Live Performances in Digital Times: an Overview

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Live performances in digital times: an overview

Author: Julie Burgheim Picture: still from the Asphyxia project

March 2016

ISBN: 978-2-930897-02-8

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Live Performances in Digital Times: An Overview

IETM Mapping by Julie Burgheim

Published by IETM - International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, Brussels

March 2016

Editing and general coordination: Elena Di Federico, Nan van Houte (IETM)

Translation from French: Elena Di Federico

Proof-reading: Mary Ann deVlieg

Graphic layout: Elena Di Federico (IETM) on a template by JosWorld

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J. Burgheim, “Live Performances in Digital Times: An Overview”, IETM, Brussels, March 2016. Link: https://www.ietm.org/en/publications

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The publishers have made every effort to secure permission to reproduce pictures protected by copyright. IETM will be pleased to make good any omissions brought to their attention in future editions of this publication.

live performances in digital times: an overview ietm mapping

www.ietm.org Contents

Foreword by IETM 3 1 - Introduction 4 1.1. Context 4 1.2. Methodology 5 1.3. Definitions and use of terms 6 2 - Overview of types of digital performances 9

2.1. Introduction 9 2.2. A quick overview of the emergence of digital performances 9 2.3. A quick overview of contemporary forms and artists 10 3 - research and production 18 3.1. Research-creation 18 3.2. Documentation - Archiving - Conservation 29 3.3. Audience development - Dissemination 32 4 - conclusions 36

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Foreword

Digital revolution is a fait accompli. Having We’re happy to present this new mapping and Theatre Institute in Prague (Czech entered the art world, it is dispersing into as a milestone in IETM’s reflection on the Republic); Gordana Vnuk, former director its reality and changing it beyond recogni- topic, which includes an article on Who’s of the EUROKAZ festival (Serbia). tion. Telepresence, virtuality, digital mobil- afraid of the digital?, the Amsterdam meet- ity and online tools become inherent to ing and a future Fresh Perspectives publi- Other people have provided precious the professional life of the arts community, cation. Stay tuned – and feel free to con- information useful for the author’s work increasingly engaged with re-discussing the tinue the conversation on IETM members’ at L-EST and for this mapping, among them body and analysing the notion of presence forum! special thanks go to: Nadine Patel, inter- on stage. Are we on the threshold of a total national advisor for theatre and dance upheaval? Or is it just about yet another at the British Council (UK); Donatella “trend”? Giving rise to new art forms, does Ferrante, head of international activities at technology irreversibly transform the very The author wishes to thank the experts the Ministry of Culture – DG Performing notion of art? and professionals who responded to her Arts (Italy); Franck Bauchard, director of questions, in particular when information Panacée (Montpellier, France). The ‘digital shift’ is one of the key issues in seemed to be lacking for certain topics or today’s societies all over the world – and geographical reasons, or in order to collect therefore something that naturally con- more precise data about specific projects cerns the performing arts. This mapping or practices: explores how digital technologies are used at the different stages of the artistic pro- Jaakko Lenni-Taattola, coordinator of TNT cess (creation, production, dissemination, - Network for Theatre & New Technology: archiving…) and to what aims (inspiration, Digital Solutions in Performing Arts audience engagement and development, (FInland); Thomas Heikkilä, Senior advi- marketing, sharing…). Pairing a solid theo- sor (NORDBUK, Network Funding) at the retical part with a large number of exam- Nordic Culture Point; Milan Vracar, mem- ples from across Europe and outside, it ber of Kulturanova Association (Serbia); provides an overview of live arts in dig- Goran Tomka, research and teacher at ital times – which is also the title of the the Faculty of Sports and Tourism in Novi upcoming IETM spring plenary meeting in Sad (Serbia); José-Carlos Arnal, curator Amsterdam next April. at Etopia Center for Arts and Technology (Spain); Pavla Petrova, director of the Arts

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hard – to stage them, if ever they were to American economist Jeremy Rifkin1, or the be programmed. ‘World Wide Lab’ mentioned by the French philosopher and anthropologist Bruno 01. 2 On another hand, in the last fifty years the Latour . The French philosopher Bernard introduction introduction of the digital in contempo- Stiegler (former director of IRCAM3, rary visual arts, performative aesthetics founder of Ars Industrialis4 and initiator 1.1. Context and music has been progressively break- of IRI - Institut de recherche et d’innova- While a number of pioneering institutions ing down the barriers of different artistic tion5 at the Centre Pompidou - France), is and artists have become (or have been categories, both in the artists’ work and in particularly active in debates agitating the led to become) ambassadors of digital the venues and institutions inviting them. French cultural world. He considers the and technological culture already for dec- Digital arts and their results on stage are dual nature of technique and its tools - mir- ades, the mainstream cultural institutions meant as actual environments integrating rored in the debate around technology and often show a certain resistance to the the physical participation and the senso- digital – and refers to the ancient Greek new aesthetics and new models of organ- rial and critical perception of the audience. term pharmakon, which is ‘at the same time isation and production that derive from digital technologies. The sources of such Digital arts bring to the fore the role of the what allows us to take care {of something} distancing could be the fear (or at least technical in the arts, they deal with the real- and what we should take care of, in the the anxiety) of the disappearance of the ity of parts of the contemporary world and sense of being careful: it is a healing power live, the ephemeral and the singularity of with its technical progress and aesthetic, in the measure and excess in which it is a the live performance; of the collective ex- social and economic changes. Yet it seems destructive power’. perience; of the disintegration of the stage that they’re not getting the anticipated and as a space for humanity, a social link and deserved recognition by the performing political forum, both organised and spon- arts world. taneous. All this could be replaced by an increasingly ill society, hungry for unethical We’re thus facing the rise of a sort of par- consumption, automated and robotised, , a network of specialised insti- ruled by the law of the market and Big allel world Data, which would soon lead to the loss tutions – joined by a few rare multidiscipli- of the human, its actions and skills. The nary ones – attracting other professional idea behind these fears is that basically figures, other artists, other audiences, and 1 Jeremy Rifkin is an American economist who culture and technology oppose each other. paradoxically claiming to be a stand-alone has published about twenty books. His very discipline. Paradoxically, because the per- mediatised essay ‘The Third Industrial Revolu- tion’ illustrates his theory according to which This very idea lurks in the background of forming arts world is indeed going in the the current digital revolution could mark the a certain discourse, widespread in the cul- opposite direction, towards the abolition beginning of a new mode of organisation based tural sector, warning that aesthetic excel- of borders across disciplines – barriers, we on the social economy. lence and a certain idea of art is not possi- should not forget, that are also ideological, 2 Bruno Latour is a specialist of philosophy and anthropology. He taught in engineering schools ble in performing art forms that integrate as recently stated by art historian, critic including l’École des Mines and is professor at digital technologies. Too experimental and and curator Christophe Wavelet in his arti- Sciences Po in Paris since 2006. His concepts difficult to mediate for the audience; too cle ‘Malaise dans le performatif’ (‘Unease in of a ‘World Wide Lab’ is well explained in the focused on technical or technological com- performativity’) in the Cahier de l’Onda (July article The World Wide Lab - RESEARCH SPACE: Experimentation Without Represen- ponents and therefore lacking real artistic 2013) ‘Les Nouvelles Formes de la scène’; and tation is Tyranny relevance, or even lacking imagination; as Theodor Adorno (and others before) had 3 Ircam – Institute for research and coordina- requiring specific expertise; de-socialis- already stated in his famous essay Art and tion for acoustics and music is a French scien- ing since the audience can ultimately stay the Arts (1967). tific research centre focused on music creation and technological innovation, founded by Pierre at home and watch a screen; provoking Boulez in 1969. It develops academic and speechlessness rather than real emotion: In a context of structural changes and applied research on creation and production this kind of performance does not fulfil the ideological conflicts, it is useful to refer 4 Ars Industrialis – international association for social and cathartic contract attributed to wider concepts proposed by some con- an industrial policy of the spirit of technologies is a cultural and political association created in to live performance for more than 2,000 temporary researchers and intellectuals. 2005 by Bernard Stiegler years. Not to forget the very practical We could for example think about the 5 IRI – Institute for research and innovation was aspect of the technical challenges that ‘Third Industrial Revolution’ described by created in 2005 within the Centre Pompidou such performances pose to the ‘classic’ (Paris, France) and became an autonomous research centre in 2008. It explores the domain of equipment of our cultural venues, which Digital Studies, analyses and develops cultural would make it impossible – or at least very practices enhanced by digital technologies

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We’re living in a context in which the ‘worlds’, and namely the world of performing arts – be it from the point of view of institutions, artists or intellectuals – are questioning themselves and are trying to understand and affirm their role in the face of the tidal wave of (new) technologies and of the digital everything, often in focus in the public debate, ‘penetrating’1 and influ- encing all the domains of our societies and all aspects of life. Opportunities for discussion are multiplying, new professional training opportunities arise, new practices blossom inside cultural organisations, public institutions propose frameworks and put in place supportive policies in the form of funding, agendas or digital strategies at the national level or more widely (see for instance the Digital Agenda for Europe at Andreas Åkre Solberg, Internet Explorer Error Message tagged (source: Flickr) the EU level).

It’s indeed crucial to engage with audiences, whose behaviours, relations and cognitive processes have changed – and are still changing – due to contact with with the research or corporate world when This mapping approaches the digital issue digital technologies, the internet and the we’re not specialists of digitisation, digital as an ecosystem and considers the whole accessibility and circulation of a huge vol- development or digital sociology? How to value chain – creation, research/pro- ume of content on the Web. The new tools work together with those new partners? duction, documentation, dissemination/ offer the cultural sector at large privileged How to fund the work? How to manage mediation. It highlights new trends taking opportunities to reach out to its existing the project consistently within my cultural place, the multiple goals and the eminently audiences, develop new ones, develop new organisation? Do I need to reorganise the cross-disciplinary (or at least multidisci- processes of awareness raising, transmis- departments and human resources? Does plinary) nature of the artistic and cultural sion, artistic and cultural education more the staff need specific training? How to activities that are pushing the barriers adapted to contemporary audiences. communicate with audiences? And who across, between and outside the different are my audiences and how would they be disciplines. All these issues need to be approached concerned? as an ecosystem. For example, making a video recording available via streaming Responding to the needs and interests 1.2. Methodology requires first of all its digitisation, then the of its membership, IETM has naturally development of a digital platform – which engaged in these issues via its recent ple- This mapping builds on desk research of in its turn requires raising funds or creat- nary meetings and in publications on topics reports, studies, statistics, specialised liter- ing partnerships, maybe working with some related to the digital shift2. This mapping is ature and policy documents in the field of researchers and/or a commercial company, another step along the way and aims to give performing arts with digital and/or techno- and a number of new activities to give sense a thematic and geographic overview of the logical components, and on specific aspects to the online platform. All this leads to new state-of-the-art of the performing arts at (audience development, research etc.). questions including: why do we decide to this precise moment of the digital era. The reports and studies published across offer a new (digital) approach to a work, or Europe are heterogeneous and don’t fol- to culture? How to create new partnerships 2 IETM published an article about this topic in low a common methodology, mirroring the September 2015, titled Who’s afraid of the different degrees of penetration of digital digital? 1 The statistics measure the degree of penetra- ; the 2016 IETM spring plenary meeting technologies in different countries and sig- tion of broadband internet or of mobile devices in Amsterdam will deal with ‘Live arts in digital (telephones, tablets etc.) in the households, in a times’ and a Fresh Perspective publication on nificant differences in how national public corporate sector, etc. these themes will be issued after the meeting. policies foster innovation and research. An

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additional issue that impacts the mapping is the availability of resources in different languages spoken by the author. For these reasons, and because of rapid and dramatic changes in the field itself, this publication is obviously not exhaustive.

A number of experts and professionals (mentioned in the acknowledgements) have been contacted for the mapping, in particular when information seemed to be lacking for certain topics or geographic ter- ritories, or in order to collect more precise data about specific projects or practices.

