“Theater & Digital Media” is debuting as a focal-point topic at Ars Electronica this year, September 7-11.

Theater, for many an epitome of analog, strictly human-based art, has on the other hand always been a forerunner in the exploration of technologies for new forms of storytelling and stage performance. With digital and interactive media and the huge social and cultural impact of social media, a whole new chapter of overlapping interests between performance arts and media arts has been opened which goes far beyond video or projection mapping for the stage design. The latest hype of virtual and augmented reality has not only brought a new generation of gadgets for computer gamers but also caught the attention of people from the theater, and new artistic forms are being developed focusing on the narrative and performative potential of this medium.
This interest is reciprocal, because the technical-design challenges that come with the increasing social dimension of new technologies (social robots, digital assistants, chatbots, autonomous machines and systems, machine learning and AI) could also benefit a great deal from the expertise of theater. An exciting number of ongoing initiatives is focusing on these potentials, and no longer only independent and experimental theater groups but also many of the big theaters and opera houses are involved in it. In collaboration with the European Theatre Convention (ETC), Ars Electronica is hosting a special program to deepen the reciprocal exchange of practical experience about the work on the intersection of digital media and theater.
Apart from various performances, VR projects, and experiments in storytelling and social interaction, the new format “Digital Theatre Meeting” explores the matter in presentations and working sessions on Sunday, 10 September 2017 from 12.00 – 15.30. Speakers include Kay Voges (Dortmund), Uwe Rieger and Carol Brown (Auckland) and Thomas Jelinek (Vienna).