Diving into the Digital Future of (Performing) Arts

Diving into the Digital Future of (Performing) Arts

Talk with Annie Dorsen (NY City) and Anne Simon (Luxembourg)

Presentation : Johannes Birgfeld (Saarland University)

Digitalization and algorithms, ChatGPT and AI are increasingly dominating the visions of our future. But how will they shape the theater of the future? How will it change when chatbots are on stage, when algorithms compose live, when actresses share but a digital space, what sort of theater experience will an augmented reality opera provide? We jump into the new future of theater with two theater makers that are already exploring and mapping it with their innovative works, which we will introduce and discuss.

Annie Dorsen, born in New York City in 1973, educated at Yale University (BA) and the Yale School of Drama (MA), is one of the most relevant international pioneers of a theater that not only addresses artificial intelligence and the growing importance of algorithms, but also consistently uses them in the development and design of new stage works. Hello Hi There (2010), A Piece of Work (2013), Yesterday Tomorrow (2015), The Great Outdoors (2017), The Slow Room (2018) or Infinite Sun (2019) as well as Dorsen's essays - esp: On Algorithmic Theatre (2012) - are exemplary forays and ideally suited to thinking through a theater that works with AI and algorithms.

Anne Simon, born in 1982, studied at Royal Holloway College, University of London. She is one of the most important contemporary directors in Luxembourg (Ensemble Devised Work: Trail of Crumbs, NYC, 2015; Zack Braff, All New People, 2016; Elise Schmit: So dunkel hier 2021). As early as 12 years ago, she experimented with a live theater in two locations connected only via the Internet (the@tre- love impossible, 2011) or created a monologue for an actor and his 6 robotoc replicas (Prometheus: We are the gods now, 2012). During the corona lockdown, live pieces were created on a digital stage. Anne Simon develops concepts of immersive theater. She is one of the most significant mediators of English-language theatre in Luxembourg and is currently developing the augmented reality opera Opera Go.

Johannes Birgfeld, born in 1971, teaches modern German literature at Saarland University with a research focus on 18th, 20th and 21st century literature and the history of drama and theater, particularly in the present day. He is also the initiator and organizer of the annual Saarbrücken Lectures on the Poetics of Drama.

In English

Free entrance 

Registration : [email protected] | +352 49 04 43-1

Organized by the Institute Pierre Werner in collaboration with Saarland University

Support: neimënster