This mapping pursues the following goals:

• to suggest a global vision that considers the whole value chain (as explained Neil Cummings, Tributary diagrams (source: Flickr) above) and thus points out the ecosys- temic dimension of live performance in the digital era;

• to map and explain the key issues discipline points to A multidisciplinary process gathers and problems, in a critical approach ‘an organisational category within representatives of different disciplines that considers all the segments of the scientific knowledge; it {the category} around a common object or subject. In value chain; establishes the division and specialisa- a multidisciplinary process, each practi- tion of the work and responds to the tioner from a specific discipline maintains • to present examples of the different diversity of domains covered by the the specificity of its methods, techniques issues at stake by mapping a signif- sciences. Although included in a larger and concepts. Several disciplines get icant number of relevant artists, scientific ensemble, a discipline tends together, each of them tackling the object institutions or projects from the naturally to autonomy, by the delim- according to its own parameters; however largest possible number of European itation of its borders, the languages no single discipline could grasp every aspect countries, as well as integrating some it creates, the techniques it is led to of the object using only its own techniques. international examples when possible elaborate or use, and possibly by the So, by a shift in meaning, the term multidis- and relevant. theories that belong exclusively to it1. ciplinary in the arts means for example the mix of different disciplines within a same 1.3. Definitions and use of terms 1 ‘(…) une catégorie organisationnelle au sein performance or in a festival. de la connaissance scientifique ; elle y institue la division et la spécialisation du travail et It is important to explain some common elle répond à la diversité des domaines que Also in an interdisciplinary process people definitions used in this mapping as well as recouvrent les sciences. Bien qu’englobée dans from different disciplines work together. mentioning how the same concepts can be un ensemble scientifique plus vaste, une disci- However here the different approaches pline tend naturellement à l’autonomie, par la used and understood differently according to the same object confront one another délimitation de ses frontières, le langage qu’elle to the time, place and discipline from which se constitue, les techniques qu’elle est amenée and the different disciplines establish a we look at them. à élaborer ou à utiliser, et éventuellement par dialogue and an exchange. This approach les théories qui lui sont propres’. - Edgar Morin, implies strong interactions and a mutual Sur l’interdisciplinarité, in Bulletin Interactif Disciplinary / multidisciplinary / du Centre International de Recherches et enrichment of several specialists through interdisciplinary / trans-disciplinary Études transdisciplinaires n° 2, Juin 1994. A active cooperation. It requires opening the version of this text was published in Carrefour exchange and overcoming certain discipli- In his article Sur l’interdisciplinarité, Edgar des sciences. Actes du Colloque du Comité nary boundaries. In the arts, an interdisci- National de la Recherche Scientifique Morin, French sociologist and philoso- plinary approach generally means that an Interdisciplinarité, Introduction by François pher, explains that the concept of scientific Kourilsky, Éditions du CNRS, 1990. object is approached from mixed points of

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view referring to different disciplines and fields. More simply, the term indicates the hybridisation of the artistic forms.

The notion of trans-disciplinary derives from interdisciplinary (sometimes used as a synonym). A trans-disciplinary process works on objects that do not properly belong to any specific discipline. The term indicates activities which cross different fields; their common points would be inside a global, borderless system across disciplines. The prefix ‘trans-‘ particularly suggests the idea of ‘beyond’, the overcoming and overflowing of disciplines, which translates, in the arts, into hybrid or unclassifiable artistic forms. The term is used mostly for artistic creations and less for institutional projects required to refer Auditorium Theatre in Toronto (source: bublogblog) to socio-political, economic, ecological or scientific dimensions.

Some people in the cultural sector perceive such categories as irrelevant, out-dated gene therapy which date to 1981, 1989 The contemporary definition of ‘technique’ and timeworn; they prefer to speak simply and 1990 respectively’. However, looking by the Oxford English Dictionary is: ‘a par- about art or the arts, in spite of the recur- more closely, the current meanings of these ticular way of doing something, especially rent use of such terms. Indeed cultural terms have been influenced by a series of one in which you have to learn special organisations confront audiences who lexical ideologies and some back-and-forth skills’ or ‘the skill with which somebody is still need some ‘institutional’ references in travel between the old and the new world. able to do something practical’. We are in order to classify the arts according to their What histories and representations are the domain of application, know-how, arts- own aesthetics and values – both of which hidden behind these terms? craft, although according to the specific derive from their own societal background. domain the processes can be more or less The language and criteria of the majority In the first place, the Greek etymology of structured – think of the scientific domain, of public and private funders too refers to the term technique, tékné, means ‘art’ in whose methods are extremely rigorous. precise and ‘classic’ categories; these there- the sense of the ‘art of…’, as suggested by There is also a body of work that focuses on fore remain strong references in collective Aristotle in his Poetics when he explains the more theoretical/philosophical applica- representation and public discourse, and that poetry is mimetic and finds its origins tions of the term3. deserve specific attention. in practice (praxis), i.e. in the real human activity, via the lived experience, and there- In the XIX century the term ‘technology’ Techniques / (new) technologies fore empirically. According to Aristotle, began to refer to the objects of the tech- representation can be produced ‘by art nique and not anymore to philosophical The terms technique and technologies, (tékhné) or by habit’1, and he even affirms treatises. These objects can be machines, and especially new technologies, are used that ‘those who at the beginning had the materials or building techniques used by very often today without much attention best natural predispositions slowly pro- engineers and imply ‘industrial or com- or questioning. They commonly indicate, gressed and gave birth to poetry starting mercial applications in opposition to the according to Wikipedia, ‘technologies that from their improvisations’2. domains of ‘pure’ sciences, research or are perceived as capable of changing the artistic creation’4. status quo. These technologies are gen- 3 For a reflection about the use of terms in the erally new but include older technologies 1 Aristote, La Poétique, Text, translation, notes French language, you can check the French that are still controversial and relatively by Roselyne Dupont-Roc and Jean Lallot, Paris, version of this mapping at https://www.ietm. Éditions du Seuil, 1980, p. 43 (the English text org/fr/node/5269 undeveloped in potential, such as 3D print- is a translation by the editors) 4 François Charpin, « Étymologie et histoire du ing, preimplantation genetic diagnosis and 2 ibidem mot technologie »

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Starting from the XX century, the idea and their digital consumption habits. a smaller increase, around 10%, however of innovation came in. According to Eric 90% or more of their populations use Guichard this would be a true ideological From a European perspective, differences internet at home (Sweden, Luxemburg, enterprise of ‘valorisation of the future’ in the use of technologies in different coun- the Netherlands, UK, Norway, Finland and and ‘technical determinism’, i.e. the idea tries – including for the cultural sector – can Denmark). Iceland has the highest rate, that the technique elicits social transfor- be explained by looking at national public with 95% of its population using iat home. mations but develops itself free from any policies fostering the use of technologies, in By the way, in 2012 60% of young (16-24 social representation. This approach cor- particular in terms of specific investments yrs.) Europeans (EU27) used mobile inter- responds, for example during the industrial in research and innovation. net, and these numbers are constantly boom of the 1980s, to the identification of increasing. informatics as a key factor for the economic According to Eurostat, in 2013 investment growth of that period. The first outcomes of in research and innovation in all sectors Data about the penetration of a technol- such policies appeared in 1991, when the (commercial companies, public sector, ogy like internet in people’s daily lives goes Clinton government in the USA promoted higher education and private non-profit hand in hand with necessary and increas- ‘new technologies’ as the ‘information organisations) in Europe (EU28) amounted ingly sophisticated infrastructure as well superhighway’ in the framework of the High to 2,01% of GDP, against 1,85% in 2008. as national policies that facilitate it. The Performance Computing Act. Differences across countries are high, in democratisation of the internet at struc- particular between North and South and tural and infrastructural levels benefits In the rush to emulate the US approach, between East and West: among the coun- from the evolutions and emergence of new boosted by economic hopes and a tries investing more, over 3% of their GDP usages, discussed further in the chapter future-oriented look, Europe risks to for- in 2013, are Sweden, Finland and Denmark, about audience development. get the necessary reflection about ancient although since 2008 there was a slight and contemporary techniques and their decrease (-0,2%) probably due to the global origins. Europe has quickly adopted the economic crisis. Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, same discourse as the USA, but mostly in Cyprus, Latvia and Poland instead, while a hurry, urged by the need to be in tune constantly progressing, do not go beyond with its own times from a political and eco- 1% of their GDP in investments. Romania, nomic growth perspective. Indeed, several with the least investment, decreased reports published in this sense claim that from 0,57% of its GDP in 2008 to 0,39% ‘it is time for Europe to exploit the oppor- in 2013. Slovenia, France, Germany, the tunities offered by the new technologies’1. Netherlands, Belgium and Austria invested Thus the term ‘new’, apart from giving no between 1,90% and 2,60% of their GDP actual indication about the timescale, is between 2008 and 2013. often refused by purists because of its ideological connotation, as the symbol of a Let’s now compare this data with the usage political and economic imperative. and availability of internet in European households, although research and devel- 1.4. Some numbers opment concern other technologies as well. While in 2009 30% of Europeans (EU28), ‘Digital culture’ is understood in its com- i.e. one third of citizens aged between 16 plexity as a transversal phenomenon and 74, had never used internet, in 2014 touching upon different sectors or domains the figure was 18%, closer to the minimal of society. Within the cultural sector in threshold (15%) of non-users fixed by the particular, digital culture is considered in EU in its Digital Agenda. terms of the development of new information and communication technologies, Indeed between 2008 and 2013 the num- but also regarding public policies encour- ber of Europeans using internet at home aging the access and participation of the increased from 53% to 72%. Countries with audience, in particular regarding young fewer users (around 30%), like Romania, audiences (12-24 or 16-24 years old) Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Italy and Latvia, registered a constant increase from 20 to 1 Eric Guichard, Op. Cit. p. 6 30% until 2013. Other countries registered

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02. Overview of types of digital performances

2.1. Introduction

In proposing a theoretical and aesthetic reflection about digital performance it is important to consider the historical context of their emergence. Of course this is not the main topic here, which is to map various issues and problems rather than focus on aesthetic issues; these are treated in several publications that have appeared in the last twenty years, some of them acknowl- edged today as references. A number of picture: Charis Tsavis (source: Flickr) magazines, conference proceedings etc. are also available and enrich the existing literature.

In the frame of this mapping we can men- The generic term used to define perform- approach in which all the arts (music, fine tion some publications that are key to ing arts with a digital and/or technological arts, cinema, theatre, dance etc.) and their understanding the context in which per- component – and used in this mapping – is representatives would mix on stage. forming arts with technological compo- ‘digital performances’1. nents have emerged, as well as aesthetic Richard Wagner, with his Gesamtkunstwerk issues related to them: 2.2. A quick overview of the emergence (‘total work of art’), would be a precursor of digital performances of this trend. Following his steps, and more • Laurel Brenda, Computers as thea- specifically in theatre, Georg Fuchs, art tre, Reading (MA), Addison-Wesley Studies on the origins of digital perfor- critic, poet, director, artistic director and Publishing Company, 1993; mance usually start with the avant-garde theoretician, aimed to ‘re-dramatize’ the movements of the early 20th century, stage and advocated an organic and rhyth- • Birringer Johannes, Media and per- although we could certainly find earlier mic theatre, where he wanted to welcome formance: Along the Border, Md, Johns examples. Those movements were part of a all strata of society. He elaborated a global Hopkins University Press, 1998; general trend towards the emancipation of programme called Künstler-Theater (‘the theatre from literature, of the staging from artists’ theatre’), launched in Munich in • Wilson Stephen, Information Arts: the text, of the director from the predomi- 1908, which also included a total revision Intersections of Art, Science, and nance of the playwright. This trend started of the theatre’s architecture and its whole Technology, Cambridge (MA), MIT at a moment when, according to various machinery, and where Fuchs invited artists Press, 2001; performing arts practitioners and theoreti- from all disciplines to work together. cians of the period, artistic forms and texts • Dixon Steve et Smith Barry, Digital staged were not representative of society’s The roots of contemporary digital perfor- Performance: A History of New Media evolution following the industrial develop- mance can be found also in the dramatiza- in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and ment of the beginning of the 20th century. tion and theories around puppets, namely Installation, Cambridge (MA), MIT The avant-garde then proposed a con- those by Maeterlink and Edward Gordon Press, 2007; vergence of the arts, an interdisciplinary Craig, who thought of puppets as a replica of the ideal actor. They questioned the • Salter Chris, Entangled. Technology 1 For a more complete explanation about the necessity of the physical co-presence of use of specific terms in the French language, you the real actor-character and the spectator and the Transformation of Performance, can check the French version of this mapping at Cambridge (MA), MIT Press, 2010. https://www.ietm.org/fr/node/5269 in order for the mimesis (and the catharsis)

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to happen. This conception is mentioned today in discourses against the machine, avatars and the virtual on stage – which we could compare to puppets - wherein the actor-character disappears.

In the industrial context and following the ravages of World War I, movements like Futurism, Dada or Bauhaus, that explored the mechanisation and automatisation of society, used technique as a symbol and reconfigured the space by using mobile scenes and screens, letting the actor disappear and claiming the necessary integration of radio and telephone with the theatre.

