Background and project content

In the projects "Wearable Theatre - The art of immersive Storytelling" and "Immersive Media Lab" researchers at St.Pölten UAS already have explored the narrative and dramatic potential of Extended Reality Technologies (XR). Building on the expertise acquired during these projects, we develop new digital theatre practices together with the Landestheater St.Pölten. The project comprises a sequence of experimental setups; each addressing specific dramaturgical questions in a technical framing and encouraging a dialogue between acting, directing and technology. On the one hand, the insights gained during this process are inspiration for concrete application scenarios and new aesthetic possibilities of expression that can be used in theatre practice. On the other hand, they form the foundation for a concrete theatre production based on "An Apartment on Uranus" by Paul B. Preciado (premiere in February 2023). In addition, the project helps to strengthen digital competences of the Landestheater St.Pölten on a broad level. 

Aim and target group

The project’s main target group are theatre professionals at the Landestheater St. Pölten.  A second target group – but more in an indirect way – are the visitors of the theatre. The main aim of the project is to explore the ways in which Extended Reality (XR) technologies can be integrated into the theatre and performance practises and the repertoire of the Landestheater. To accomplish this the FH. St. Pölten draws on its experience and expertise in the use of Extended Reality (XR) technology and seeks close cooperation with all people involved. One outcome of the project is a prototypical theatrical event. Another outcome are the knowledge accumulated and the prototypical ideas created. The whole process and its outcomes are documented and form the basis for establishing the developed techniques at the theatre.

Methodology

The project is framed as a laboratory setting and space, where two working areas meet (rehearsal stage Landestheater Niederösterreich and master class experimental media FH St. Pölten) and easily can enter into a dialogical exchange. On the part of the FH, the project is embedded in the ongoing artistic research of the master class, while the Landestheater takes main responsibility for translating the insights and ideas into a concrete theatre production. A series of workshops are held at the UAS with the aim of bringing the work on text and content in alignment with the possibilities that technologies like motion capturing and virtual and augmented reality offer. In other words, actors, dramaturgists and those responsible for the technology of the Landestheater closely collaborate with the master class Experimental Media of the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten. They transfer and integrate art practices "of the digital world" into the current theatre practice in a common effort. In this way, the theatre breaks new ground and opens up to an audience, who already came into touch with different forms of digital art in other contexts. After the premiere of a prototypical theatre event, the reactions of the audience and the participants are recorded to make the success measurable.

Results

Since ancient times theatre performances bring social issues into the spotlight. The current project takes Paul B. Preciado's "Apartment on Uranus" as a starting point to explore gender identity on stage with the help of digital methods. Corporeality is made visible in its digital contingency, as well as utopias of new corporealities are exhibited by artificially generated bodies such as the "avatar"(a digital representation of a body). The main results of the project are the successful technical and content-related implementation of XR technologies in the production process of the Landestheater St. Pölten and a concrete theatre event that makes use of these newly developed methods.