Digital Lab #2 was the second edition of a research project by Hebbel am Ufer / HAU4, Berlin. The research process started with an inspirational „Online Hack Space“ for five resident artistic collectives from March 30th – April 2nd. I was invited to curate and design a program supporting the collectives to start their work on „artistic participatory strategies for digital and hybrid spaces“.
Together with a group of international artists and researchers who have been working in digital arts and performance, we discussed the sustainability of our digital performance practice on two levels: What kinds of encounters, approaches, interaction and participation do virtual and hybrid spaces allow? And how can we implement projects in a socially and ecologically responsible way? Together, we aim to determine which themes, forms and ways of working are important for independent contemporary, digital performance arts, beyond the pandemic and in the long term.
During the Online Hack Space, we received input on digital interactive artistic practice, exchanged ideas with each other and, in various workshops, further developed the ideas the collectives had proposed in their applications. At the end of the five-day event, the participants presented their concepts, after which a jury selected two teams for a subsequent residency.
30.3., 18:00 / HAU4
Digital Lab #2 Opening: (Annemie Vanackere, Anna Krauß, Jeanne Charlotte Vogt, Sarah Reimann)
Inspiration: Judith Ackermann
Inspiration: Darsha Hewitt
Judith Ackermann is a professor of digital and networked media in social work in Potsdam, focussing on digital theatre and post-digital artistic practice. In the Hack Space, she will share exciting examples of how digital artistic spaces and formats can be made more inclusive and participatory. She is also known as @dieprofessor on TikTok, discovering the performative qualities of social media herself.
Canadian media and sound artist Darsha Hewitt lives and works in Berlin. In her work of “media archaeology”, she investigates the hidden power structures and ethical dimensions of technologies. Under the title “HOW TO BEAM: Do-It-Yourself Teleportation for Hybrid Times”, Hewitt is currently researching the changing meaning of personal presence in times of increasingly online encounters. As part of the Hack Space, she will share artistic methods and low-tech solutions for breaking down barriers and reinventing individuality and presence in hybrid worlds.
31.3., 18:00 / HAU4
Inspiration: Lauren Lee McCarthy
Inspirations: Marion Siéfert + allapopp and Janne Kummer aka.alaska
Media artist Lauren Lee McCarthy also experiments with special forms of co-presence. In her performances, she creates intimate spaces of encounter in which she lets her audience take on the role of service-oriented artificial intelligence or in which she offers individual mini Zoom sessions to take time to appreciate each other. In her talk, McCarthy will show specific conditions for building relationships with the audience and for intimacy and encounter, which go hand in hand with online spaces.
Afterwards, theatre maker Marion Siéfert and artists allapopp and Janne Kummer aka.alaska will present two projects that use online space to build a community.
With “_jeanne_dark_”, Marion Siéfert uses Instagram as a digital stage in hybrid performance configurations. Her character Jeanne is a 16-year-old who uses Instagram Reels as both a mirror and a resonance chamber to escape her Catholic family and the bullying of her classmates while seeking support from her online audience and followers.
The project “The House of Monstress Intelligenzia” by Janne Kummer aka.alaska, alla.popp, Luna Nane & Portrait XO explores the much criticised, structurally discriminatory foundations of artificial intelligence. Following the almost forgotten utopian promise that the net can be a space for a constructive counterculture, they use social media platforms as a medium for collective, artistic and speculative thinking, exploring a queer-feminist dimension of AI.
30.–3.4. / Gather.Town (internal)
Internal programme for the five groups selected by the jury
During the Online Hack Space, five groups will receive inspiration on digital participatory art, exchange ideas with each other and, in various workshops, further develop the ideas presented in their Online Hack Space applications.
The practical inspiration will come in the form of talks and presentations by different artists.
On Thursday, allapopp and Janne Kummer aka.alaska will start by working with the groups in preparing their skills for others in How-To’s for applying our knowledge.
On Friday, Christiane Hütter will share various strategies and methods, such as those from the fields of gaming and user experience design, showing us how they can help us rethink theatre practice. She will also discusses the nuances of being a host in online spaces. Finally, media artist Kasia Molga shares her methods for playfully engaging with audiences and raising awareness on issues of resource use and environmental sustainability.
Saturday will be spent finalising the concept sketch and preparing the presentation – and an informal closing evening with a walk through forgotten virtual worlds and a listening session.
During the Hack Space, the groups are supported by mentors and artists from the collective dgtl fmsnm. Over the course of the event, they will help deal with the participants‘ and the Hack Space’s content-related issues while providing advice and critical feedback.
Jury: Dirk Sorge, Luna Nane, Piko / Ithea Koch, Vanessa A. Opoku, HAU Hebbel am Ufer / Curation & Moderation (Online Hack Space): Jeanne Charlotte Vogt / Curation HAU4: Sarah Reimann / Creative Producer: Anna Krauß / Impulses: Judith Ackermann, Darsha Hewitt, Lauren Lee Mc Carthy, Marion Siéfert, allapopp & Janne Kummer aka.alaska / Mentors (Online Hack Space and residencies): dgtl fmnsm / Design & technical implementation Gather.Town (Online Hack Space): Gloria Schulz, Julian Kamphausen, Ái-Như Võ / Production support: Lisa Ahrens / Stage Manager: Andrea Schöneich / Technical Production: Jin-ah Kim / Stage: Mohammed Naseri, Celina Bodlee / Light: Fabian Boldt, Marc Zeuske / Sound: Thorsten Hoppe / Video: Fine Freiberg, Janine Müller
Production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded by: Kulturstiftung des Bundes as part of dive.in. Programm für digitale Interaktionen.