Alexandra Huang-Kokina

Research

Publications, talks and conference papers

Research interests

Digitally-mediated live arts (music, theatre and opera), collaborative and AI-augmented creativity, audience engagement, the future of embodied creative skills, and sustainable innovation in the cultural & creative industries (CCI).

Past interests include the intellectual history of Western art music, and theories of critical performance studies, and the intersection of music and literature more broadly. Her scholarship has been published by Routledge and Cambridge University Press, among others.

ORCID: 0009-0001-1037-8205

Alexandra Huang-Kokina speaks on a panel in front of the key art from Ghost of the AI Empire
Speaking on a panel about AI voice cloning in Berlin, Germany

Next talks

  1. 28 October 2026‘Who Shapes the Opera? Immersive Opera, Emotion Engine and the Intelligent Stage’Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures research seminar, School of Music, University of Leeds
  2. November 2026‘OperAI: The Intelligent Stage’IRCAM Forum Tokyo
  3. November 2026‘Immersive Storytelling and the Intelligent Stage in the Ghost of the AI Empire opera’Beyond 2026, a creative industry conference at Media City, Manchester

Publications

  • Performance Research 29(6)
  • Business Ethics Quarterly 35.1
  • Performance Research 27.2
  • The Modernist Review 40
  • Emergence Vol. XII
  • The Musical Performativity of Twentieth-Century Piano Novels

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Monograph

Talks and conference papers

18 invited talks, seminars and lectures; 22 conference papers

Växjö: 6Edinburgh: 5Manchester: 2Lund: 2London: 2Tokyo: 1Leeds: 1Malta: 1Berlin: 1Athens: 1Kyoto: 1Cologne: 1Shanghai: 1Stockholm: 1Taipei: 1Ghent: 1Hong Kong: 1Monterrey: 1Cluj-Napoca: 1Lausanne: 1Bristol: 1Baltimore: 1Singapore: 1Southampton: 1Cambridge: 1Växjö: 6Edinburgh: 5Manchester: 2Lund: 2London: 2Leeds: 1Malta: 1Berlin: 1Athens: 1Cologne: 1Stockholm: 1Ghent: 1Cluj-Napoca: 1Lausanne: 1Bristol: 1Southampton: 1Cambridge: 1
Where the research has been presented: 25 cities have hosted 37 of my talks and conference papers. Choose a city to see its talks.

2026

  1. ‘OperAI: The Intelligent Stage’IRCAM Forum Tokyo. LinkInvited talk
  2. ‘Immersive Storytelling and the Intelligent Stage in the Ghost of the AI Empire opera’Beyond 2026, a creative industry conference at Media City, ManchesterInvited talk
  3. ‘Who Shapes the Opera? Immersive Opera, Emotion Engine and the Intelligent Stage’Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures research seminar, School of Music, University of Leeds. Lecture Theatre 3, 16:00. Hybrid and free, no booking required. Event pageInvited talk
  4. ‘Radical Innovations in AI-Driven Opera’Creative Manchester Research Seminar (The Past, Present & Future of the Computer in Electronic Music). As invited speaker and panellistInvited talk
  5. ‘Vanishing Acts: AI, Performative Knowledge and Sustainable Memory’University of Malta. As invited panellist with the creative enterprise Culture Venture (Malta)Invited talk

2025

  1. ‘Experience report from the interactive AI opera premiere’AI Lund network research seminar, Lund, Sweden. VideoInvited talk
  2. ‘Vocal Clones & Digital Doubles: Navigating the AI Voice Era’At the Music Frontiers Conference by Music & Tech Germany (Berlin, Germany). LinkInvited talk
  3. ‘AI in Chamber Music: From Creative Collections to Collective Creativity’EGOS Conference on ‘Creativity that Goes a Long Way’, Athens, GreeceConference paper
  4. ‘Performative Craft: AI Crafting Collective Creativity for Immersive Chamber Music Performances’Kyoto Craft Workshop, Kyoto University, Kyoto, JapanConference paper
  5. ‘AI in Opera: The case of adapting Yotsuya Kaidan into an immersive “science-fiction” opera’Intermediality Workshop, University of EdinburghConference paper
  6. ‘AI Crafting Collective Creativity?: Radical mediation, speculative fiction and immersive storytelling’Guest lecture for Edinburgh Futures Institute (‘Narrative Futures’ postgraduate programme)Invited talk
  7. ‘Intermediality and Digital Humanities: A Lecture on New Media Cultures’Linnaeus University, SwedenInvited talk

