paul Riopelle. In these projects, digital scenography, projection and sound are not artifices, but architectural components that sculpt the space and guide the viewer through a shared narrative, re-enchanting physical cultural spaces.
To round off the morning, the analysis was extended from the scale of the project to that of the territory, exploring how an entire city can become a hybrid ecosystem.
Namur, from the KIKK Festival to ikii: digital art as an engine for regional development (BEL)
Marie du Chastel, Co-founder and Artistic Director at ikii; Artistic Director at KIKK galaxy (KIKK Festival, Le Pavillon, AfriKIKK, TRAKK Namur) concluded the panel by detailing the singular model of Namur, which has become a world reference thanks to the KIKK Festival. She explained how this event has gone beyond the classic festival framework to transform the city into a permanent laboratory: the KIKK in Town. The aim is to democratize digital art by taking it out of the “white cubes” of museums and placing it in public spaces (streets, squares, historic buildings), thus confronting ordinary citizens with hybrid works combining art, science and technology. Beyond the event aspect, she emphasized the economic structuring of the sector through the creation of the ikii platform. This production and distribution label meets a critical market need: to support digital artists in selling and exporting their work internationally. In this way, Marie du Chastel has demonstrated that cultural hybridity can be an engine for regional economic development, creating a virtuous circle between artistic creation, technological innovation and tourist appeal.
This reflection on the hybridization and democratization of digital works bridged the gap with the final theme addressed during these days of sharing: content and innovation specifically dedicated to young audiences. These panels on Friday December 5 marked the close of the festival and, through several inspiring presentations, highlighted the crucial issue of access to and education in digital art for children and teenagers, with organizations such as MINA, La Philharmonie des enfants, Hofmann studio, Couleur TV and MUNCH.
This in-depth reflection on artistic and cultural hybridity, explored from the angle of the democratization of digital works and their role as a driver of territorial development, naturally set the scene for the following day’s theme. Indeed, the imperative of making art accessible and relevant found a particular echo in the final day of exchanges, which focused specifically on tomorrow’s audiences, addressing the crucial issue of immersive innovation and content dedicated to exploration and learning for young people. .
Friday, December 5: EXPLORATION AND LEARNING: IMMERSIVE INNOVATION AT THE HEART OF YOUTH PROJECTS
This panel addressed a fundamental contradiction: how to capture the attention of the “Alpha Generation” – born with digital technology – without falling into screen passivity? Speakers had to resolve the equation between technological hyper-stimulation and the vital need for physical and social interaction.
Transforming physical hyperactivity into a learning lever – MINA Museum (Romania)
The major issue for the MINA Museumdirected by Sorina Topceanu and Madalina Ivascu (co-founders of MINA) was to design an immersive space for children (the first of its kind in Romania) that was not simply a consumption of images. The challenge lay in managing the physical energy of young visitors: how to create immersion without the isolation of the VR headset, unsuitable for children who need to move? They had to rethink the technological interface so that it became an extension of the body, transforming walls and floors into reactive surfaces.
The other challenge was thematic:how to make complex subjects such as financial education or nutritionattractive? The challenge here was to go beyond classic “edutainment” to embodied learning. By gamifying abstract concepts (the value of money, nutrients) via avatars and collective interaction, they set out to prove that sensory immersion enables better retention of information than traditional school-based learning.
Faced with this all-digital world, the Philharmonie de Paris proposed an alternative by questioning the place of technology in sensitive awakening.
The issue: The robustness of experience in the face of digital “frugality”, the example of the Philharmonie des Enfants (France)
For the Philharmonie des Enfants, presented by Sébastien Moreau (Deputy Director), the central challenge was paradoxical: to use cutting-edge technologies to create an experience that felt “low-tech” and organic. He emphasized the tension between the sophistication required for high-quality sound and the imperative of simplicity of use (“without instructions”). The issue was not just pedagogical, but industrial:how to design “screenless” interfaces capable of withstanding the intensive, even destructive, manipulation of children?
The challenge of sustainability was therefore doubled by the challenge of autonomy. Unlike exhibitions where the adult guides the child, the aim here was to step back and let the child face the sound alone. The risky gamble was to hide all the technical complexity (the “black box”) so that the child could concentrate solely on the musical gesture and listening, thus combating the usual noise and visual pollution of play areas.
Kris Hofmann shifted the debate to narrative and empathy, raising the question of how to represent the living.
Generating empathy for “unloved” subjects through playful learning devices: the challenge taken up by Hofmann Studio – (Austria)
Kris Hofmann’s (co-founder and artistic director ofHofmann Studio) problem is both emotional and ecological: how can we use the virtual to reconnect with the real, and specifically with what we find repulsive or indifferent? The challenge is to break down the psychological barrier that separates the human from the microcosm. She uses augmented reality not to escape reality, but to “heighten” awareness of the living, transforming an alarming biology lesson (the fall in biomass) into an engaging aesthetic experience.
