The EU Horizon-funded VOPUS project explores the future of virtual culture

This project, which has received Horizon funding from the European Union (€3.5 million), examines whether participatory art—such as opera—can strengthen a sense of community and well-being in digital worlds.  

It is not just about opera or virtual reality, but above all about exploring how virtual worlds are changing the experience of culture and a sense of community. 

The project will build a virtual “Operaland” environment for research purposes, where three European opera houses will collaborate with the audience to create new, participatory opera experiences.  

“Opera used to be mass entertainment, but today it is perceived as elitist and the audience is quite elderly. Reaching new audiences requires new types of content, where digital technology also brings something fundamentally new from an artistic perspective”, says Antti Ruotoistenmäki from Aalto Studios. 

The goal is to make opera more accessible and appealing to new audiences—especially to young people who are accustomed to navigating in digital environments.   

The aim is to make Operaland relevant to the TikTok generation and consumers of Instagram Reels. The goal is to get them to visit Operaland and participate in the creation of content.

Part of the European Digital Culture Strategy 

The VOPUS project is linked to the European Union’s broader goal of strengthening its own digital cultural production in a media environment dominated by global technology companies. 

The goal is to develop European content and platforms and to understand what kinds of skills and working models will be needed in the creative industries of the future. The project also examines how technological developments and virtual production environments are changing the nature of creative work and what new sets of skills they are generating. 

At the heart of the project is research on community: how virtual environments influence the experience of art and collaborative creation. 

“We’re interested in how a sense of community is built in the virtual world—and how, for example, aesthetic and artistic quality can be assessed in such an environment. This has not yet been studied much”, says Anniina Toiviainen, director of the Artpreneurship research group at Aalto University and the VOPUS consortium.  

At the same time, the project also examines ethical issues, such as copyright, opportunities for participation and the accessibility of digital culture. 

A broad European collaboration network  

The project involves numerous European partners, including opera houses, research organizations, and developers in the creative industries. The cooperation network enables comparisons between practices in different countries and gives the research broader impact.  

At Aalto University, the project is particularly linked to research in the arts and media, as well as to examining the future of the creative industries. 

“On the other hand, it’s also about the role we play as European actors: do we build our own operating models, or do we simply follow the development of global platforms?” Toiviainen ponders.  

In the VOPUS project, opera serves as an example of a broader phenomenon: how art can open up to new audiences and take on new forms in a digital environment. And, on the other hand, what kinds of revenue models and professional opportunities it opens up for creative and technical professionals. 

The goal is not merely to move existing content online, but to develop new ways of experiencing and creating art together. 

The Virtual Opera for Participation, Unity, and Social Cohesion (VOPUS) research project will be carried out from 2026 to 2029. Participants in the collaboration include the Finnish National Opera, the Augsburg Opera (Germany), the Stara Zagora Opera (Bulgaria), the Design Academy Eindhoven (Netherlands), and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) and Digital Catapult (UK), a leading innovation hub for deep tech. At Aalto University the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, the School of Science, and Aalto Studios/Magics are participating in the project.