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
Theater Karree 1-3
44137 Dortmund
Germany
Fon: +49 (0) 231 226 14330

Address and location of the Academy for Theater and Digitality:
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Germany

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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

Theatre and video director, stage/set designer. Studied at The Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theater Academy in Warsaw and Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Recipient of the national scholarship MLODA POLSKA (2021). Showed her works at multiple showcases: Generation After 5. Showcase (Warsaw, Poland); Internationales Festival für Junges Theater FURORE(Germany); 23rd Theater Confrontations (Lublin, Poland); Festival of the Documentary Theater Sopot Non-Ficton2020; 7th, 8th and 9th Young Directing Forum (ZAiKS Award and TR Debut Award) and many others. Selected works: RIP KORE (internet show) in TR Warszawa website 2020; STREAM in TR Warszawa, 2020; THE STRANGER in Teatr Polskiin Poznan, 2021; APOKALIPSE: A DIARY an internet videodiary during XI. Festival New Epiphany, 2021; and many others.

Katarzyna Minkowska

The main question was how to integrate an immersive digital tool into a production. Our focus was to find a strong connection between the technology used in the production and the theme of the performance.

In our performance, we used a special voting application. The audience had the opportunity to influence the course of the events on stage and the fate of individual characters in the performance.

How did the collaborators work together on this project?

At the start, we have created working groups. Since Kolibri Theatre was interested in working with a voting app in their production (Traitor), too, we started to discover the possibilities together with them. Kolibri Theatre had involved Ben Kirman from the University of York as an expert, who had worked before on a similar app (O Bando: Football) that allowed the audience members to vote during the show. At one point in the preparation phase, we decided to use an existing voting app (reaction.link), but Kolibri Theatre continued working with Ben Kirman, who, in the end, created the app for the production from scratch.

In the following months, we worked on the script and the app parallel developing them together.

1. How do we make actually believe they affect the plot and convince them it‘s not fake?

2.We have 340 seats. How do we handle a system this size. How do we handle errors or equal results of voting? We don‘t want people to only be passive observers, we want to drag them into a narrative. How?

Did you use existing software and/or applications?

We haven’t used any existing software; it was all developed by Ben Kirman (University of York) and by reaction.link and customized to our needs.

Did any of your questions or goals change?

The awareness that the performance is to be addressed especially to young audiences was with us from the very beginning. It also directly influenced the decision to think of the audience as an active participant, a member of the Ministry of Love community. Their vote cast through the use of the voting application allows the audience to feel their active role and real impact on the shape and development of the story being told, even when in the end, it turns out that in a totalitarian world the choice is a false one, and everyone - the artists, viewers, art, science and technology, become victims of an authoritarian manipulation, while also showing how totalitarian power works.

What were the key milestones in the development of the production?

In our opinion, it is extremely important that the dramatic material we use responds to the current problems of the young viewer.

Before the production process, we organized focus groups of young people, who were our experts in the selection of topics, texts, and artistic media. It was extremely important for them to have a genuine impact on the course of creative processes.

The performance, dedicated especially to young audiences, is a warning against the tendencies that we may notice in the modern world.

This applies primarily to social and political tendencies, but also to the use of science, education, new technologies, as well as various manipulation techniques aiming to achieve the goals intended by those in power. In this respect, the performance presents the fears of totalitarian tendencies present in the contemporary world.

In what ways was the production a success?

The critical reception of the production is very positive, and interest for the production is more extensive than what the theatre has expected. But our major success is that the production can provoke our young audiences and lead to fruitful discussions about responsibility, decision-making, dangers of manipulation.

What elements of the final production would you change?

We think the production focuses too much on its content and details. We think the audience should more feel actually make an influence the plot and have really an active role in it shaping and development

What advice would you give to artists taking a similar approach?

Give yourself more time to work on the software and find the right balance and more strong connections between the usage of technology and between the content of the production, the software should be an internal part of the plot‘s development not only a kind of a tool.

Is the coding for this project open source? What language was used, what is the function of this code, and where can we find it?

The coding is not open source; it is entirely reaction.link

Team

Interaction Design Studio Head, Academy of Fine Arts Krakow

Kamil Kamysz

Ben Kirman

Piotr Froń

The main idea and inspiration of our performance was the PlayOn project "Concrete Utopias in the Digital Age". George Orwell's dystopic novel. The novel is aimed as something opposite to didactic literature, where ideal societies are presented - utopias. In the year 1984, anindividual is deprived of freedom in every possible way, break free from its yoke. The performance, dedicated especially to young audiences, is a warning against the applies primarily to social and political tendencies, but also to the use of science, education, new technologies, achieve the goals intended by those in power. In this respect, the performance presents the fears of totalitarian tendencies present in the contemporary world. In our performance, we used a special voting application. The audience had the opportunity to influence the course of the events on stage and the fate

RESEARCH PLATFORM

Academy for Theatre and Digitality

Katarzyna Minkowska

Director

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