Wei Liu

Performance, research & teaching

中文
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RESEARCH

Performance
as inquiry.

I study how performance makes emotion, relationships and power observable—from actor training and moving images to encounters between AI performers.

Current research

Manuscript under review

When Emotion Has No “Inside”

AI–AI Co-Performance and the Reframing of Human Performance Distance

This research explores emotion as something observable in an exchange, rather than something that must originate in an individual’s inner experience. It considers how AI–AI co-performance can reframe the way we understand distance in human performance.

Presented at TaPRA 2026, Performance and New Technologies Working Group, London, 4 September 2026.

Face as GovernmentalityFull article in preparation

The Institutional Production of Governed Dissensus in The President’s Face

The proposal was accepted in July 2026 for development into a full article for Theatre Research International, special issue 52.3, “Governing the Theatrical Event: Policy, Power, and the Democratization of Performance”. The full article remains subject to peer review.

Selected publications

Published in Chinese; titles below are English translations.

2021

From Body Development to Functional Psychological Perception: A Defense of Film Performance Training Methods

Drama, 2021(03), 127–139.

2020

From Immersion to Defamiliarization: Narrative Features, Aesthetic Changes, and the Equal Rights of Spectatorship in Vertical Video

New Films, 2020(03), 36–40.

2020

Wandering Earth, Nezha’s Universe: Community Consciousness and Self-Expression under Chinese Values

Proceedings of the 12th Yangtze River Delta Drama and Film Graduate Academic Forum, 24–29.

2019

Research on the Training of Performing Talents in the Age of the Internet of Everything

New Drama, 216.6, 18–19.

Talks & presentations4 selected presentations
2025

From Emotional Assistance to Role-Universe Construction

Exploring AI Agent Applications in Social Performance. Poster presented at the UNU Macau AI Conference.

2024

Can AI Act?

When the Entertainment Industry Meets GenAI. Invited talk, Shanghai.

2022

How to Be an Actor in the New Media Era?

Invited talk, Shanghai.

2020

Public Private Moment

The Intersection of Digital Media and Role Performance. Invited talk, Guangzhou.