In an increasingly hybrid cultural landscape, NUMIX LAB 2025 reaffirmed itself as one of Europe’s most compelling platforms for digital creativity, immersive arts, and cultural innovation. From December 1 to 5, I took part in the sixth edition of the event. It unfolded across Budapest, Veszprém, Vienna, and Linz, offering an experience that challenged conventional ideas of what a conference can be. This article reflects on NUMIX LAB from the perspective of a participant working at the intersection of culture, technology, and immersive practices.
What immediately set NUMIX LAB apart was its multi-city format. Rather than remaining in one place, participants crossed borders and cultural contexts together. This approach embodied the 2025 theme: Beyond Boundaries. It encouraged me to reconsider how digital and immersive works are shared, presented, and accessed across Europe. Movement itself became meaningful. It shaped how discussions unfolded and how ideas were absorbed.
I joined nearly 300 professionals: artists, producers, researchers, representatives from cultural institutions, festivals, museums, creative technology studios, and EU funding bodies. Together we spent a week exploring and exchanging ideas. Travelling between cities felt less like logistics and more like a curatorial gesture. This reinforced the idea that digital culture is deeply shaped by context. Innovation benefits from exposure to diverse environments.
The program struck a strong balance between reflection and practical application. Through panels and talks, I engaged in discussions on immersive narrative futures, hybrid artistic practices, and the evolving role of cultural venues in a digital world. A recurring theme was the need for institutions to move beyond isolated experimentation. They must work toward sustainable, audience-centred integration of digital media.
Equally impactful, the site visits and workshops brought theory directly into practice. Museum, creative hub, and innovation centre staff demonstrated how they adapt infrastructures, teams, and storytelling approaches. They support XR, interactive installations, and performative technologies, and grapple with real operational constraints.
Beyond the formal program, networking was seamlessly woven into the experience. Conversations continued during city transfers, shared meals, and informal gatherings. This fostered continuity and trust. This structure allowed ideas to mature organically into concrete collaboration opportunities. Several discussions quickly shifted from inspiration to feasibility.
Place also played a defining role. Budapest and Veszprém highlighted emerging creative scenes and regional innovation strategies, while Vienna demonstrated how established institutions are navigating digital transformation at scale. Linz, with its strong media arts identity, provided a fitting conclusion, underscoring how digital culture flourishes in environments that actively support experimentation and creative risk-taking.
Experiencing these cultural ecosystems firsthand enabled me to compare funding models, institutional approaches, and audience engagement strategies across borders. This contextual learning proved just as valuable as the formal sessions and reflected NUMIX LAB’s strong commitment to experiential knowledge exchange.
One of the most striking aspects of NUMIX LAB 2025 was the strength of its community. The event brought together a genuinely interdisciplinary group. It broke down silos between artists, technologists, curators, and decision-makers. The focus on young audiences and accessibility was particularly meaningful. Rather than treating younger generations as a future concern, discussions placed them at the centre. This encouraged the design of digital experiences that are inclusive, relevant, and culturally grounded.
The reflections emerging from NUMIX LAB 2025 also resonate with the objectives of VOXReality, an initiative focused on advancing the convergence of Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision within Extended Reality environments. While NUMIX LAB operates at the scale of cultural ecosystems and professional exchange, VOXReality addresses similar questions from a technological and research-driven perspective: how XR experiences can better understand users’ goals, context, and surrounding environments through language-based interaction supported by visual understanding. Although operating in different domains, both point to a shared evolution of immersive practices, one in which technology moves beyond surface-level interaction to enable more contextual, responsive, and meaningful engagement.
As digital and immersive arts continue to reshape how culture is created and shared, NUMIX LAB stands out as a platform actively shaping this transformation. As a participant, I left not only with new contacts and ideas, but with a clear message. The future of digital culture lies beyond geographical, institutional, and imaginative boundaries.
Manuel Toledo - Head of Production at VRDays Foundation
Manuel Toledo is a driven producer and designer with over a decade of experience in the arts and creative industries. Through various collaborative projects, he merges his creative interests with business research experience and entrepreneurial skills. His multidisciplinary approach and passion for intercultural interaction have allowed him to work effectively with diverse teams and clients across cultural, corporate, and academic sectors.
Starting in 2015, Manuel co-founded and produced the UK’s first architecture and film festival in London. Since early 2022, he has led the production team for Immersive Tech Week at VRDays Foundation in Rotterdam and serves as the primary producer for the XR Programme at De Doelen in Rotterdam. He is also a founding member of ArqFilmfest, Latin America’s first architecture and film festival, which debuted in Santiago de Chile in 2011. In 2020, Manuel earned a Master’s degree from Rotterdam Business School, with a thesis focused on innovative business models for media enterprises. He leads the VRDays Foundation’s team’s contributions to the VOXReality project.