In parallel, the staging by Erwin Piscator, a fervent representative of a political and epic theatre (namely with the ‘The Good picture source: Flickr Soldier Švejk’ staged in 1928 with young Bertolt Brecht), marks a crucial step in the renewal of theatre. It introduced technique backstage, in the machinery and on the stage, in order to respond to an aesthetic more and more artists became interested 2.3. A quick overview of contemporary need (faithfully staging a picaresque story, in these new processes as a societal factor, forms and artists with a great number of characters and many and in the new possibilities these technol- changes of settings), as well as to a will for ogies offered in terms of relationships with For the sake of readability, examples political emancipation. Indeed Piscator the audience. We can mention here several included in this mapping are grouped into considered that drama of his period (except artists, leading figures and experiences well broad categories defined from the point for Schiller) didn’t mirror (historical) reality, known today by the general public, such as: of view of the recipient (the audience). or more precisely, didn’t reflect the actual Another possible approach might be to look audiences who had just survived WWI and • The cybernetic works by Nicolas from the point of view of the stage and on had to face an unprecedented economic Schöffer, French fine artist of the different devices or technical interfaces crisis as well as the rise of Nazism. So the Hungarian origins; adopted. This mapping also aims to give as aim was to stage a text – originally written many examples as possible of contempo- for the theatre or not – able to convey an • The event ‘9 Evenings: Theatre and rary artists, companies or collectives with- uncensored reality allowing the masses to Engineering’, part of the work of the out any subjective aesthetic or qualitative face their economic and social alienation association E. A. T – Experiments in considerations. The reader is invited to by staying as close as possible to their own Art & Technology, gathering artists deepen her/his own exploration starting current and recent life experiences. like John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, from the links provided. Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton The second big movement constituting among others, as well as engineers, Considering artistic creation we can look the beginning of the digital performance and presenting around ten experi- at some broad aesthetic categories, each of was the avant-garde of the 1960s, corre- mental performances; them grouping different technical devices; sponding with the advent of informatics – however some of the artists/companies or although definitely not widespread yet and • The stage designers Josef Svoboda forms mentioned in the text combine sev- still a very advanced technology requiring (Czech Republic) and Jacques Polieri eral devices into the same work. substantial means and the collaboration (France); of specialised researchers and engineers. With the increasingly general dissemina- • More recently (since the late 1980s), tion of informatics in the 1980s, followed by the Canadian director Robert Lepage. the internet and then the web in the 1990s,

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Digital performances combining computer graphics, 3D images, as well as cinematic techniques, Pepper’s Ghost, tulle or cyclorama, in some cases interactive – in real time or recorded – via technical manipulation from outside of the stage. The images are part of the stage design.

Among the artists using the cyclorama or • Compagnie 14:20, directed by • The French company Shonen, led by tulle on the forestage (technically simple Clément Debailleul and Raphael dancer-choreographer and Gobelins- but very effective) one can mention ‘Biped’ Navarro, mixes new magic, jug- laureate animation films creator Éric by the American choreographer Merce gling and dance. Their new creation Minh Cuong Castaing, heavily uses Cunningham, which had a ‘democratising’ ‘Wade In The Water’ will premiere digital technologies and immersion in effect for this technique among the gen- in November 2016 at the Théâtre 3D digital images on stage; eral public. Cunningham collaborated with National de Chaillot; the Open Ended Group made up by Marc • The Italian dance company Interactive Downie, Shelley Eshkar and Paul Kaiser, • Joris Mathieu (Compagnie Haut et Dance Company, directed by Ariella very active in creating arts in the public Court), Director of Théâtre Nouvelle Vidach, explores all the possibilities space namely with 3D films. Génération (Lyon, France) since ranging from digital images combined January 2015, frequently uses this with captors worn by dancers who In 2010 the Belgian company Artara, kind of technique, for example in per- interact with the global equipment in directed by Fabrice Murgia, produced the formances and installations like ‘Le real time, to movement captors acting performance ‘LIFE : RESET / Chronique Bardo’ ou ‘Urbik_Orbik’ on sound or visual elements; d’une ville épuisée’, exploring the theme of loneliness in big cities and the new phe- • The young theatre company Ex Voto • The French theatre company nomena of social networks and virtual iden- à la Lune directed by Emilie-Anna l’Unijambiste, directed by David tities. In a hyper realistic setting a young Maillet with their performance by Jon Gauchard; woman dances alone, on the forestage in Fosse, ‘Hiver’ (2014). front of a stretched canvas, accompanied • The Australian company Chunky by projections and light games fusing A great number of artists and theatre com- Move directed by Anouk Van Dijk images into the canvas. panies, choreographers and groups work- (who collaborates occasionally with ing across disciplines use the combination Falk Richter) with their performances We mentioned the Pepper’s Ghost, a cen- of interactive digital images (digital images, ‘Glow’ and ‘Mortal engine’; turies-old technique that makes people 3D elements, mappings or movement and objects ‘appear’ and ‘disappear’ via an captors) superposed to the real action • The digital and circus company optic illusion. Originally using a mirror, this on stage. In some cases these are one-off Adrien M et Claire B follows a similar technique today uses a – quite expensive experiences, but some artists engage in a exploration; – special film angled at 45°, usually put on long-term exploration of such procedures. the forestage, which can be enhanced via To mention a few: • The Norwegian company 3D projections or others. The celebrated Verdensteatret realises hybrid forms Quebec company 4d art, directed by • The theatre company The Builders crossing installation, performance Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, uses this Association, led by Marianne Weems, and music in order to create choral process in several creations. and their performances ‘Continuous forms, in particular using cinematic City’ (superposing virtual spaces techniques; Several French artists use these techniques: to the real scene) or their creation ‘Sonntag:Reborn’; • The Swedish company Cabaret • Jean Lambert Wild, recently Électrique mixes theatre, dance, mime appointed Director of the Théâtre de • ‘THEATER’, a show using 3D images and puppets and superposes move- L’Union-Centre Dramatique National and avatars by the Swiss-German- ment capture over the work on stage, du Limousin, namely with his historical Belgian company Superamas (thea- so that animated characters move on creation ‘Orgia’; tre and dance) that occasionally uses stage together with the real actors. technologies;

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‘Augmented’ performances in which the scene and/or the actors are interfaced via captors or technological and/or digital objects

In these cases the space of the perfor- • Chris Ziegler (Germany-Switzerland) • The French choreographic company mance, and the perception the audience and his company Moving Images, Mobilis-Immobilis proposes different has of the actors/performers, changes due associated to the SINLAB in performances and installations; to the sound or visual emphasis that cre- Switzerland (see also the chapter ate a synaesthetic relationship with the about research-creation); • The German collective machina eX performance. creates performances by transposing • The dance company Pulso, directed by the conventions of videogames onto Among the companies using captors, either Rocio Berenguer (Spanish artist based the theatre stage. The audience, split fixed (on stage) or mobile (worn by the in France for the last 5 years), and into groups of 15-20 people, is invited actors/performers) we can mention: its shows ‘Homeostasis’ and ‘Corps/ to ‘play’ on the stage to solve enigmas Non-Lieu’, with the immersion of the and live an adventure. The artists • A historical representative of this audience. Here the image captured animate the scene and the set via a technique is the American artist Mark by a surveillance camera is video-pro- very ingenious technical set, which Coniglio with his company Troika jected and translated into sound includes the use of a huge number of Ranch, also at the origins of the soft- through special software developed captors. ware Isidora (mentioned in the chap- for the performances; ter about research and production);

Performances using artificial ‘performers’ or virtual characters

Different kinds of artificial characters • The Japanese director Oriza Hirata • Israeli director and stage designer can be present on stage, like robots, founded the company Seinendan in Amit Drori creates performances androids or humanoids – the more 1983. A theoretician, he also devel- integrating open-source technolo- accomplished simulations of humans. oped the ‘contemporary colloquial gies, videos and robots, often made As already mentioned when speaking theatre theory’. In collaboration of wood. His creations include about puppets, this kind of work orig- with Osaka University he developed ‘Savanna – a possible landscape’ and inated in the avant-garde of the early several performances using robots, ‘Gulliver’; 20th century, especially in experiments including ‘Metamorphosis’ (2013), around automatons or mechanisms that ‘Three Sisters’, ‘Sayonara’ and ‘I, • The fine artist Kris Verdonck/A made the actor disappear. This idea of an worker’; Two Dogs Company also works artificial performing presence leads to with performance, for example ‘H, reflection on the presence of the actor • The Romanian artist Aurélia Ivan An Incident’, a performance for 9 on stage and the ideal ‘total presence’ studied theatre at the Bucharest performers and 10 musical robots; created with puppets. Some examples: Conservatoire, then at the École supérieure nationale des arts de • With his show ‘Re : Walden’ (2012), la marionnette in Charleville- the French director and researcher Mézières (France). Her last show, Jean-François Peyret questions and ‘L’Androïde [HU#1]’ (2011) involves transforms the use of avatars. a robot;

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Digital performances that connect (an)other stage – either real or virtual – and play with the interconnection of different spaces of performance, perception and reality

• The project ‘Chez Icke’ (as it was • Also the Canadian company Les • In ‘Katastrophe’ (2011), ‘Brickman called in Berlin and Düsseldorf) petites cellules chaudes works Brando Bubble Boom’ (2012) and by the German playwright Gesine with Chatroulette for their ‘ishow’ ‘House in Asia’ (2014) the artists of Danckwart is made of a technical (2015); the Spanish company Señor Serrano device and a bar, welcoming audi- play with scale, using miniature ences, performers and ‘barvatars’ • The American company New models, video projections and real- as well as internet users commu- Paradise Laboratories/Whit time video editing; nicating from home via stream- MacLaughlin has created 2 ing and chat. The device can be cyber-performances, ‘Extremely • With the projects ‘Twin Rooms’ and adapted according to the place Public Displays of Privacy’ ‘Room’, the Italian company Motus, where it is held: for example in (2011) and ‘Fatebook: Avoiding founded by Enrico Casagrande and Zurich (Switzerland), at the Theater Catastrophe One Party at a Time’ Daniela Francesconi Nicolò, con- Gessnerallee Zurich, it was called (2010) – they both connect real and fronts and overlaps different past ‘Chez Ois’ (2015) and had specific digital spaces; stagings of the same performance features; with the action happening on stage. • Superamas’ ‘Your dream’ (2010) • In ‘Joseph’ (2011) the Italian direc- proposes a diffracted reading and tor, choreographer and performer other virtual spaces of the perfor- Alessandro Sciarroni plays in mance in video-retransmission, real time in front of the webcam avoiding the randomness of other of his computer connected with works that use online forums (like Chatroulette, an online chat web- Sciarroni’s work with Chatroulette); site that pairs random people from around the world together for webcam-based conversations. The performance exists also in a version for young audiences, ‘Joseph_kids’ (2013) ;

Alessandro Sciarroni, ‘Joseph Kids’ at Le Phénix (2015)

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Out-of-stage works that involve the audience – mostly individual spectators – through tools allowing them to move inside the scene or interact with what they perceive, in a virtual recreation of the stage

This can be done using virtual reality In other cases, the tools used are cine- • Illegal Oedipus is a Hungarian col- equipment (like oculus rift), also in asso- matic processes, interactive videos or lective of video makers, computer ciation with captors: audio interaction: programmers and performers. They recently created an immersive • Eric Joris, director of the Belgian • Chris Ziegler/moving images is a installation, ‘Sans Papiers’ (2015). company, CREW, develops the very productive director, multime- Through their works they aim to technologies for his works in close dia artist and stage designer; he engage the audience by creating a collaboration with researchers and collaborates with many choreogra- critical space to discuss contempo- scientists at Hasselt University. He phers, namely Emmio Greco, former rary social issues; proposes immersive productions director of ICK Amsterdam and new and installations, like ‘Terra Nova’ Director of the Ballet de Marseille, • Marco Donnarumma is an artist (2011) and ‘C. A. P. E’ (2010-2014), on a number of projects involving of Italian origin based in the UK. creating different versions adapted interactive technologies or aug- Protean performer, musician and to each city where the works are mented scenes. He also makes sound architect, he creates perfor- staged; immersive works, like ‘PARADISO mances and installations. ‘Septic’ - senses + spaces’ (2013) ; (2014) and ‘Nigredo’ (2013) are • The installation for all audiences two participatory and immersive ‘La chambre de Kristoffer’ (2015) • Magali Desbazeille is a French plas- installations; the latter, created at by the French company Ex Voto tic artist who makes performances, STEIM (the Netherlands), utilises A la Lune is part of their larger net-art and installations. In 2010 a bio-technological tool developed trans-media project for young and she created the interactive video by the artist in open-source, called all audiences called ‘KANT’. installation ‘Tu penses donc je te ‘Xth Sense’, that transforms the suis’, in which the audience is invited activity of organs and bodily fluids to immerse themselves; a second into sound. version of the work is currently being developed;

‘Paradiso - senses + spaces’ by moving images (picture: Gregory Colbert)

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Walking performances inviting the audience to move around on the stage or in the public space

These forms can use tools like head- • Apart from their documentary • The French collective InVivo phones and/or location-based media, theatre works, the German collec- launched their creation ‘Blackout’ i.e. devices (usually mobile ones) using tive Rimini Protokoll (founded by in December 2015, an immersive geo-location (like GPS, geographic infor- Daniel Wetzel, Helgard Haug and sensorial journey for one spectator, mation systems, QR codes, etc.). Stefan Kaegi) has since its begin- who walks guided by headphones ning invented walks, like ‘Audiotour through a space organised in several • Janet Cardiff and George Bures Kirchner’ (2000). More recently immersive cells; Miller, a couple of American art- they’ve developed the concept ists, have been developing their ‘Remote X’, that they adapt to the cit- • The company Des hommes pen- ‘walks’ since 1991, first audio, now ies hosting them: ‘Remote Avignon’, chés, directed by the French thea- also video. For their audio walks ‘Remote Berlin’, ‘Remote Paris’, etc. tre director Christophe Huysman, they have developed a particular They’ve also created a walking audio explored the possibility to write a technique of tri-dimensional sound performance around the traumatic performance in the public space diffusion in which the ‘walker’ issue of young refugees fleeing on with ‘Pas à Pas’ (2013). immerses themself; boats, called ‘Evros Walk Water – Ein Cage Re-enactment’ (2015); • The same tri-dimensional sound diffusion has been used by the Swedish • IN SITU (European network for collective Lundahl & Seitl for their artistic creation in the public audio-guided visit ‘Symphony of a space) has recently co-produced missing room’, mainly used in muse- two audio-walking performances: ums but adaptable to different ‘like me’ (2013) by the Dutch artist places; Judith Hofland and ‘Walk With Me’ (2014) by the Dutch collective Rob • The British collective Blast Theory Van Rijswijk & Jeroen Strijbos; (founded by Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj) develops new, hybrid forms using interactive media that involve the audience through web, live performance and real-time video transmission. Many of their works use walks in public spaces. For example, in ‘Fixing Point’ (2011), ‘A Machine To See With’ (2010) and ‘Ulrike And Eamon Compliant’ (2009). The collective also develops games, interactive concepts on low-tech (mobile phones) or high-tech, like their latest creation, ‘Karen’, installations etc.;

‘Walk with me’ by Rob Van Rijswijk & Jeroen Strijbos, Marseille, 2015 (picture: Marion Ribon, source: Lieux Public)

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Trans-media performing arts

Trans-media storytelling is a technique performance and that will influence • The project ‘KANT’, by Émilie-Anna coming from cinema and gaming; in prin- the development of the story; and Maillet/compagnie Ex Voto A La ciple it doesn’t concern the live perform- before or after the show people can Lune (already mentioned) has been ing arts. It developed in the context of the watch the tutorials ‘HD Practice’; conceived as a trans-media project. convergence of production and distribu- The narration of the theatre work tion equipment under the leadership of • The Swiss dancer Lina Schlageter ‘Kant’ will extend into the immer- big corporations/ groups. Interestingly, and the French performer Zoé sive installation for a single spec- this convergence is not conceived as Philibert ,are developing a trans-me- tator ‘La Chambre de Kristoffer’ the replacement of the old media by the dia dance project called ‘Attitudes’ and a QR code path developed as a new, but as an interaction among the which translates the attitudes of ‘Labyrinthe cosmogonique’; different media or platforms, in which pop or variety singers into poetic the audiences play a crucial role in the writing, starting from online video • The Swedish stage designer, archi- creation and circulation of information. collections. The project is com- tect and director Thomas Bo The media convergence is supposed to posed of several parts and is meant Nilsson, ex-member of the Danish create a flux of contents on a variety of as a playful laboratory that includes company SIGNA, has created media platforms. Trans-media storytell- workshops, a ball inspired by Michel ‘MEAT’, an installation piece last- ing basically aims to connect all these Reilhac’s ‘Bal Moderne’ (which is ing 240 hours (10 days) presented contents through a narration, creating a made of texts free of choreographic only once at the Festival FIND by common universe for all such contents. interpretation) and an internet site the Schaubühne in Berlin. The work It is therefore about multiple extensions, where the partitions are made avail- includes some extensions in live or fragmenting the same story created by able and the audience can upload stream, Facebook relations and the flux and links across media and plat- and share their own dance videos dtirect meetings with characters forms, while at the same time letting the to feed into the online library and who can influence the story. user/audience play a key role in decid- the collection of movements; ing the evolution of the story itself. The • ORGAniSMeS is a project under trans-media approach in the performing • The French collective Kom.post development by the French arts is still at its beginning but it is devel- (also based in Berlin) develops ‘trans-media company’ Dorsa oping. Because of the very nature of the research on theatre and radio writ- Barlow, directed by Mael Le Mée; trans-media approach, the experience ing and the different situations of a work-in-progress is programmed can combine traditional media (writing, listening and participation they can in October 2016 at the Hexagone drawing, comics), new media, low-tech create. ‘Je n’ai qu’un toit du ciel, - Scène nationale Arts et Sciences and high-tech tools; it can combine pub- vous aurez de la place’ is a series (Meylan, France). This ambitious lic space, stage and virtual space, stretch of radio fictions, written as serials, project combines live performance, along time to create series’, be part of a accompanied by a booklet as addi- a collaborative internet site, a trav- joint curatorial project by the cultural tional narration; elling participative installation and organisation hosting it, etc. two web-series’ – video and audio • The company Olga Mesa & Hors – and is devoted overall to ‘the con- • The Belgian company System Champ - Fuera De Campo, directed temporary fabrication of bodies and Failure, directed by Leslie Mannès by Olga Mesa and Francisco Ruiz their possible future mutations’. and Louise Baduel (both coming De Infante, works around an ambi- out of P.A.R.T.S.) is developing a tious project entitled ‘Carmen/ trans-media live performance pro- Shakespeare’, a series in several ject called ‘Human decision’. The acts, with several extensions includ- narration is developed through ing workshops, performances, a film three elements: apart from the per- and a website, ‘Lillas Pastia’, allow- formance itself, ‘HD Investigation’ ing for different forms of interaction is a questionnaire the audience with the work; is invited to fill in before the

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Artivism

Many experiences combine art and hack- • In 2013 Christian Diaz, an Austrian activities dealing with the audience and cyber-activism into activist digital visual artist and precarious worker to a company like G4S, as well as the performances. We chose just two exam- temporarily employed at the ticket working conditions of the staff. The ples to describe in detail, since they raise office of the Burgtheater in Vienna, theatre’s Intendant stopped him a particular interest. decided to come out of the shadows during his speech and asked him on the day the prestigious theatre to leave the stage. However this • The first case is the project celebrated its 125 years under the happening became the ‘non-coor- ‘Transborder Immigrant Tool (TBT)’ theme ‘What theatre do we dream dinated movement’ (Unkoordinierte (2009) by the American collective about?’. A few months before, Bewegung). The film of this poetic Electronic Disturbance Theater Diaz had realised that he was not action of resistance was shared via 2.0, founded in 1997 by Ricardo employed directly by the theatre Facebook, Twitter and the website Dominguez, a professor at the but by a sub-contracted security of the movement; Diaz’s text was University of California in San company. Indeed since 1996 the published by Nachtkritik, one of the Diego and a hacktivist. The group is holding society of the Austrian most influential arts critique sites a collective of cyber-activists, crit- national theatres had ordered the and forums in the German-speaking ical theoreticians and performers externalisation of all the reception area. Through digital technologies, simultaneously developing a the- and ticketing services of the public namely Web 2.0, the intervention ory and a practice of non-violent theatres – a decision made of course went viral and widely surpassed the actions across and between digital in the context of budgetary cuts for Austrian frontier. Diaz is continuing and non-digital spaces. Their pro- the cultural sector in Austria. The his work and documenting it on the ject focuses on the illegal border company that was sub-contracted website. crossing between Mexico and the was the Anglo-Danish security USA that has already cost the lives company G4S (formerly Group 4 of over 10,000 immigrants. The col- Securicor), one of the most highly lective recycled some cheap mobile listed companies on the English phones, equipped them with a GPS stock exchange with over 600,000 system, and developed software employees in different countries, that ‘aspires to guide ‘the tired, the active in private prisons, security of poor’, the dehydrated—citizens of mines in Africa and South America, the world—to water safety sites. security of transport, pipelines, Concomitantly, its platform offers nuclear plants… The outsourcing of poetic audio ‘sustenance’’. In 2010 low qualified jobs obviously brings the project provoked a wave of con- a low minimum wage and reduced troversy: some Republican mem- rights, and indeed the company is bers of Congress, the FBI’s bureau under scrutiny by several human fighting against cybercrime and the rights organisations. university at which Dominguez is an associate professor, launched On October 12, 2013, after a speech investigations. Although the polit- by Bernd Bicker, the theatre’s for- ical aim was to stop the collective mer dramaturg who advocated for and its actions, all the complaints ‘a sharing theatre’, Christian Diaz were eventually withdrawn for lack wrote a text, called a video-maker of evidence. The documented pro- friend of his (who recorded the ject is still exposed in different art whole happening), jumped on the institutions. stage before the opening performance and denounced the ironic discrepancy between the theme of the meeting and the outsourcing of

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03. Research - Production

The inter-penetration of artistic creation and digital technologies highlights and questions new interactions between research and creation, redefines the different aims of production and the conse- quent changes affecting the status and role of the artist. In short, these new partnerships embody new types of production and engender new modes of dissemination of the works, but they also cause a necessary sharing of the capital – not only the symbolic one – among the different partners. This phenomenon is also part of La Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, hosting Zinc (picture: Caroline Dutrey) the larger political economic context. We should keep in mind that the background is not only the casual encounter of different spontaneous creativities, but responds to precise organisational strategies. As mentioned, the issue is a necessary economic is interpretative; it is ‘a research about However, new terms have begun to appear revitalisation requiring the imperative of the arts’ as Henk Borgdorff1, teacher-re- in the last 15 years. We speak about creativity and the obligation of technical searcher and specialist in research-crea- ‘artistic research’ and more specifically progress, now embedded in the political tion, calls it. ‘research-creation’, what Borgdorff calls discourse as well as in national policies and ‘research in arts’, terms embedding a new instruments. On the other hand, for the artist, research phenomenon, hard to describe since theo- That said, this mapping is limited to a taxo- can be the time of creation, possibly long, retical discourses and practical forms vary nomical approach, i.e. describing the phe- that includes the trial and error necessary according to geographical contexts. nomenon of research-creation and its insti- to ultimately get, at the end of the ‘pro- tutions, listing the venues of hybrid artistic cess’ to the artwork, usually perceived as This overlapping of meanings, collective production and the tools that facilitate and singular, innovative and/or experimental. representations, theories and practices in allow artistically hybrid works. This is also the most widespread definition this domain, also predetermined by differ- in the discourse and policies of cultural ent cultural approaches (whether from the 3.1. Research-creation institutions that call themselves places of point of view of sociology or epistemology) research and creation. To this category we makes it hard to find a common definition. In order to talk about research-creation could add ‘research at the service of the In their dossier on research-creation and specifically in the framework of digital arts’, i.e. applied research, which is pro- technologies in contemporary theatre performance, it is necessary to recap spective: in this case the art is the objec- Izabella Pluta and Mireille Losco-Lena nev- some specificities of research, the arts tive (not the object) of the research; the ertheless suggest an open, liminal definition and the context from which all this has research provides knowledge for the cre- of research-creation: emerged. ation process and implies, in certain cases ‘An artistic work which doesn’t have a and contexts (e.g. schools of applied arts), purely aesthetic goal (…). (…) There is The notion of ‘research’ in the perform- its capitalisation. research-creation when other prac- ing arts is not new. On one hand, we call titioners, belonging to the artistic or research an activity undertaken in the other fields like those of knowledge framework of university education (mas- and technique, can find elements ter, PhD); this kind of activity implies a the- 1 See the website of the Amsterdam University likely to nurture their own activities of the Arts for most of his publications: http:// oretical distance between the researcher in the produced works and the pro- www.ahk.nl/en/research-groups/art-theo- and the object of research. The approach ry-and-research/publications/ cesses which led to their creation.

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Research-creation therefore implies, basically, a sharing and it takes place in the constitution of one or more communities of interest around objects and processes of the art.’1

Several elements of this approach should be highlighted in order to best understand research-creation – in all the concerned disciplines:

• Multiple objectives of the artistic work, implying also forms, supports or means of demonstrating conceived for other usages or for other kinds of viewers/audiences;

• Dialogue between the artistic work and the research associated Studio Nomad installation at PLACCC Csepel Festival, 2013 (picture: Balazs Danyil) with other communities of interest (domains and disciplines) that aim to act as mutually nourishing bi- or multi-lateral contaminations;

• The notions of horizontality, sharing compared to Western Europe). Besides to this approach, knowledge circulates so and collaboration among different this, however, a key issue is the specificity that research sheds a new light on artistic communities. of the European political context and in issues and nurtures different fields and dis- particular the Bologna Process, initiated in ciplines. The scientific potential lies in the Let’s briefly consider other elements along- 1999 and leading in 2010 to the European fact that the research and its results take side this first definition: first and foremost space of higher education, that has encour- concrete form. In countries which are only an institutional context that has particularly aged the development of research-crea- starting to move in this direction there is a fostered the emergence of research-creation. The agreement aimed to harmonise lively discussion about the scientific valid- tion in its contemporary meaning and sec- higher education systems across Europe, ity of such research ‘protocols’, i.e. a critical ondly, the main broad trends of its practical to strengthen competitiveness within stance regarding their evaluation, refuta- application. Europe and worldwide. The main issue is bility, reproducibility and the capitalisation the harmonisation of degrees, in particu- of knowledge that can derive from them, The emergence of research-creation and its lar bachelor, master and doctorate, also in since traditionally this is produced and progressive institutionalisation have been arts schools (theatre, dance, music, fine arts transmitted in writing. More broadly, such obviously marked by historical and geo- etc.) which traditionally depend, in coun- protocols question the concept of ‘experi- graphical aspects (e.g. Finland has practiced tries like France, on the Minister of Higher ence’ in the sense of scientific research and research-creation since the 1960s) and the Education and Research. Whether or not of the possibility for an artistic process to diversity of research cultures (e.g. North the process actually had an impact on the redesign its framework. In France, for America has a very different approach to institutions in the various countries, it has instance, this question has been embodied the theories and practices of research, required a rethink on research, including in in the ‘Sondes’, experimental or ‘explora- arts schools, in all the European countries. tory’ events gathering artists – in residence or not -, researchers, scientists and the 1 Izabella Pluta and Mireille Losco-Lena, Pour This new dynamic goes hand in hand with public around unfinished artistic objects; un topographie de la recherche-création, in a proliferation of a first main trend, i.e. these events were directed by Franck LIGEIA – dossiers sur l’Art, dossier Théâtres the notion of ‘artistic research’ or prac- Bauchard (currently interim director at la Laboratoires : recherche-création et technolo- tice-as-research, especially in the specific Panacée, Montpellier) at La Chartreuse - gies dans le théâtre aujourd’hui, n° 137-140, janvier-juin 2015, p. 39-46 (translation by context of arts research and in the broader Centre national des écritures du spectacle, IETM) spectrum of human sciences. According between 2009 and 2012.

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The second main trend of research-creation – the most interesting for this mapping – concerns the domains of exact sciences and technologies and is not always linked to a university degree as in the case of practice-as-research. Partnerships and practices can be either institutional or more flexible, paving the way for new types of associations and skills that we could call ‘informal’ or amateur (DIY, autodidactic, hacking etc.), which necessarily lead to new economic models. This trend does call into question the recognition of such informal practices by the institutions. This kind of research-creation is more and more frequent and can take different modalities:

• They can happen in partnership with the private or corporate sector, Les Baltazars, ‘Nebula’, creation realised in the frameworkof the OSSIA project in which case there is an interest (obviously also economic) in their own development and where there is a commitment between financial partners; Let’s then move to the institutions of • They can happen only in a collabora- research and university education that inte- tive logic, through common practices grate artistic research for production aims, based on common interests; either by proposing specific programmes or by partnering with cultural organisations or • They can stem from the initiative of artists; but we can also think of the venues some type of conglomerate, gathering devoted to the creation of artworks with institutional structures (and possibly technological components, or of multi- also private companies): for instance disciplinary cultural structures that have an institution representing artists, a embedded the technological dimension in university, an associated institution their production and dissemination activ- or company capitalising the results ities. Companies and artists can collab- or the objects created for its own orate with these kinds of institutions or development; with companies; or they can team up with key individuals, or gather as collectives • They can also start from within an with heterogeneous skills and know-how artistic team partnering with a uni- corresponding to the hybrid nature of the versity scientific community or some works they propose – as illustrated by the individual ‘specialists’, with public or examples below. private funding;

• They can imply the participation of non-specialist audiences as ‘public witnesses’ or users, to provide feedback about the research.

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Places for research and production of digital performances

• Austria • Finland administrations, universities and final users, including artists. Artistic Technology Lab – Vienna The Centre For Practice As Research In University Of Applied Arts Theatre T 7 - University Of Tampere • The Netherlands

The Lab is an artistic research project The centre is aimed at developing practices Media And Performance Laboratory - conceived as an interdisciplinary research related to the artistic, production and tech- Hku/University Of The Arts (Utrecht) centre, focused on contemporary practices nical operating cultures within theatres. At in arts and technologies. It investigates con- the same time, university-level research The laboratory practices applied research temporary digital arts practice, the trans- and publications are produced as part of to develop creative and technological solu- formation of the aesthetic and the role of basic and post-graduate degrees. It is also tions for health, education, culture and the the arts in the age of the connected society. developing the TNT project (see below) design of public spaces. in collaboration with RIKSTEATERN • Belgium (Sweden). • United Kingdom

Numediart (Mons) • Germany Institute Of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University (Leicester) In 2007 the University of Mons (UMONS) Design Research Lab – Berlin Arts founded NUMEDIART, the institute of new University This is an institute of multi-, inter- and media, arts and technology. It works in the trans-disciplinary research about the prac- domains of audio, image, video, movement The DRLab works on research in interdis- tice, theory and history of creative tech- capture and bio-signals for applications in ciplinary design to give media coverage to nologies. It applies its research through which the interaction man-computer aims the gap between technological innovation artistic projects, audience development to create an emotion. and the real needs of individuals. The labo- activities and trans-disciplinary collabora- ratory explores intelligent textiles, man- tions of all kinds. Its activities are funded University Of Hasselt – The Expertise machine interaction and various commu- by the National Endowment for Science Centre For Digital Media (Edm) (Hasselt) nities of the digital society. Technology and the Arts, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and several partner- EDM’s approach is based both on theoreti- • Ireland ships in R&D. cal and applied research and on research- development. This research institute Trinity College Dublin - Atrl /Arts Centre For Contemporary And specialises in man-computer interaction, Technology Research Laboratory Digital Performance and Design And infographics, multimedia networks, digital Performance Lab - Brunel University vision and virtual environments. ATRL is an interdisciplinary research centre Research Centre (Leicester) in performance, cinema and music created A.Pass – Advanced Performance And to explore the emergence of new art forms The research activities of these institutions Scenography Studies (Brussels) combined with new technologies. focus on a trans-disciplinary approach integrating the arts, theatre writing and perfor- A.PASS develops a favourable context for • Spain mance, staging and set design with digital artistic research through a research pro- technologies. gramme around performativity and set I2CAT – The Internet Research Center design. (Barcelona) Faculty Of Performance, Visual Arts & Communications Leeds I2CAT is a research and innovation centre focusing on Research & Development The main fields of activity of this research + Internet, advanced Internet architec- unit are live performance and the cultural ture, applications and services. It col- industries, specifically the relationship with laborates with private companies, public audiences and their engagement, the body

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and its representation, digital performance, • Switzerland of research in technochoreography – the venue and the performance. LARTECH, created by Martine Epoque and Sinlab - Experimental Stage Laboratory Denis Poulain. • EU, regional and international (Lausanne) • New Zealand European Project ‘Performigrations’, ini- The Sinlab is an experimental project that tiated by the ‘Participact’ laboratory of works at the intersection of performing Colab - University Of Auckland Bologna University (Italy – project leader) arts, sciences, architecture, engineering and philosophy. This laboratory for artistic COLAB gathers a diverse community of Based on the idea of the migratory experi- research is a cooperative project gathering researchers and external experts from the ence, the project aims to add to the cartog- several research and higher education insti- arts, design, computer, animation, game raphy of its territory the dynamics, com- tutions: the École Polytechnique Fédérale design, engineering, mecatronics, archi- plexity and diversity of experiences brought De Lausanne (EPFL); La Manufacture tecture, business and organisational devel- about by the flow of people, through events (HETSR HES-SO); the University of opment. COLAB has started the ATAATA, and collaborative artistic experiences. the Arts in Zurich (ZHDK); the Ludwig arts-and-technologies residency pro- Maximilians University in Munich (LMU) gramme, in collaboration with the Institut The project gathers 6 partners from and the University Tsinghua in Beijing/ Français de Nouvelle Zélande. Europe and 5 from Canada: the Research China. and Innovation Center (Athens, Greece); Biografilm festival - International cel- • Australia ebration of lives (Bologna, Italy); Genus Bononiae – Bologna City Museum School Of Visual And Performing Arts – (Bologna, Italy); INET-MD Institute of University Of Tasmania Ethnomusicology – Centre for music and choreography studies - (Lisbon, The Tasmania University of the Arts Portugal); MK Institut für Medien- und (Inveresk) proposes an artist in residency Kommunikationswissenschaft (Klagenfurt, programme for arts professionals in the Germany); IIC Montreal – Institut Culturel fields of visual arts, theory and history of Italien (Montreal, Canada); Bluemetropolis the arts, theatre, curatorial practices and Foundation (Montreal, Canada); Concordia production. University - Mobile Media Lab (Montreal, Canada); Société du centre Culturel Italien • Canada (Vancouver, Canada); Université Ryerson (Toronto, Canada). Hexagram – UQAM (Montreal)

TNT – Theatre & New Technology (Nordic Hexagram gathers researchers specialised Countries: Finland, Iceland, Sweden, in the creation and study of art works using Norway) different digital or analogical techniques. Its mission is to animate and coordinate During the period 2015-16, the project research-creation in the domain of media aims to create a Nordic network of arts, art- arts, to support experimental creation and ists, freelancers, socio-educational organ- to foster, in this domain, artistic innovations isations, theatres, festivals, researchers and and the development of new and produc- other specialists in order to facilitate and tive methodologies. This programme has support the use of new digital technologies developed Hexagram – Concordia (inter- in the performing arts. The other partners of national network of research-creation in the projects are the Lillehammer University media arts, design, technology and digital College (Faculty Of Television Production culture ; its research programme 2014- And Film) and the Iceland Academy Of The 2020 develops across three axes: sense, Arts (Department of Performing Arts). embodiment and movement; materiality; The project is funded by the Nordic Culture ubiquity. From Hexagram and Hexagram Point and Nordplus Horizontal. Concordia originated the Laboratory

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Research - Production

• Austria • France Ma Scène Nationale-Pays De Montbéliard (Montbéliard) Ars Electronica Futurelab (Linz) Ircam - Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (Paris) This multi-disciplinary theatre, support- Ars Electronica’s activities are articulated ing creation and diffusion, stems from around four pillars: the Ars Electronica IRCAM is a French centre for scientific the collaboration of four structures that Festival (since 1979), the Ars Electronica research devoted to music creation and developed into an ensemble: Allan (national Centre - a museum of digital and tech- technological innovation, founded in 1969 theatre), l’Arche (theatre for young audi- nological art -, the Prize Ars Electronica by Pierre Boulez. The centre combines uni- ences), MALS -Théâtre de Sochaux and Ars – awarded during the festival – and versity and applied research with creation Numerica (a venue for the digital creation FUTURELAB, an interdisciplinary research and production. and production). and innovation centre mixing art, technology and society. Le Cube – Centre De Création Numérique L-EST/Laboratoire Européen Spectacle (Issy-Les-Moulineaux) Vivant et Transmédia (Belfort And • Belgium Montbéliard) Le Cube aims to foster creative dynamics Imal – Center For Digital Cultures And while opening a collective reflection about L-EST is a territorial cooperation proj- Technology (Brussels) the transformation of society; it is both a ect gathering three structures: Viadanse playground for experiment and a workshop - Centre chorégraphique national de IMAL integrates an arts centre produc- for creation. Le Cube develops activities of Franche-Comté in Belfort, MA scène ing exhibitions, conferences, concerts and digital practice open to all audiences, hosts nationale (national theatre) - Pays de performances ; a media lab allowing artists a co-working space, organises creative Montbéliard and Granit scène nationale in to research, test, share and exchange with residences and has an artistic programme. Belfort. It aims to create a space for exper- and about new technologies ; and – since It also publishes a magazine featuring pro- imentation and creation with a European 2012 – a fabLab, artistic workshop in digital spective analysis about the digital society. dimension together with artists and creation. researchers, combining live performance Centre Des Arts D’enghien-Les-Bains and trans-media. L-EST offers grants for Cecn - Centre Des Ecritures (Enghien-Les-Bains) artistic research and organises events. Contemporaines Et Numériques (Mons) The CDA is a place for the development, L’hexagone – Scène Nationale Arts et The CECN is based in a theatre, le Manège- creation and dissemination of arts, digital Sciences (Meylan) Mons, and focuses on education, produc- technologies and sciences. It has an artistic tion and awareness-raising of digital tech- programme and organises festivals (Bains This multidisciplinary structure for creation nologies applied to the performing arts. numériques - biennale internationale and diffusion is active since 2001 combin- des arts numériques d’Enghien-les-Bains ing arts, sciences, technologies and ter- • Czech Republic and Paris Images Digital Summit); artistic ritorial actions. L’Hexagone organises the residencies; a numeric lab – incubator for Biennale Arts Sciences RENCONTRES-I. In International Centre for Art and New innovative start-ups in partnership with the 2007 it created the Atelier Arts Et Sciences, Technologies – CIANT (Prague) Académie des Sciences-Institut de France; a residential research laboratory for both offers technical expertise for the develop- artists and scientists, in collaboration with Ciant is an international platform for ment of new technologies, artistic projects the CEA Grenoble (Commission for Atomic research, production and diffusion focused in the public space and set design; finally it Energy and Alternative Energies). on the creative use of information and com- coordinates an international collaborative munication technologies in the arts. It col- platform for the sharing of expertise and laborates with several other institutions co-productions, the RAN. such as Hexagram in Canada.

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ZINC/Arts et Cultures Numériques Etopia_Center For Art And Technology • Australia (Marseille - Friche Belle de Mai) (Zaragoza) ANAT - Australian Network For Art And ZINC’s activities are organised around Etopia is a project by the Municipality of Technology several axes: artistic production; mediation Zaragoza and the Knowledge Foundation inspired by popular education activities – Zaragoza, supported by the Spanish This Australian network aims to catalyse and mixing artists, art works and audience; ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism. experimentation and innovation through sharing of resources and creative develop- It was conceived as a centre to develop arts, science and technologies. ANAT’s ment of tools. ZINC includes two venues creativity, innovation and entrepre- research programmes are open to – Transistor and LFO (Lieu de fabrication neurship in the digital city of the future. researchers and artists. ouvert) – and a fablab; it has developed a The centre is open to a heterogeneous number of stable partnerships within la audience made of engineers, researchers, • USA Friche Belle de Mai and the PACA region, entrepreneurs, amateurs and artists. namely with PRIMI - Pôle Transmédia EMPAC - Experimental Media And Méditerranée; AMI - Aides aux Musiques • The Netherlands Performing Arts Center (Troy) Innovatrices; IMéRA, institut d’études avancées de l’université d’Aix-Marseille, STEIM - The Studio For Electro- The EMPAC is located in the campus of and others. Instrumental Music (Amsterdam) the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. It includes four performance spaces and • Germany Steim is a research and development cen- hosts artists and researchers in residence tre for music and new music instruments working at the intersection of arts, science Zentrum Für Kunst Und for the performing arts. The works devel- and technologies. Medientechnologie (Karlsruhe) oped there are always related to the direct physical actions of a musician. STEIM offers The ZKM hosts two museums, three residencies for composers, interpreters, research institutes and a multimedia library. multimedia artists and the development of The centre thus works on the whole value interfaces with the performing arts, espe- chain: research and production, exhibition cially dance. and performance, archives and collections. Through its research and production activi- V2_Institute For Unstable Media ties it intervenes at the theoretical and (Rotterdam) practical levels gathering artists and scientists from different disciplines in order to V2 is an inter-disciplinary centre for create artistic works and to develop new research, production and diffusion, focused knowledge. on the intersection between arts and technologies. It organises the Dutch Electronic • Spain Festival.

Factoria Cultural – Vivero De Industrias • EU and international Creativas (Madrid) Art & Science - European Digital Art And Factoria Cultural is a space for the creation Science Network and development of business activities in different domains of the arts, communica- This network, funded by the EU programme tion and new technologies, including all the Creative Europe since 2015, gathers seven cultural and creative industries. European partners (cultural organisations), two scientific institutions acting as tutors - CERN and ESO – and Ars Electronica Futurelab, which offers innovative techniques and production facilities for trans- disciplinary works.

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Other venues for dissemination of digital performances: festivals

The dissemination of digital performance • Belgium and France • Finland is evolving rapidly as mainstream venues increasingly present such works, although VIA Festival (Mons, Maubeuge and Pixelache Helsinki Festival (Helsinki) clear programming strategies are yet to Jeumont) appear. It is more of a trend, linked both to Pixelache Helsinki is a festival of electronic the dominant discourse on new technolo- The VIA festival is a multi-disciplinary fes- art and sub-cultures that takes place in gies in the public debate and to supportive tival integrating a very broad programme Helsinki since 2002. The programme policies. Added to this of course, is the aes- of digital arts. includes lectures, workshops, exhibitions, thetic evolution of artistic creation. And shows and concerts. there are specialised venues (some listed • Bulgaria in the previous pages) organising festivals • France focusing on digital performance. Finally, in DA Fest – International Digital Art the last 15 years most digital arts festivals, Festival (Sofia) Festival Biennale Les Bains Numeriques originally focused on contemporary visual organised by the Arts Centre of arts or electronic music, have been increas- DA Fest is an international festival organ- Enghien-les-Bains ingly integrating live digital performances ised by the National Academy of Arts. It in their programmes. Here we list some fes- presents new trends in the digital arts The Festival Bains Numeriques is an tivals from the two latter categories – those domain (digital videos, interactive perfor- international festival of digital arts focus- in specialised venues and those specifically mance and installation, net art, sound art). ing on performances and art in the public focused on digital arts. The festival aims to create a favourable space. Every year it works on a specific environment for culture and education in theme and issues a call for projects and/or • Austria the digital arts and to build a platform of participation. dialogue among artists, students, research- Festival Ars Electronica (Graz) ers, teachers and critics. Biennale Arts et Sciences Rencontres-I (Meylan) Ars Electronica, founded in 1979, is cer- • Czech Republic tainly one of the first – and today amongst This Biennale was initiated by Hexagone the most important internationally – festi- Enter 6: Biopolis International Art | Sci | Scène nationale Arts et Sciences in part- vals integrating all the domains of artistic Tech | Biennale Prague nership with public and private partners creation and technology in the broadest and associations from the cultural, scien- sense. It awards around 10 prizes. This festival explores the connection tific and corporate sectors of the Grenoble between the natural and the artificial, in region. The Biennale explores the relation • Belgium relation to issues of the body and data. between arts and sciences (artists and scientists) and plans to integrate other sec- Transnumériques Biennale (Brussels) • Denmark tors: industry, education, urbanism, enter- tainment, tourism and others. Transnumériques is a festival of emergent Clickfestival (Helsingor) digital cultures that proposes open experi- Futur En Seine organised by Cap Digital ences and diverse, new and hybrid artistic Clickfestival is an innovative festival work- (Paris) practices in the context of technological ing at the intersection of science, art and development. It focuses on young talents technology. Futur en Seine is an international festival and emerging practices. showcasing, each year for ten days, the latest digital innovations from France and abroad to professionals and to a larger audience.

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Seconde Nature (Aix-en-Provence) • Germany • Greece

This festival was created by Biomix and Transmediale Festival (Berlin) Athens Media Art Festival (Athens) Terre Active, two associations based in Aix-en-Provence that work with electronic Transmediale is a festival that develops This Festival aims to gather a worldwide music and multimedia arts. Seconde Nature through the whole year and creates new community of artists and audiences and leads a multidisciplinary cultural project links among art, culture and technologies. encourages all aspects of digital creativity mixing electronic music, sound art, visual All the activities of the festival aim to foster by hosting Greek and international artists. and performing arts; during the year it sup- a critical understanding of contemporary The festival was launched in 2005 with the ports artists developing their projects and culture and politics. aim of offering a platform for video art, con- has a cultural mediation programme for the temporary art and performing arts. In the exhibitions it hosts. Cynetart – International Festival For following ten years the Festival evolved to Computer Based Art (Dresden) include several art forms such as web art, Bouillants - Festival D’arts Numériques interactive installation, animation, digital (Brittany region) CYNETart is an international festival of arts and performance, exploring all the computer-assisted art, created 15 years creative aspects of digital technology and Bouillants is a space dedicated to digi- ago by the Trans-Media-Akademie (TMA) culture. tal artistic expression and to citizenship. in Hellerau. Every second year the festival The association Le Milieu organises this awards a prize of €20,000; it also awards a • Hungary event in partnership with the private com- sponsorship and an artistic grant funded by pany SAGA. The festival covers the whole the Ministry of Science and Art of Saxony. Placcc Festival (Budapest) Brittany region and includes exhibitions, meetings, workshops, projections, artists’ European Media Art Festival (Osnabrueck) The Placc Festival is focused on in situ cre- residencies and cultural actions. ation and the arts in public space. It works EMAF is a multimedia arts forum offering a with artists who have very different prac- Interstice Festival (Caen) space for the encounter of artists, art com- tices and includes issues around technolo- missioners, diffusers and expert audiences. gies in its reflections and programme. The Interstice Festival focuses on interna- The festival aims to be a place for experi- tional visual artists and musicians working mentation and a laboratory allowing the • Iceland on the relations between sound, image, creation and presentation of extraordinary object and space. works, experiences and projects. Sequences - Real Time Art Festival (Reykjavik) Festival Accès)S(, Cultures Électroniques Phaenomenale (Wolfsburg) (Pau) This ten-day festival presents progressive This arts + science festival was born visual art and focuses in particular on time- This festival looks at technologies from the by merging the artistic associations of based media: performances, stage works, artistic and anthropologic point of view. It Wolfsburg and Pheano, later joined by other sound works, video and interventions in focuses on artistic practices that question partners (including the City of Wolfsburg). public space. the effects of the widespread diffusion of The festival collaborated with research technologies on our cultures and societies. institutions, like ZKM in Karlsruhe and • Italy It explores citizens’ relationships to their the Technical University of Braunschweig, space and time in the age of globalised as well as with internationally renowned The Rome Media Art Festival (Rome) exchange. artists such as B. Karl Bartos and Harun Farocki. Since 2013 Phaenomenale has This festival, promoted by the Fondazione awarded a prize for ‘Social Media Art’. Mondo Digitale, focuses on the relation between arts and technology. It works as a bridge linking artists, research centres, schools, universities and enterprises, bring- ing young generations closer to a new way of using and understanding technology.

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Teatro e Nuove Tecnologie by Teatrale Visitors to TestLab therefore often become • Canada Initinere (Bergamo) participants, and participants become their own audiences. Biennale Internationale D’art Numérique The Teatro e Nuove Tecnologie festival is - BIAN (Montreal) a project initiated in 2012 by the Teatrale Dutch Electronic Art Festival (DEAF) InItinere association; it explores art in pub- organized by V2 (Rotterdam) This biennale – focused on disciplines lic spaces and multimedia arts. other than the performing arts – consists The DEAF festival offers a large pro- in a large exhibition accompanied by vernis- • Slovenia gramme including art, technology, science sages and special events offering artistic and society. DEAF proposes a broad range journeys entirely dedicated to digital arts. MEMEFEST - Festival of Socially of activities, including a major art exhibi- Responsive Communication and Art tion, installations, concerts, performances, Elektra Festival – ACREQ (Montreal) (Ljubljana) lectures, workshops and an academic symposium. This cultural event presents works and Memefest is an international network of artists combining cutting-edge electronic people interested by social change via a Oddstream Festival (Nijmegen) music and visual creation issuing from new sophisticated and radical use of media technologies (animation, installation and and communication. It is about creating, The festival lasts ten days and offers vari- robotics). Elektra creates links between dif- thinking, researching, training and work- ous experiences focusing on art, design and ferent creative media such as music, video, ing on the intersections between arts, sci- technology. cinema, design, game and sound or interac- ence, communication, activism, theory and tive installation in connection with the most practice. TodaysArt Festival (The Hague) advanced digital technologies.

• Sweden Since 2005 this festival gathers Dutch and international artists, thinkers and audi- Mixitputfest Digital Performance Festival ences. TodaysArt is a trans-disciplinary (Karlskrona) platform for international pioneering creators willing to explore new possibilities The festival uses digital art exhibitions, and forms of expression. Inspired by real performances, public conferences, semi- issues, TodaysArt aims to promote and nars, workshops and collaborative read- foster innovation, creativity and the inter- ings as well as online media channels to est of the audience for contemporary tech- explore how contemporary media combine nological developments in the arts, culture physical and digital environments and how and society. they encourage new methods for creation, expression and participation. Biennale SRTP (Eindhoven)

• The Netherlands The festival brings art, technology, experimental pop culture and science to a large Testlab_Invisible Cities (V2, Rotterdam) and diverse audience. Any forward-looking discipline can participate in this platform – Since 2006 V2 has organised a bi-monthly from electronic music to dance, from per- meeting called TestLab, targeting art- formance to contemporary arts and design, ists, scientists, technicians, theoreticians from robotics to film. and students who work at the edge of different disciplines using digital technologies. The basic idea is that feedback by experts, colleagues, users and audiences is crucial in the process of development of interactive art, for which audience participation is very important.

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Before and Behind the stage – Examples of digital tools facilitating the creation of ‘traditional’ or digital performances

Many of the tools necessary for the devel- In 2008 in France, GMEA - Centre de users can work on it; and it allows opment of a production are developed by Création Musicale d’Albi-Tarn and LABRI the documentation and conservation artists themselves or in collaboration with - Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en of the works. The system avoids the universities or the specialised structures Informatique created the research plat- problem of the rapid obsolescence mentioned above. The multiplicity of tools form Virage. Today they coordinate the of digital formats and documents by developed corresponds to the variety new project OSSIA - Open Scenario System allowing a large number of formats of forms of performances put on stage, for Interactive Application, funded by the and compatibility possibilities. although it is becoming more common to National Research Agency. OSSIA gathers re-use the tools. Listing all such tools would knowledge into a number of software appli- • The DRAMA project, developed by mean listing almost all the existing artistic cations that allow users to combine differ- Dominique Martinez and Mathieu forms, and would be the object of a sepa- ent kinds of digital contexts in an intuitive Pouget of the University of Toulouse rate publication. However it is possible and manner to write new scenarios for interac- (France), has a very complete worth mentioning that new stage forms tion. The project includes among others the approach as it proposes different created from new (and) digital technolo- software i-score that allows a non-linear tools: DRAMAtexte, an indexing gies necessarily lead to changes backstage management of timing of different media. tool that highlights scene directions concerning the direction, equipment, the Other French institutions have joined added to the text by the director or stage, set design and so on. They influence the project as partners: ENJMIN - École the author; DRAMAscène, a tool the norms and protocols for exchanging Nationale du Jeu et des Médias Interactifs for the visualisation of the staging; information by integrating new functions (Angoulême), ISTS - Institut Supérieur des DRAMAsurtitrage, that helps with and by using software that works in a global Techniques du Spectacles (Avignon) and subtitling; and a Serious game, Pit’ Paj. system. Such changes must thus be consid- ENSATT - École Nationale Supérieure des ered in the evolution of practices, techni- Arts et Techniques du Théâtre (Lyon), as • Finally it is worth mentioning the cal equipment and also in the training of well as the companies Blue Yeti (Royan) project Viset, funded under the EU’s technicians. In the pages below we men- and RSF (Toulouse). Creative Europe programme, that tion some recent developments – includ- gathers four partners: Kulturanova ing some currently under development • Clarisse Bardiot, already mentioned and the Faculty of Management – and we recall the contexts in which they above, conceived and initiated the (both in Novi Sad, Serbia), Koniclab in emerged, the technologies, processes and software REKALL, that she devel- Barcelona (Spain) and Pacific Stream skills at stake. oped in collaboration with the com- in Liverpool (UK). Viset aims to pro- pany Buzzing Light and with Thierry mote the use of advanced digital tech- • One of the best-known and wide- Coduys, a key person in the digital nologies in different art forms and spread softwares in Europe and the domain, founder of the company La cultural events, and to show the many USA is ISADORA, for which a num- Kitchen, that provides artistic cre- social, economic, commercial and ber of online resources, tutorials and ators with its know-how in infor- cultural advantages of such technolo- forums are available, together with matics, electronics, sound and video gies for the arts. It pursues its goals in regular training sessions organised engineering. The executive producer particular by promoting the develop- by experts from the cultural sec- of REKALL is Le Phénix Scène natio- ment and use of virtual set designs tor. ISADORA was created by Mark nale de Valenciennes together with a created via interactive technologies, Coniglio, from the US company number of public and private financial augmented reality and remotely con- Troika Ranch, in 2003; it is a graphic partners. Artists can use REKALL in trolled applications. programming environment compat- different ways: as an instructive tool ible with Mac OS X and Microsoft or a framework for developing the cre- Windows and allows for the real time ation of a digital work (especially in the manipulation of digital videos. It can case of a re-enactment). It provides a be integrated with other software to video timeline to which the user can increase its functionalities. add documents of all kinds and formats, as well as technical information. It is a collaborative tool since many

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3.2. Documentation - Archiving rather than their tangible realisations’1. Different kinds of documentation and - Conservation For its director, Béatrice Josse, calling conservation of the performing arts exist into question the very act of collecting today, if we look from the point of view of How do we document and/or archive a means to reflect ‘about the perennity the staging: work, or some (or all) of the works (of an of the works and of the structures col- artistic movement, of a key artist etc.), lecting them’2. Between 2012 and 2014 • An approach focusing only on the and why? What about the ephemeral art the Tate Modern (London) has gathered staged production, mainly through par excellence – the performing arts? international artists and researchers in video or audio recording; order to reflect on new processes of con- In order to discuss these issues we can servation, through the research network • Another approach that also includes start from a simple fact: documenting Collecting the Performative - A research the creative process, in which implies gathering homogeneous or het- network examining emerging practice archived documents or objects can erogeneous elements – objects, writ- for collecting and conserving perfor- be very diverse (be it for digital per- ing, pictures, images, films etc. – that mance-based art. formances or other types). are archived, conserved and protected with care in order to prolong their life, In the performing arts field so far, collecting In the case of digital performances, there because they have a strong and repre- activity has concerned text-based drama is an additional issue to consider: that of sentative historical, aesthetic and/or (or the dramatic universe of an author); for ‘conservation’, or rather preservation, symbolic value (and sometimes an emo- choreography, notation can be considered since digital performances are particularly tional or metaphysical meaning). This a form of documentation. However, text in fragile given the rapid obsolescence of the is all about saving a trace of history, or the theatre has begun to lose its preemi- technological tools with which they’ve been rather of a history constructed through nent position while scenography and direct- created or that they use. and because of these elements, in order ing have become disciplines in their own to build a memory. Whether it is the right with a whole theoretical and critical Preserving a trace of the (digital) live per- ultimate goal of this accumulation or apparatus, thus they have gained increasing formances, in spite of their ephemeral not, its result is a collection. Collecting importance. Alongside the finished work, nature, responds to several needs and means therefore to build and obviously one can include the whole time devoted to offers different possibilities: to acknowledge a heritage. rehearsals and elaboration before the performance, in other words the whole crea- • Teaching, analysis and university Live arts are considered as ‘non-collective process, up to its actual appearance. research; tionable’. The works depend on the pres- This new understanding of the performing ence of the artists (actors, performers, arts represents a preliminary step for their • Mediation, artistic and cultural educa- dancers, musicians etc.). They cannot documentation. tion and audience development; live independently from the artists who realise them, as is the case for fine arts With the rapid democratisation of techno- • Transmission to other artists and or visual arts – a fact that has excluded logical tools and public policies fostering audiences; them from the art market and collec- their inclusion in the domain of documen- tions. And yet, since the last 15 years tation and archiving, namely through dig- • Allowing for repeating or the re-en- or so, the new trend generated by the itisation, a reflection has begun in favour actment of a work. performative works of the 1960s has of documentation that focuses on the pro- opened the way to a new approach, since cess, thus moving critical attention from the by their very nature these works allow playwright to the director, from the text to the possibility of immaterial conserva- the staging and so on, beyond an approach tion. These new practices, moreover, that studies already ‘institutionalised’ texts. are very different from the habits and systems established by the institutions that hold collections of material works. So for instance the Fond Régional d’Art Contemporain de Lorraine (France) has started to collect immaterial works that take the form of ‘proposals of works, 1 In Carnets de bords 2 ibidem

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Online archiving/documentation of the performing arts

The techniques for documenting and known by a restricted audience, in spite and individuals who meet regularly in order archiving digital works – and the harmo- of the international renown of artists like to discuss and share ideas and knowledge. nisation of such techniques – are serious Mary Wigman, Rudolf von Laban, William issues. Such projects are probably a trend Forsythe and Pina Bausch. Madeline Ritter, ECLAP E-Library For Performing Arts (in that will increase in coming years since doc- former director of Tanzplan Germany, and the framework of the Europeana project) umentation and archiving also respond to Ingo Diehl, former head of the training specific audience development strategies programme of Tanzplan Germany, thus ECLAP aims to foster a coordinated (see the next chapter) - in particular for conceived TanzFonds. approach to the online archiving of all the museums and heritage. performing arts across Europe. It offers The candidates for TanzFonds Erbe choose solutions and tools to help performing arts There are several performing arts archives certain historical choreographers, works institutions to access ‘digital Europe’ via a and collections; examples listed below and/or themes they want to work on, in network of major European institutions in focus on the staging and direction of cer- order to highlight their continuing impor- the field, linked to the Europeana project. tain works rather than on the works of spe- tance today. All approaches are allowed. cific authors/playwrights. This public programme has already sup- Cuban Theater Digital Archive ported 41 projects. The artists funded by (Cuba-USA) • Denmark TanzFonds Erbe undertake careful research through different archives, in collaboration The CTDA is a resource for the research, Odin Teatret Archives with other experts, and also clarify issues teaching and learning of theatre and per- around authors’ rights. (Indeed the use formance culture in Cuba, as well as for This online archive focuses on the history of historical documents is expensive and related domains. The archive includes doc- of Eugenio Barba’s Odin Teatret. it is not always clear who holds authors’ uments filmed and digitised in Cuba and rights and the right of use and diffusion abroad, resources and information about • France of such contents.) The artistic process is theatre on the island. documented and uploaded on the website Numeridanse – international online vid- of TanzFonds, where the general audience • Australia eo-library of dance can access a living history of dance, usually accessible only to a few experts. The pro- Performing Arts Collection - Arts Center This online video-library, accessible for ductions originated in the process are then Melbourne free, collects videos, collections of national diffused as well. and international artists, educational tools It is the largest collection of live arts in and resources to understand dance and • Greece Australia. its history. It is led and coordinated by the Maison de la Dance in Lyon and is managed Digital Library of the National Theater of • USA by a community of professionals from the Northern Greece field. MIT Global Shakespeare This library offers digital versions of all the • Germany documents, archives and videos of the pro- The Global Shakespeare archives are col- ductions of the Greek National Theatre. laborative projects allowing on line access TanzFonds Erbe to performances of Shakespeare staged • European, regional and international all around the world, as well as essays and This programme – a sub-programme of documents produced by researchers. This TanzFonds, together with TanzFonds APAC - Association Of Performing Arts project aims to honour the diverse ways in Partner – is funded by the Federal Collection which Shakespeare’s texts are received and Foundation for Culture and Heritage produced in the world. (Kulturstiftung des Bundes). The pro- This network of specialised collectors of gramme starts from the fact that the history live arts in the UK and Ireland includes of modern and contemporary dance is only museums, archives, libraries, organisations

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UBUWEB Documentation of digital performances: a specific approach This free online archive includes a large number of resources related to different avant-gardes (performances, videos, sound, ethno-poetry etc.). UBUWEB is Documenting digital arts - and in particu- In this sense we see the emergence of some an independent, non-funded initiative lar digital performance - presents a number international research projects aiming to launched by Kenneth Goldsmith, who also of additional problems compared to other define recommendations for the documen- launched the TV channel UBUWEB.TV. art forms. Such problems relate mostly to tation of digital performances, in terms of Another resource is UBUWEBDANCE. the rapid and planned obsolescence of the methodologies and priorities. We can men- technologies used. In addition digital works tion for instance the Digital Performance are ‘fragile’ because of the tools used to Archive, which exists already but will soon produce them, tools that are not common include on line consultation; and the open- Herewith some documentation projects but rather specific to the specific creation. source software REKALL, developed by managed by artists: Clarisse Bardiot (and already mentioned It is therefore necessary when elaborating in the text), also used as a tool for docu- Inside Movement Knowledge a methodology to document such work, to menting and analysing creative processes. take into consideration a number of ele- This was a collaborative and interdiscipli- ments including their development, the nary research project for the development system version, the system configuration, of new methods of documentation, trans- the format etc. Then it would be possible mission and conservation of the knowl- to reconstitute the genesis of the perfor- edge of contemporary dance and chore- mance and to consider its whole creation ography. It lasted between 2010 and 2012 process. and involved 5 partners: AHK – LKAO/ Art Practice and Development Research Group/Amsterdam School of the Arts; AHK /Dance Department/Theaterschool, Amsterdam School of the Arts; U_Utrecht / Department of Media and Cultural Studies, University of Utrecht (Theatre Studies); ICKamsterdam – Emio Greco | PC and NIMK/Netherlands Media Art Institute.

The Forsythe Company – ‘Synchronous Objects’ and ‘Motion Bank’

The website ‘Synchronous Objects’ documents the writing and composition process of ‘One Flat Thing, reproduced’, a choreography by William Forsythe (2000), through the visualisation of data (namely of the choreography structure). The idea behind ‘Motion Bank’ is instead to create an archive of dancers’ movements. Still from annotated video illustrating allignments, the way in which William Forsythe designs relationships in space and time (credits: ‘Synchronous Objects Project’, The Ohio State University and The Forsythe Company)

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3.3. Audience development - The first institutions involved in audience • The cuts in public funding (or their lack Dissemination development actions have been those or very low levels in some countries) particularly suffering from this decrease for cultural institutions alongside the Let’s start with some basic assumptions in attendance – namely museums and more prominent role of cultural poli- and sketch the general context in order to heritage institutions. They have developed cies may have increased the need and address the issue of audience development specific strategies targeting specific audi- urgency for audience development in the digital era, so as to understand the ences: youngsters, seniors, people with strategies; challenges and issues it raises as well as the disabilities etc. new practices it generates1. • Increasing competition with other We can try and express some thoughts: leisure activities and easier access to For over 30 years audience development other options via digital media push activities have flourished across Europe in • Audience development activities the cultural institutions towards the all the artistic and cultural domains. Even seem to be gaining importance for adoption of new audience engage- if there are different results in the various European and international cultural ment approaches that are more countries, this question is crucial today institutions, as we can see in their dis- engaging and more participative – and for all cultural institutions in the EU. It courses. In some countries, especially this especially in the performing arts; responds both to a will to foster the appro- over the last 10 years, national audi- priation of the arts – arts for all – and to ence development agencies have been • Funders appreciate data about the a belief that the arts and culture are fun- created, such as The Audience Agency presence (and increase/decrease) of damental ingredients for ‘well-being’, and in the UK and one in Australia , or the audiences, especially at a moment for consolidating societies by promoting German Mobiles Beratungsteam - when ‘evaluation’ is based mostly on values such as openness, sociability, hope, offices within the cultural or citizens’ economic data (e.g. sale of tickets). equality, etc. The core idea is to encourage services of the different Länder that civic consciousness by shaping it through specialise in mediation about issues symbolic and transcendental activities like racism or neo-Nazism but that and exchanges – via the arts and culture. also collaborate with the cultural sec- Something that the political sphere can tor on specific projects; hardly encourage in the collective and individual conscience of its citizens. Moreover, the audience development issue embod- ies the trans-disciplinary dimension par excellence.

The recent study Audience building and the future Creative Europe Programme by EENC 2(2012) underlines the lack of data about ‘the existing (and potential) audiences in Europe ’, but it stresses statistics show- ing that ‘the number of visitors to traditional cultural institutions is decreasing’ . Numbers vary to a great extent depending on the geographical area, the position in an urban area, in a ‘rurban’ or rural area.

1 IETM has commissioned a publication specifically on audience development (to be published in early 2016, thus this current mapping tackles the issue by focusing specifically on the role picture from the ‘Be SpectACTive’ project (credits: Be SpecACTive) played by digital technologies. 2 The European Expert Network on Culture (EENC) is a group of experts created in 2010 in order to advise the European Commission – DG Education and Culture regarding cultural policies.

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The existing analyses suggest certain • The increasing tendency to build For the user to have a pleasant experience trends and questions raised by the use creative and strategic partnerships and ultimately make a choice, several ele- of digital tools in audience development between the cultural sector and the ments have to be taken into consideration. strategies: digital technology sector. First, some basic observations:

• The possibility to enlarge and diversify According to reports carried out in the UK, • New reading habits generated by audiences through new media and across the EU and in the USA, interaction the web (fixed or mobile). Since the digital tools; between the audience and the artistic or internet has spread widely, people cultural contents in digital environments read not less but differently, and the • The fact that technologies facilitate can fall into four categories: access and habit of reading on a screen leads access to information and allow the information, learning/transmitting/shar- to specific habits of browsing and audience to organise their own vis- ing, discovering/testing, creating/sharing. skimming through texts, finding key- its, decide to participate and how to These are explored further below. words and reading in a non-linear engage with the cultural contents; way. Furthermore, different kinds of Access and information informative elements (writing, audio • The need for reflection about the and video) on the same page do not transition between audience devel- This aspect mainly concerns the possibil- hinder comprehension of the contents opment and engagement; ity for audiences to be informed about the but rather are more engaging; programming and to find correct infor- • The need for human resources and mation to plan their visit. It thus relates • The web and new technologies can training inside cultural organisations mainly to digital communication and the still elicit intimidation - as can the arts, to allow for the development and marketing approach of cultural organisa- their status, and artistic or cultural evolution of audience development tions. The most common activities for a contents which create a feeling of strategies; broad spectrum of audiences (from youth non-belonging or ignorance in users. to elders) are the use of websites or social (This is claimed in a recent study by • The fact that the main motivation to media (Facebook, Twitter) with dates and MTM London about the reaction of attend is the social nature of cultural venues of a performance, as well as online audiences to online cultural contents.) activities, and it is therefore necessary ticket sales. to present the online digital cultural experience as content that comple- ments the live offline experience;

• The strong engagement of young people with popular culture (TV, role games, videogames, comics, music, street arts, street dance like krump, etc.), with media and new technologies in general;

• The fact that the new technologies generate trans-national dynamics;

• A fear of losing the know-how and artistic skills required in the creation of the performing arts;

• The cultural sector’s fear that digital contents may replace the ‘live’ experi- Paatrice Marchand ‘Labyrinthe cosmogonique’ - QR installa- ence, thus hindering the allocation of tion (source: website Ex Voto à la Lune) public funding for live performing arts;

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While responsive design (adapting con- • From the cultural organisations’ • the project Spectacle en Lignes, initi- tents according to the medium) is definitely perspective, supporting the public’s ated by the Théâtre des Célestins in important, it is not enough to ‘seduce’ the research for such information and a Lyon (France), whose main goal is to audience by facilitating their appropriation certain serendipity of finding related ‘build a corpus of rehearsal videos of of information. information; live performances and to explore the uses of such an archive for education, On the other hand, if most cultural organ- • Or else, elaborating some structured research and mediation. By adopting a isations have at least a website, a Facebook tools to integrate the projects aim- trans-disciplinary approach, the proj- account and a Twitter account, the ques- ing at artistic or cultural education or ect develops around three comple- tion is how to harmonise such tools and learning. mentary axes: a sociological axis for make them work organically. How to use the study of audiences and of the prac- them and for which kind of information? From the point of view of the audience, tices included in the archive; a tech- How does the different information that studies confirm that watching an excerpt nological axis for recording and pub- is spread across various platforms inter- of a theatre or dance performance can be lication processes and Open Access act together? These and other questions crucial in deciding to actually go and see it. issues; an axis dealing with mediation must be addressed to ensure relevant It is quite common indeed to provide this for audiences, to imagine new pos- information dissemination. In practice, kind of support, and both artists and venues sibilities for the archive’1. The part- far from being purely technical questions, do it (venues can for example provide the ners of this cross-sector project are: these aspects refer to the need to ‘curate’ technical equipment needed to create films, LIRIS (CNRS/Lyon1), Imagine (INRIA), contents. interviews, clips from the backstage etc., CERILAC (Université Paris7); the and some of them have a personal YouTube Théatre des Célestins and the Festival Let us add that, according to the pro- or Vimeo channel embedded in their social d’art lyrique d’Aix en Provence; the IRI ceedings of the conference ‘Arts For hub). The Australian Ballet, for example, – Institut de recherche et d’innovation All – Connecting New Audiences’ held proposes mini-documentaries and has (already mentioned in the introduc- in San Francisco in 2008 by the Wallace created a website presenting its history, tion to the mapping) and an innovative Foundation, the promotion of an artistic or The Australian Ballet Story, as a time-line. SME, Ubicast. cultural activity cannot be reduced to the Others provide tutorials, as the BBC did classic question, ‘What service/activity do with its website Strictly Come Dancing. • The project La Fabrique du Spectacle, I offer my audience?’, but should rather be, elaborated under the scientific direc- ‘What is the experience that I create for Studies also confirm that people are sen- tion of Sophie Lucet, professor in my audience?’. The crucial issue seems to sitive to key information sources such theatre studies at the Université be the capacity to create meaning while as magazines or influential personalities Rennes 2 (France). ‘La Fabrique du establishing an emotional relationship, whose success is similar to trust in a brand. Spectacle is a web portal dedicated to and more precisely the capacity to translate Examples include magazines like Time Out the capture of emblematic artistic cre- the values defended by the arts and culture in the UK and the USA or specialised forums ation in the contemporary European (by means of the works presented and the like Nachtkritik in Germany, but also friends scene. Starting from an immersive activities proposed), or other specific val- or acquaintances whose opinion is deemed research methodology in which the ues, so that they become understandable. important. Festivals like Drama Festival in researchers analyse the modalities Budapest (Hungary) or Re:Visions festi- of the production process, a series Learning/transmitting/sharing val in Warsaw (Poland), for example, have of interviews with the members of engaged ‘multipliers’ via social media, ask- the creative team and specialised This aspect can correspond to a sponta- ing people to voluntarily share information researchers allows for questioning neous activity of the audience, or to an about the festival, their own opinions and the relationship with the work during activity elaborated and planned by the experiences on their personal Facebook the creation of a performance. These cultural organisation. It concerns ‘educa- profiles. interviews are combined with record- tional’ activities in the broadest sense, for ing of rehearsals and run-out, images example: There aren’t many structured projects of specific moments of the creation. using new technologies in this sense, but Other kinds of content add to these • From the audience’s perspective, the current examples and activities under videos: pictures, set, director’s notes, looking for additional information development, especially in Europe, suggest articles written by researchers…’. about an artist or a work, watching a that new tools will soon appear. Among video excerpt, etc.; existing examples we can mention: 1 Translation by the editors

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We can also mention the EU-funded proj- d’Avignon, Festival Lollapalooza in Berlin, practices as well as to user-generated ect PLATFORM shift+, led by the Pilot Jazz à La Villette (Paris) and others. The content (UGC, also called ‘transformative Theatre (York, UK) and gathering 11 part- Aerowaves network now streams in works’). These represent only a niche, as ners from 9 countries. The goal of the proj- real time the works of emerging chore- indeed only a minority of users engage ect is to explore teenagers’ digital habits, ographers involved in its festival Spring spontaneously in this kind of activity: the not well known by cultural organisations, Forward. EU average was 11% of total users in 2008 and to help artists, programmers, customer and it is close to zero in some countries. relations staff etc. to explore and become The distinction between the online offer Looking at data available in 2008 however acquainted with digital tools and their use, and the live experience can help artists it is interesting to note that the countries while also examining the way they can con- and cultural organisations understand with a higher number of people uploading tribute to writing for the theatre and to their audiences’ expectations and ensure self-generated content (texts, images, pic- creation in general. that they perceive the two kinds of offers as tures, videos, music etc.) are Estonia and complementary. In the case of online gam- Iceland (22% and 20%). This may suggest Another interesting example is the ing, the success of many videogames comes that their peripheral geographical situa- EU-funded project Be SpectACTive, gath- from their social function (chat, meetings tion plays a role and also that such activi- ering 12 partners and aiming to strengthen between communities of players, etc.), ties are seen to be democratic modes of audience engagement with creators, their which has largely gained importance over production. The Netherlands, UK, France works and the cultural venues. The project the playing component (the game itself). and Hungary follow closely, while countries includes research, production, creative The cultural sector could also learn from with lower numbers of UGC are Romania, residences, workshops and conferences, as the video gaming sector that focuses on Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Slovakia well as working on artistic presence on the interpersonal exchange, feelings and emo- and Bulgaria (all between 3% and 7%). web and in interaction with internet users tional components by linking it to the game. Czech Republic has the lowest rate – 2%. and potential audiences. Creating and sharing Participation is most commonly enhanced Other projects focus on the development by playing: users are asked to produce a of digital skills, for example ADESTE - This concerns the audience’s participa- picture or re-use visual or audio content. Audience DEveloper: Skills and Training in tion via their own creativity and initiative, This, by the way, poses authors’ rights Europe. fostered by the cultural organisation’s issues that the European Commission is information and promotion of activities. working to solve in order to facilitate these Discovering and testing It also relates to amateur and self-taught increasingly-adopted practices.

We consider here the experience of a user who decides to watch a performance online, not searching for additional information, but to decide whether to go or not to the live performance. The main problem of availability of an online performance (real- time retransmission or recording) concerns the cost, and the fact that the online version becomes an alternative to live attendance. The main websites or organisations that propose this service, formerly pay-only, have recently decided to make the videos available for free - an example is Classiclive. In Anglo-Saxon and Northern European countries it is quite common to make such contents available for free in order to gain new audiences.

Among existing dissemination projects Image from Prague dance Hackathon (source: Europeana Space) via television or web are the partnerships developed by Arte TV with the Festival

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Some projects, initiated by organisations the impact of technologies on the dissemi- or individual artists, combine education nation of works. and artistic practice: the project Digital 04. Voices by the UK-based company Blast Finally the trans-disciplinary dimension, Theory, the laboratory for social innova- conclusions characterising many of the examples tion The Patching Zone (the Netherlands), included in the text, could help to build a and the Finnish company Translocal all go complementary prospective mapping that ‘excited atoms’, the study carried out by in this direction, combining an exploratory might focus on the possible influences Judith Staines in 2010 (commissioned approach engaging young audiences (16- and transpositions of models from other by IETM and published by On The Move) 24 years old) with difficult backgrounds explored different forms of virtual mobil- sectors – like digital technologies – with via mobile and/or online technologies, ity in the contemporary performing arts. positive effects, namely creating favour- and at the same time developing tools and The basic question behind the study con- able conditions for the spontaneous devel- processes to help the youngsters to re-use cerned how the new modes of production opment of a positive economic, social and such technologies. could respond to environmental concerns. creative activity. This is what is testified by However the author quickly realised that the emergence of the fablabs1 and living lab2 An even more trans-disciplinary example – cutting carbon emissions was not the experiences. though less common in the cultural sector main concern of what appeared to be artistic practices developing in specific en- – is the so-called edit-a-thon, events gath- vironments and using specific tools. This ering communities of amateurs, specialists was a separate world, and a world whose and translators to share their knowledge wide range of technical possibilities, new about a certain topic and put it on web- languages and specialised vocabulary was sites with open and re-usable contents, like overwhelming. More than five years later Wikipedia. To name just two French exam- the conclusions of the study, based on re- ples, the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris and search and interviews with artists and pro- the Festival d’Avignon have recently organ- fessionals, are still valid, but the more co- ised similar experiences. herent and abundant data at our disposal today allows a better understanding of how Other practices developed in the domain these ‘new’ forms of production work, the processes taking place and their relations. of media and technologies are start to appear in the performing arts field, like The present mapping of live performance the hackathon – originally an event gath- in digital times aims to build a pragmatic ering web/software developers, designers overview and inventory integrating as etc. with a project in mind and aiming to many examples as possible, looking at the develop a prototype application in a pre- most important elements of the value defined time. The hackathon applied to the chain. It also aims to highlight new possibili- performing arts can lead for example to a ties inspired by examples and experiences, dance hackathon, like The Prague Dance especially through the short explanations Hackathon proposed by the Czech project illustrating each paragraph and to show EuropeanaSpace, which asks participants this ecosystem as an opportunity, both for to use or re-use materials from dance his- creators and for cultural institutions. This tory and to combine them with technologi- ecosystem requires ‘displacement’ and cal processes. questions our usual, consolidated ways of 1 More details about the functioning of the thinking and working. fablabs are available on the website of the International Association of Fablabs Certain issues and domains would deserve 2 For more information about the living labs a more specific approach, for example the check the website of the European Network of living labs. We can mention as examples impact of digital technologies on authors’ the living lab The Bridge by French Tech or the rights and intellectual property rights, one by artist and researcher Diego Ortiz, who the change in professional profile and collaborated with a community of citizens and status especially for artists (here only public and private organisations in order to adapt a mobile application developed for an briefly mentioned), and the analysis of artistic project into a tool for a touristic path in a natural park

live performances in digital times: an overview