2024

  1. ‘Remediating Chamber Music Practices: AI Mediation for Intermedia Performances through Word-and-Music Interactions’The International Word and Music Studies Forum, University of Cologne, GermanyInvited talk
  2. ‘Intermediality, Music & Literature: From musical fiction to multimedia performances’Department of English Literature at Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityInvited talk
  3. ‘Emotion AI and Affective Robots: AI innovations in multimodal emotional transmediation in 21st-century digitally-mediated opera’The First International Conference in AI Music Studies 2024, KTH Stockholm, Sweden. ConferenceConference paper
  4. ‘OperAI: Exploring science-fiction opera and human-AI interactions in immersive opera theatre’The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), University of Edinburgh. Event pageInvited talk
  5. ‘Artificial Emotional Intelligence: AI perspectives on emotional transmediation in science-fiction opera’Intermedial Networks: The Digital Present and Beyond, the 7th conference of the International Society of Intermedial Studies, Linnaeus University, Sweden. Invited panellist. ConferenceConference paper
  6. ‘Artificial Emotional Intelligence: AI perspectives on in 21st-century Taiwanese science-fiction narratives’From the Invention of Writing to the Emergence of Artificial Intelligence: Cultural Approaches to Information Technology, Interfaceing 2024 conference, National Taiwan University, Taiwan. Accepted. ConferenceConference paper
  7. ‘Touching through Music: Pianistic touch and the transmission of affect’Orpheus Institute & Ghent University, BelgiumInvited talk
  8. ‘Intermedial Musical Poetries: Voice Translation and the Transmission of Affect in Feng Zhi’s Sonnets and Jiang Wenye’s Peking Inscriptions’The Third International Conference of the Modernist Studies in Asia Network (MSIA): Modernism between Past and Future, the University of Hong Kong. ConferenceConference paper
  9. ‘Artificial Emotional Intelligence for New Music Theatre: Enhancing artificial-human co-creativity in contemporary science-fiction opera’Department of Music and Art, LinnéuniversitetetInvited talk
  10. ‘Emotion AI: A multimodal exploration of artificial emotional intelligence through opera with Alexandra Huang-Kokina’Institutionen för film och litteratur, LinnéuniversitetetInvited talk
  11. ‘Intermediality and Digitalisation’Workshop for the PhD course, the Graduate School in Multimodality and Intermediality: Humanities Research in a Digital World (MID World) at Linnaeus & Örebro University, SwedenInvited talk
  12. ‘AI, Music & Digital Humanities’A guest lecture for the University of Monterrey (Mexico)Invited talk
  13. ‘Exploring the Performativity of Affect in the Intermedial Musical Poetries’Theories and Practices of Intermediality Today: An International and Interdisciplinary Workshop, the University of Edinburgh. WorkshopConference paper
  14. ‘Intermediality and Digital Humanities’Guest lecture at Linnaeus University Centre for Intermedial and Multimodal Studies, Sweden. Event pageInvited talk

2023

  1. ‘Reimagining Future Soundscapes: Piano performance beyond traditional concert settings in early-20-century piano novels’Brown Bag Seminar Series at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, the School of Advanced Studies at the University of LondonConference paper
  2. ‘Exploring Affective Performativity in the Intermedial Musical Poetries by Ojārs Vācietis’Affective Intermediality International Conference, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania. ConferenceConference paper
  3. ‘The Performative Logic of Modern Essays: Exploring the Autonomy of the Essay Form in Philosophy and Literature’Logic and Modern Literature, University of Lausanne, SwitzerlandConference paper
  4. ‘Intermedial Musical Poetries: Voice Translation and the Transmission of Affect in Feng Zhi’s Sonnets’British Association for Chinese Studies, King’s College LondonConference paper
  5. ‘Resonating Bodies: Exploring the Transformative Affect in Piano Performance’Intermediality and the Body Symposium, Lund University, SwedenConference paper

2022

  1. ‘Pianistic Singing as Hopeful Female Voice in Early Twentieth-Century Novels’Hopeful Modernisms: British Association for Modernist Studies 2022 Conference, University of BristolConference paper
  2. ‘The Ethics of Wagnerian Death in Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out and Jacob’s Room’The 2022 International Conference on Virginia Woolf, onlineConference paper
  3. ‘Musical Performativity of the Piano Novels by Thomas Mann, E. M. Forster and Virginia Woolf’Northeast Modern Language Association’s 53rd Annual Convention, Johns Hopkins University & The University of Buffalo, U.S.A.Conference paper
  4. ‘The Pianistic Performance Ecosystem in the Novels by Virginia Woolf and Thomas Mann’Words, Music and Environment Virtual Conference by the Forum at the International Association of Word and Music Studies, onlineConference paper

2021

  1. ‘Musical Performativity of Piano Performance in Thomas Mann’s Tristan, E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View, and Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out’Acoustic Text Symposium, Nanyang Technological University, SingaporeConference paper
  2. ‘Inter-subjective Musical Connectivity: Virtuosic Piano-playing in Tristan, A Room with a View, and The Voyage Out’13th GradNet Annual Conference, University of SouthamptonConference paper

2020

  1. ‘Reconfiguring the Positivity of Death Narratives in Virginia Woolf’s Novelistic Writing’English Literature Work-in-Progress Seminar, University of EdinburghConference paper

2019

  1. ‘Happiness in Sweet Death: A Positive Reading of Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room and The Waves’Happiness: Enlightenment to Present Conference, University of CambridgeConference paper
  2. ‘Word and Music Studies: Surveying beyond Cultural and Aesthetic Fields’Taiwanese Scholars in Scotland Symposium, Taiwanese Scholars Association in ScotlandConference paper