is the knowledge-sharing platform for the 

. Explore the experiments and bold ideas behind the Academy's Fellowship programme, delve into the science behind the projects of our HIDA researchers, and explore the results of international collaborations.

is a platform for discovery and documentation. Each 

showcases a unique artistic-technological research project, with topics as diverse as the use of AI in theatrical design, choreography for and with robotics, and the possibilities for theatre in virtual spaces. Each 

 offers the chance to learn more about the members of our artistic research network. By pooling our knowledge in such a way, creative research into theatre, performance and digital technologies can become more accessible, sustainable, and artistically innovative.

Funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation, the Academy will award a total of 54 fellowships between 2019 and 2022, each lasting for five months. The 

 are designed for people interested in artistic-technical research which explores the possibilities for digital narratives in theatrical spaces, as well as their practical implementation. Fellows have researched a variety of digital methods (motion capture, coding, XR, VR, AR, sensor technologies, robotics, and more) across artistic fields including opera, dance, orchestra and drama. 

Helmholtz Information & Data Science Academy

(HIDA), the Academy for Theatre and Digitality has offered joint research fellowships at the interface of digital art and cutting edge scientific research since 2021. The HIDA fellowships are kindly supported by the 

Artificial Intelligence

VR (Virtual Reality)

Interactive

Sound Design

Projection/Mapping

3D Printing

XR (Extended Reality)

AV (Audiovisual Design)

Theater Dortmund
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Management Team:

Executive Director
Tobias Ehinger

Administrative Director
Martin Lizan

Director of the Opera
Heribert Germeshausen

Director of the Ballet
Xin Peng Wang

General Music Director
Gabriel Feltz

Artistic Director of the Schauspiel
Julia Wissert

Director of the Children's and Youth Theater
Andreas Gruhn

Director of the Academy for Theatre and Digitality
Marcus Lobbes

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Fellowship

HIDA

PlayOn!

discover cutting-edge digital research in theatre and performance 
meet our research fellows and collaborators in the 

Portal: Academy for Theatre and Digitality

Bridging art & science, dance & technology, in artistic practice and doing academic research at 

 - University of applied sciences Mainz (Project originally founded by choreographer William Forsythe). 

Guevara's work propose playgrounds where the body in time-space becomes a source of non-binary knowledge. They propose abstraction as a strategy to decolonize knowledge. A blurry gaze at the constant state of becoming. They create choreographies that linger at the threshold of exciting and forgetting where the body is a source of healing. 

Jorge’s work has been presented in New Media Art, ArtScience and Performing Arts festivals such as Ars Electronica, Documenta, Impulstanz, NODE Forum for Digital Arts, KUNSTENFESTIVALDESARTS.

Choreographer, Media and Interaction Designer, Researcher

Portfolio (2022)

Jorge Guevara

How can we (as a field) make a dance in a virtual environment so that the audience “feels” the presence of the digital body?

What is needed for the audience to find new aesthetics when dance is mediated with digital environments like VR headsets?

, which explores the performative possibilities of VR/XR technologies through dance. It questions the concept of a 'stage' when dance occurs simultaneously upon hybrid stages (for instance, in both virtual and physical realities) and asks: how can this kind of content be shared with an audience?

 Virtual reality creates an experience where introspection can be achieved. This opens up possibilities for somatic and other movement practices. Working with the body and technology presents the opportunity to explore rigid computer systems through an ontological approach (praxis/doing), and to explore the medium's own possibilities. Often, dancers who work with technology forget their own embodied language (the 'why/how') and get confused and carried away by the pragmatic reality of technology, focusing instead on the content (the 'what'). They forget their own embodied power. The result is a superfluous object.

To tackle this I propose a praxis which privileges the process over the result. I work with avatars and sigils as a ritual practice with a non-anthropocentric approach, and the key aspect is to shift the focus in choreographic strategies. Instead of asking "what to 

This project continues my research into dance in VR that started in 2022 at 

Motion Bank - University of Applied sciences Mainz

 (Project originally founded by choreographer William Forsythe). 

Using a markerless motion capture system I created, I explored and documented simple visual representations of the body (avatars) in VR. 

. I achieved this using a non-anthropocentric approach. In the documentation it was important to use an inclusive, clear language that addressed both dancers and technologists. In the 1st cycle at Motion Bank, the focus was on the dancer.

In the 2nd cycle at the Academy I want to add a layer where I introduce the stage, thus exploring the relation between audience and dancer.

The new performance rather offers different entry points to the audience so that every audience member can have a different interpretation. Nevertheless, the core of the performance remains the same; we investigate a theatrical narrative while having virtual reality as an actor at the center of the stage. In the first performance, we used a linear narrative around VR to convey how we conduct a research. In the second performance, we used a less rigid structure, namely structured improvisation, to show how we develop a performance. It can be seen as a making-of where Jorge runs around the stage and prepares each technical element for a “real” performance although there is no such a “real” performance that comes out of the making-of.

Though our intention is to show behind-the-scenes of developing a VR-performance, we do not want to limit the scope to “struggle of working with technology in theater” because this theme may be too specific in the industry. We try to add embodied elements and add breaks in between to show humanness of a theater maker. The audience can relate this process to everyday technology such as smartphones, smart devices and potentially VR headsets, which are becoming a commodity.

For the overall structure, we divided the performance into small skits so that each skit features one element (e.g, video of eyes, VR meditation app). As a structure, we might think it follows an idea of Fluxus or it is minimalist; nonetheless, in the actual performance, we see that each element is not separable from each other and we can notice the interconnection between the selected element and other actors on the stage that are not mentioned (Jorge’s body, desk, floor, …). This is because working with technology is inherently a complex process.

Between Information and Noise :: a Practice on dance and VR

: To explore different perceptions of realities when dance happens within Hybrid stages - (VR and on-site)

Missing conceptual context to apply technical tools.

The natural empathic and embodied relation between dancer audience is partially lost when using VR headsets. This research aims to help the audience to find new aesthetics (

mediated experience of time created between the artwork, the artist, the interface and the audience

), to find engagement, new meanings and purpose when dance is mediated with digital environments like VR headsets In hope to 

create a visceral sense of unfolding or revelation, but also a feeling of immediacy and loss.

Exercises on subjective perception of time and space. The aim with this series of videos is in questioning, What is happening in real time.

. An action of a person drinking water (action 1) is recorded with 2 different camera perspectives. A setup in OBS is set to switch between 3 different perspectives of the camera; the 2 recordings and a 3rd live feed. A person comes into the space. There is a projection that switches between the 3 perspectives while a person is in the space doing the action of drinking water. This action is recorded. 


Sigil

Pathfinder

The natural empathic-embodied relation between dancer - audience is partially lost when using VR headsets. This research aims to help the audience to find new aesthetics, new engagement, new meanings and purpose when dance is mediated with digital environments. Through two live performances, I created a visceral sense of unfolding or revelation, but also a feeling of immediacy and loss. 


RESEARCH PLATFORM

Academy for Theatre and Digitality

Jorge Guevara

Choreographer, Media and Interaction Designer, ResearcherFellow

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