Symposium

For the second time, we invite artists, developers, researchers, and theater practitioners to come together to take stock: Where does immersive and expanded theater stand after years of rapid technological advancement? – This shift is transforming aesthetic frameworks as well as production conditions, authorship, and the relationship with the audience.

Keynotes, workshops, Show & Tell, and more, featuring Jovanka von Wilsdorf (Hamburg), Pablo Palacio (Madrid), MIREVI (Düsseldorf), and many others.

Registration for the general public begins on September 11, subject to availability.
Please note: Limited number of participants.

To register, email lina.prasch [​at​] theateranderruhr.de

The Program

Fri, Sept. 18, 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Day 1: Perspectives

Keynote

THE VOICE IN THE MACHINE: Jovanka von Wilsdorf discusses the effects and side effects of artistic interactions with AI and AI-powered robots.

Show & Tell

The “Show & Tell” format is modeled after workshop formats found at developer conferences. Instead of presenting finished works or theories, artists, developers, and production teams open up the desks, labs, studios, and rehearsal spaces where their own work takes place.

• SONA - SONA develops sound-based VR role-playing games and performances in complete darkness—in collaboration with blind and visually impaired people. In the Show & Tell session, they’ll discuss inclusive world-building methods, using voices and feet as game controllers, and play a multiplayer round of the audio VR diving game “Diving in the Dark.”
• PMD-ART Productions – André Bernhardt, Dr. Marcus Doering, and Lars Scheibner offer insights into how their real-time mapping and tracking technology can be used as an artistic tool.
• Pablo Palacio (Instituto Stocos, Madrid) presents the AI Toolbox, a collection of software tools developed for integrating artificial intelligence into live performances.
• Marie Meyer, Declan Hurley, and Simon Lenzen provide insights into how, in “Fortunate Shortcuts” (2025), algorithms, digital interfaces, and robotics control music, lighting, motors, and Baroque-inspired stage sets.
• Lorenz Grau (MIREVI), Nils Voges (sputnic), Fabian Lettow, and Mirjam Schmuck (kainkollektiv) present the development of an interactive and data-driven stage environment for the production “MAMI WATA.”
• Charlotte Triebus presents the development of the 180° stereoscopic VR dance miniature “We Brute Force,” highlighting its philosophical foundations, creative and technical challenges, and the solutions developed to address them.
• Benjamin Seuffert and Lukas Joshua Baueregger (Augsburg State Theater) report on their mixed reality production “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” in which they combined acting, musical theater, and 80 MR headsets. The discussion centers on the (3D-animated) elephant in the room, the perfect angle of the audience seating, and why mixed-reality badminton tournaments are difficult to stage.
• Drawing on their work on *The Ring of the Nibelung*, Marcus Lobbes (Academy for Theater and Digitality) and Nils Corte (Nuremberg State Theater) provide, for the first time, a detailed insight into three and a half years of artistic and technological development. They discuss the specific use of generative AI, work processes, decision-making pathways, and quality criteria; the opportunities and limitations of the technology; and the question of what rules and attitudes are required for responsible collaboration with AI.

The first day will conclude with a plenary session moderated by Dr. Jonathan Harth (Witten/Herdecke University) and Dr. Alexander Weinstock (Theater an der Ruhr).

Sat, Sept. 19, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Day 2: Workshop

Keynote

Music, Movement, and Light: The Work of the Instituto Stocos (Madrid): Pablo Palacio discusses the synergies between music, movement, and light, as well as how abstract concepts from fields such as artificial intelligence, mathematics, biology, and experimental psychology can shape a unified stage language. The presentation traces how interactive technologies and algorithmic composition allow sound, body, and image to resonate with one another on stage.

Workshops

The workshops create spaces for collaborative experimentation, learning, and production. Guided by artists, developers, and experts, participants work with specific methods, materials, and questions.

• VR Dance Club (Tobias Kopka and Anna-Carolin Weber) – Facilitation as a Media-Choreographic Practice: A workshop for artists and researchers that focuses on the role of facilitation in interactive, participatory performances: How do we welcome, guide, and bid farewell to visitors?
• Timo Stampa (LAVAlabs), Kennard Nicolai, and Armin Muschallik (MIREVI) – People and Spaces as a Digital Experience – From Avatars to Gaussian Splatting: This workshop provides a hands-on insight into current methods for digitizing people and spaces—from the creation of 3D avatars to modern reconstruction methods such as Gaussian splatting. Participants will gain insight into various workflows, fields of application, and creative possibilities, and discuss their potential uses in theatrical contexts and immersive media.
• Lars Telöken and Lisa Glosowitz (MIREVI) with Maria Vogt (KGI) – Design and Development of Multiplayer Environments: Digital multiplayer spaces open up new possibilities for interaction, participation, and shared experiences in a cultural context. The workshop provides insights into the technical implementation of multiplayer environments and uses practical examples to demonstrate how networked virtual spaces can be utilized for artistic projects. Both the technical fundamentals and the conceptual value of collaborative digital experiences will be discussed.
• MiRLab (Barış Pekçağlıyan/Ankara) – Designing Interactive Stage Systems with TouchDesigner: How can movement, cameras, sensors, and real-time visualizations be integrated into a live performance? In this workshop, we will explore how TouchDesigner can be used to design responsive stage systems for theater, opera, and performance art.
   

The second day will conclude with a plenary session moderated by Dr. Jonathan Harth (Witten/Herdecke University) and Dr. Alexander Weinstock (Theater an der Ruhr).

The symposium will take place at the Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim and is jointly organized by the Academy for Theater and Digitality and MIREVI at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences.