19th Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre: Drama, Performance and Digital Multimedia (September 2007); with Antonio Pizzo, Josephine Anstey, Christina Finger, Vincenzo Lombardo, and Emanuele Quinz.

Introduction to Drama and Artificial Intelligence by Antonio Pizzo, University of Turin, CIRMA - This round table has been designed to provide a broad approach to the use of digital technology in theatre and performing arts. The issue about the relation between theatre, performance and new media, has been arisen since the Eighties, when contemporary dance started to introduce robots and electronics on stage, or when fringe theatre investigates the relation between live event and TV camera and monitors. Since then, much has been written about it, so that it is now possible to follow different approaches to the question.

Here the panelists will talk about different topics: new dance and new media, the theatre and virtual reality, the simulation of space and time in virtual representation, the interactive stage and costumes… The whole text [PDF, 380 KB]

Representation in Space and Time: Control Score and Responsive Interface to a Virtual Performance by Vincenzo Lombardo, CIRMA, Università di Torino and Virtual Reality & Multi Media Park - This lecture is about the application of the simulative methodology brought over by the digital culture to the design, portability and fruition of a performance. The simulative methodology is a computer-based approach that organizes and delivers the aural and visual elements of a performance according to the temporal sequence defined by a control score, to provide a realistic experience through a responsive interface to a virtual reality environment (Brooks 1999). The result is a virtual performance. The simulative methodology provides a novel approach to the representation and control of a performance, bringing together the descriptive power of storyboard drawings (that here become more or less realistic 3D objects and scenes), the algorithmic and interaction capabilities of the computing machine, and the attractive mediation of a virtual reality environment (though adequate interface design is necessary to realize a satisfactory simulation).

With more and more sophistication in computer graphics representations (with high mimetic quality) and the simulation power provided by the programming environments, the virtual performances become a powerful tool to design and pre-visualize a complex event. Both static (representation) and dynamic (algorithmic) aspects must obey the lexicon and the rules of a formal language that become the symbols manipulated by the control system. Contemporary shows are complex events with contributions from several sources (each requiring specific competencies) and the existence of a common paradigm for representation and control is a viable possibility for providing a connection over operational attitudes that hardly communicate (consider, e.g., video and programming practices) and that conversely require neat and unambiguous responses. The whole text [PDF, 252 KB]

Theater and Virtual Reality by Josephine Anstey, University at Buffalo - I started working with VR in 1995, and have always considered it a theatrical medium. I studied at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which developed the CAVE VR system. In the earliest papers describing this system, it was referred to as a Virtual Theater [4]. Virtual Reality is now a term used to describe many virtual spaces, such as on-line worlds and multi-user games. But today I am using the term to describe a more elaborate system that is designed to support the user’s senses more fully. The CAVE and Head Mounted VR systems typically support stereo vision and are designed to completely immerse the user in 3D graphics. Tracking technology is necessary to allow the system to draw the graphics from the user’s POV, and also to allow the user to impact the world more directly. The user can reach out and virtually touch, grab, pull, or hit objects in the world.

I was initially interested in Virtual Reality as a site for dramatic first-person experience. I envisioned an intimate theater for one person, who would act as a protagonist in her own drama. Later I became involved with creating and staging networked VR events, and I became interested in the potential for creating performances in shared virtual environments. More recently I have also become interested in mixing the virtual and the real, in mixed reality and mixed media environments, and in playing with the relationship between live and virtual performers and performances. Today I will talk about my work with networked VR, mixed reality and mixed media. The whole text [PDF, 64 KB]

The Jew of Malta: Interactive Generated Stage and Dynamic Costume Design by Christina Finger, büro+staubach, Germany - We are a design studio located in Berlin. Our main fields of activity are furniture and transportation design as well as designing hardware interfaces for multimedia applications. When we were approached with a theatre project we were fascinated by the idea of using interactive media in a theatre context. In this context, I’d like to present our project, the interactive stage and the dynamic costume design for “Marlowe: the Jew of Malta”, a contemporary opera by the composer André Werner.

In 1996 André Werner was commissioned by the Munich Biennale Festival, a festival for modern music theatre, to compose a contemporary opera. The opera premiered in 2002. It’s based on the play “The Famous tragedy of the rich Jew of Malta”, written by Christopher Marlowe in 1596. The Jew of Malta unfolds as a story of expropriation, revenge and death of the Jewish merchant Barabas set in a power struggle between representatives of three world religions.

From the very beginning, before writing the first note or the first line of the libretto André Werner got in touch with us to think about a virtual stage environment. Very early a team was formed taking care of the direction, the stage design, the media concept and the programming. The task was to create an interactive stage and dynamic costume design in close co-operation with the composer during the process of writing. It was clear from the outset, that the aim was not to create a high-tech spectacular on stage but to extend the options of the traditional stage and costume design.

The composer rewrote the drama for the libretto. He broke the chronological storyline and used only fragments of the original text. Although in Marlowe’s play Machiavel only appears in the prologue, André Werner made him the central figure of his opera.

Machiavel considers himself a creator of worlds. In the opera he sets up experiments like improvised plays-within-a play. He directs his experiments, which mainly deal with the acquisition of power. Machiavel controls the scenery. He interferes with or stops his experiments, to initiate a new setting, like starting a new program. His power is also expressed by distributing the 15 roles among the other four actors on stage – though technically this process is predefined. In the course of the opera he ultimately loses control and fails in his own game. The whole text [PDF, 628 KB]