25 Jan 2018, 1 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.
DOCK 11
Kastanienallee 79
10435 Berlin

What moves you? How does playfulness affect knowing? How do you use the virtual space in everyday life? Is there a virtual space, which is not technological? What do techniques of the body share in common with technology? How do ideas emerge? Are there possible limits for imagination? How does imagination affect and constitute the actual world? Can technology extend human qualities? What makes dancers mediators of imageries?

These questions both lead and were developed in the project Playing with Virtual Realities. Playing with Virtual Realities stages dancers as gamers in VR. We explore how VR-technology and the embodied practices of gaming and dancing enact and design imagination and perceptual experience. 
The creation is a result of an interdisciplinary labor. It is a mutual intervention of dancing, gaming, VR design, philosophy of technology, embodied philosophies of perception, and performance philosophy. In the process we start to notice the emergence of ideas as joint-imagination. Technology, games, dancers, researchers, and experience-designers share their curiosities, expertise, and opinions in playful and joyful manners. We find that although technology may offer a concrete image to follow, human imagination never ceases. We also become aware to the benefit of playfulness within all media and to the influence of virtual realm on actual discoveries within all disciplines. 

Project director: Einav Katan-Schmid
Creative team: Christian Stein, Sabiha Ghellal, Ramona Mosse, Thomas Lilge.
Dance: Nitsan Margaliot, Lisanne Goodhue
Technical assistance: Meik Ramey, Nobert Schröck
Photo: Alexander Katan-Schmid

Playing with Virtual Realities has been realized by Image Knowledge Gestaltung, Cluster of Excellence of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project takes place in the research group gamelab.berlin, in collaboration with Institut für Games, Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart, and Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. The project is in association with the international network Performance Philosophy. We are grateful for the support of Mo.Ré; a collective for movement research.

Symposium, 25 Jan 2018, 1 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.

The symposium brings together key researchers from the disciplines of dance and theatre studies, performance philosophy, VR, game design, cultural studies, and philosophy of technology into discussions.

Our topics for consideration are:
• The relationship between quality of performance and immersion within all disciplines
• The challenges of technology and techniques in assisting immersive performances 
• Aspects of interdisciplinary research
• The role dance and gaming may have in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations 
• The relationship between imagination and embodied sensitivity
• The mutual effect of virtual realms and the actual world

The panels include demonstrations of the dancers in VR.

 
13:00
Opening

13:30-15:30
Panel 1: Immersion and performance
Moderation: 
Tom Lilge, Philosophy and Theatre Studies, gamelab.berlin 
Panelists:
Melissa Blanco Borelli, Senior Lecturer in Dance, Department of Drama, Theatre & Dance, Royal Holloway University of London, 2017-18 Fellow at International Research Center, "Interweaving Performance Cultures," Freie Universitat Berlin 
Sabiha Ghellal, Professor for Experience & Game Design, Hochschule der Medien, University of Applied Science, Stuttgart. 
Friedrich Kirschner, Professor für digitale Medien, Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch.
Ruthie Abeliovich, The Theatre Department, The School of Arts, Haifa University.

16:15-18:15
Panel 2: Interdisciplinary Research
Moderation: 
Christian Stein, Computer Science and Linguistics, gamelab.berlin
Panelists:
Janice Ross, Professor at the department of Theatre and Performance Studies Stanford University, 2018 Faculty-In-Residence at Stanford’s Berlin Center.
Wolfgang Schäffner, Director of Cluster of Excellence “Image Knowledge Gestaltung”, Professor for the Cultural History of Knowledge, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Scott DeLahunta, Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University (UK) Deakin Motion.Lab, Deakin University (AUS), co-director of MotionBank, Hochschule Mainz University of Applied Sciences. 
Thorsten S. Wiedemann, Founder and Director, A MAZE. GmbH; Games, Playful Media and Other Realities

18:45-20:45
Panel 3: Virtual and Actual Worlds
Moderation: 
Einav Katan-Schmid, Philosophy and Dance Practice, gamelab.berlin
Panelists:
Gabriele Brandstetter, Professor for Dance Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
Ramona Mosse, Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Core Convener Performance Philosophy
Sara Lisa Vogl, VR Shaman for longterm VR experiences, VR Base.
Alice Lagaay, Interim Professor of Aesthetics and Cultural Philosophy at Hamburg University of Applied Science. Core Convener, Performance Philosophy.

Symposium: Free Entrance. Limited places. For registration please write: playing.vr.dance@gmail.com