The Performance Engine will be presented in Studio T on Friday 27th from 7 pm till 9 pm. We will focus on the possibilities of the Performance Engine as a technological memory machine. The Performance Engine (developed by Joris Weijdom and his team) is a system of hard- and software that enables theatre practitioners to improvise with interactive digital media. In several laboratory settings (LAB’S) practitioners have experimented with this setup and used the experience in their work. Currently, Weijdom’s research group at the Utrecht School for the Arts is working on the next phase of implementing so-called Mixed Reality techniques into the context of theatre and performance.
By Joris Weijdom in collaboration with Jochem Naafs, Ferdy Guliker and Roderick Gadellaa.

For more information download the program on psi17.org (.pdf) and visit the website of the research group: augmentedstage.com.

From Wednesday 25th till Saturday 28th Danslab and BIT will work on Hypermap, a research in which they will try and remember, combine and forget the (exchange of) (embodied) knowledge during the conference. We will use the concept of Ola Maciejewska’s performance unforgettable existents to absorb, document, exchange and archive this knowledge. Last Sunday we had a try-out at Theater Zeebelt in The Hague during a conference on the future of graphic design and from Wednesday onwards we will pop-up at various location in the city of Utrecht. In CBKU we will build an archive of the memories and experiences of the conference.
By Diane Elshout, Bruno Listopad, Giulia Mureddu, Ola Maciejewska, Jochem Naafs, Jette Schneider and Eric Schrijver.

For more information download the program on psi17.org (.pdf) and visit the website: hypermap.bit-dansdramaturgie.nl.

The opening day of Springdance & performance festival: It is hot, tight and rather oppressive in the narrow and long hallway of the Centraal Museum. Journalists, dancers, choreographers and others are waiting for the opening of Choreographic Objects by William Forsythe. There’s hardly any space to move so I start to feel like an object myself. I’m being moved by others; someone tells me to remove my bag, and yet someone else pushes me aside gently to get by.

Finally Bettina Masuch takes the microphone and opens with a rather short and brief speech the installation and the 25th edition of Springdance. She urges us to get involved and Forsythe himself stresses to put on the vests which read a short mirrored text. So there we go! To the mirrors, to see how we can manage to rearrange these mirrors in such a way that we can actually read what is written on our back.

But the fun is cruelly interrupted by the voice of Forsythe begging us not to move the mirrors because they were carefully ordered so we could not see ourselves, not even to mention the 14 hours of polishing that went into the work. I felt like a small child whose toys are taken away. I took off the vest and in a sulk I turned my back on the mirrors walking out into the sun. Only to slip back in again seconds later, to take a peek at the other pieces.

De conferentie is opgdeeld in vier secties: paradigma verschuivingen, methoden, esthetiek en politiek. Naast lezingen en discussies zijn er in Frascati ook diverse voorstellingen en installaties te zien:

De installatie Anamorphose van Ibrahim Quraisi, Nothing can surprise us van Andrea Bozic en Julia Willms, Little red (play): herstory van het internationale gezelschap andcompany&Co en The art of flipbook (Daumenkinographie) van Volker Gerling.