Technically and artistically, she had to resolve a cognitive dissonance: how to integrate 2D illustrations (her signature style) into an immersive 3D environment (VR) without breaking the magic? The challenge was to create a hybrid visual language (“pop-up book” type) that reassures with its “handmade” aspect, while taking advantage of the immersive power of VR to place the child at the center of the food chain, forcing him/her to adopt a non-human point of view. Several examples were presented, including Insects and us and Four paws ora.
The issue of accessibility raises the question of the relevance of traditional institutions for teenagers, who often perceive museums as fixed places. The Munch Museum in Oslo addressed this issue by adopting a strategic approach: hijacking “Pop Culture” to save “High Culture”. The idea, presented by Julie Parisi and Awo Abdulqadir, was to “speak the language” of 15-18 year-olds, using the narrative codes of horror and the paranormal. They transformed the smartphone into a central mediation tool (augmented reality) to prove that the museum can rival mainstream entertainment in terms of emotions.
Hijacking “Pop Culture” to save “High Culture” – the example of MUNCH (Norway)
The Munch Museum, presented by Julie Parisi (Head of Innovation) and Awo Abdulqadir (Head of Youth Programs), faced an existential problem common to art museums: invisibility among audiences aged between 15 and 18. The challenge was to break away from the sacred, untouchable image of the museum. The strategic challenge was to agree to “speak the language” of the target audience, rather than impose an academic discourse. By choosing the codes of horror and the paranormal, they took the risk of desacralizing the institution to better engage this audience.
The other tension lay in the use of the smartphone: often combated as a distraction in museums, here it becomes the central tool of mediation. The challenge was to transform the barrier screen into a “magic filter” screen (augmented reality). The challenge was not so much technological as narrative: to prove to teenagers that the museum can offer emotions as powerful (fear, surprise) as their usual entertainment, by transforming the passive visit into an active investigation.
Finally, Francis Gélinas closed the session by outlining the challenges of translation from one medium to another. He illustrated these issues through the example of projects he is developing for Couleur.tv, specifically designed to raise awareness among young audiences of the risks of the Internet, but adapted to immersive formats.
Digital content to raise awareness of Internet risks among young audiences – Couleur.tv (Canada)
The transition from television to the 360° dome posed a fundamental problem for Francis Gélinas, director and producer of couleur.tv: the loss of the frame. On television, the director dictates what is to be seen; in a dome, the child is free to look elsewhere. The challenge was to guide attention without constraining it. We had to drastically slow down the narrative pace to avoid cognitive overload, and use spatialized sound as an invisible guide to lead the eye.
He also raised the issue of physiological immersion for toddlers. The domed image is so enveloping that it abolishes the safe distance of the flat screen, provoking intense physical reactions (desire to touch, loss of balance). The challenge was to design a work that respected this heightened sensory sensitivity, transforming viewing into a quasi-corporeal experience.
Conclusion: The new horizons of digital creation
The 6th edition of NUMIX LAB demonstrated that the creative industry is no longer content to simply innovate technically, but is redefining in depth its models of encounter with the public. Three major lessons emerge from these collective reflections:
A new geography for disseminating digital creativity. One of the crucial issues isaccessibility and democratization. By moving into high-traffic areas such as shopping malls with the “cultural snacking” concept, or by rehabilitating industrial wastelands, the digital arts are showing that other opportunities exist outside traditional institutions. And these can complement existing offerings. The challenge is no longer simply to bring the public to the museum, but to insert art into their daily lives. This new geography poses the challenge of standardizing infrastructures to enable large-scale distribution and amortize the costs of international tours.
The fusion of space and narrative: the shift from solitary immersion to collective, social immersion marks a turning point. Technology fades into the background, giving way to an inhabited narrative in which physical space becomes an interface. The challenge here is to combat “museum fatigue” and digital isolation by creating shared experiences. Visitors can thus become actors within an augmented and/or immersive space.
Artistic and cultural hybridity as a resilience strategy Hybridity is no longer an aesthetic option, but a strategic necessity. Whether it’s revitalizing opera, bringing young people and audiences unaccustomed to reading back to books, or engaging local communities, crossing disciplines helps to renew audiences. The stakes are also shifting towards sustainability and ethics: the sector must now integrate an eco-responsible and inclusive approach, while ensuring logistical resilience (remote maintenance, modularity) to perpetuate the works.
We would like to express our gratitude to all the teams who made this event possible. Thank you to our partners, our institutions and the venues that welcomed us so warmly in Budapest, Veszprém, Vienna and Linz. A huge thank you to the speakers and participants for the richness of their contributions and the generosity of their sharing. Last but not least, thank you all for making this year’s event an exceptional opportunity for exchange and encounter, proving once again that human collaboration remains the essential driving force behind cultural innovation.
Vincent MATHIOT