As one of the project partners, MIREVI is responsible for the co-conception and technical implementation, as well as provision of technical resources.

The project builds on the premise that collaborative communication between actors and audience is non-negotiable. Therefore, the central starting point for our research into technological extensions is that theater must continue to be experienced as a live medium. The theater as a place of collective encounter should always remain a prerequisite. For this reason, the question of whether or to what extent the collective and co-presence-based event of theater could be robbed of its communicative substance through the use of digital technologies is continuously reflected upon.

We support our project partners in investigating how it might be possible to fully transform media theater into reality theater: What happens when theater attempts to reach beyond the usual stage formats and tries out forms that no longer allow us to distinguish whether theater is staging reality or reality is staging theater? The technological possibilities are thereby being adapted to aesthetic and dramaturgical requirements and integrated into theater productions in a sustainable way.

The theoretical starting point for the systematic research and testing of virtual technologies in theater practice is the established reality-virtuality continuum according to Milgram/Kishino. The continuum makes it clear that all forms of reality, each more or less mediated, are fundamentally to be understood as flowing into one another. Along this continuum, various possibilities for integrating mixed reality technologies will be tested and implemented over the course of the project.

Project partners are:

We would like to thank our sponsors for their support of the research project: Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia within the framework of NEUE WEGE in cooperation with the NRW KULTURsekretariat.