Hybrid & virtual theatre
Bloggers (2010)
studio.POC, in collaboration with fABULEUS and Jonge Harten Festival, searches for the border between a real and a virtual life, and for the interchangeability of identities.
Six young people - 3 from Flanders and 3 from the Netherlands - each created their own character and kept a fictitious video blog on YouTube for several months. From these diaries a performance was made about the beauty and emptiness of YouTube, the loneliness of the blogger and the comfort of the network. 6 young people with ideals, dreams and frustrations, looking for hits....
This production was a short term project and played at Jonge Harten Festival, Groningen (2010) and at OPEK, Leuven (2011).
Kroes (2010)
To illustrate the long-term experience with virtual spaces, we mention the theater production Kroes, in which children can go on an adventurous boat trip as a sailor. With the stories of Jules Verne as an inspiration source, they make a journey on a ship without a captain.
Kroes is a mixture of theater and an interactive video game. The children steer the ship themselves, determine the route, pick up objects along the way and operate all kinds of on-board instruments. This creates a collective virtual reality experience that is guided by the choices of the young sailors.
The virtual environment was created in the game engine Unity 3D (the first ever theater production to use it) and arose from a search to bring an audience as deeply into immersion as possible.
IPEX (2008)
Two people in their own cave of Plato. Escape is only possible in their heads. With a careful interplay between theater, dance, sound and image projection, studio.POC puts the spectator to the test. The boundaries between reality and virtuality blurs. Can you still believe what you see?
Concept: Kristof Timmerman I Sounddesign: Wannes Deneer I Lighting: Koen De Saeger I Dance and choreography: Laure Dever and Manon Avermaete I Actors: Iris Oosters and Tanja Zabarylo. With support of kc nOna & the Flemish government.
IPEX played at the Bâtard Festival (Brussels), Monty (Antwerp) and Jonge Harten Festival (Groningen) ao.
