On December 4, 2025, NUMIX LAB will host a discussion on artistic and cultural hybridity, with the participation of Lauriane Albert (Mutek), Fehime Seven (Opera Now!), Emmanuel Angeli (Brussels Major Events), Thomas Payette (Mirari), and Gaëlle Philippe (Centre national du Livre).

On this occasion, we had the opportunity to hear from Fehime Seven, Co-founder of OperaNow!, who will present her project No One’s City and highlight the current challenges she is facing.

Could you introduce yourself as well as OperaNow! ?

I am Fehime Seven, I work as a game developer and creative technologist, mainly in the immersive and gaming industries as a freelancer. My background is rooted in theatre and digital storytelling, and I have a strong interest in how technology can open up new forms of artistic expression. Together with colleagues from various disciplines, directors, designers, dramaturges, cultural managers, writers, actors, and fellow game designers, we co-founded OperaNow! in 2024.

OperaNow! was born from the need to create a space where artistic practices can meet and transform each other. At the core of our collective lies a focus on the human being, and we often engage critically with environmental and sociopolitical themes. Our work reinterprets what opera can be today, by merging music, theatre, immersive arts, and digital creativity. Rather than treating opera as a fixed form, we see it as a fertile ground for experimentation where traditions are not abandoned, but expanded.

Our collective’s mission is to explore hybrid forms of storytelling that respond to the way we live, connect, and perceive today. By integrating different disciplines and perspectives, Opera Now seeks to investigate experimental, innovative, and multi-layered modes of expression that may shape the opera of the future.

On December 4, you will be speaking on the panel “Artistic and Cultural Hybridity.” How does OperaNow! address this theme?

Hybridity is at the heart of OperaNow!’s practice. Our projects often operate at the crossroads of theatre, music, interactive media, and digital arts, and we approach these encounters as opportunities to reimagine both artistic forms and cultural meanings. In a time when digital environments are rapidly evolving, we see hybridity as a reflection of how people today experience communication, interaction, and togetherness. We believe society has a new perception for communication, interaction, speed, information, data, exchange, togetherness and so on. We want to explore this new perception. 

Our first immersive digital project, No One’s City, embodies the idea of hybridity both artistically and culturally. It explores the theme of immigration from the perspective of young people, weaving together social, historical, and psychological research with digital storytelling. The project exists at the intersection of disciplines: part research, part experience, and part potential performance. In developing it, we are searching for a balance between creating a virtual narrative space and designing interactive mechanics that invite audiences to explore it. 

In this sense, our work addresses hybridity on several levels. On an artistic level, we experiment with the fusion of sound, immersive arts, and gaming principles to create new forms of storytelling that move fluidly across genres. On a cultural level, hybridity shapes our approach to audience engagement: we want to reflect the hybrid ways in which people today navigate identity, community, and belonging through both physical presence and digital interaction.

What are the three main challenges your projects are currently facing in terms of production and distribution ?

As a newly formed collective, our main challenge is community building and visibility. Being a young collective, we need to connect with networks of artists, producers, and institutions who are also interested in the same questions as us. We believe that knowledge exchange and collaboration are essential in navigating such complex and evolving fields.

This is exactly why NUMIX LAB is so meaningful for us. The event provides a unique opportunity to meet creators who are also questioning and reshaping the boundaries of digital creativity and performance. We want to build organic relationships, exchange practical know-how, and even spark collaborations that will carry beyond the event. For us, being part of NUMIX LAB is already a form of support. It means visibility, belonging to a wider community, and the possibility of imagining future projects together.

Many thanks to Fehime for her availability! More details on our programm.

Charlotte BAUGÉ