IMPACTS AND THE SCOPE OF CONTEMPORARY IMMERSIVE PRACTICES
Concept and moderation: Irena Ristić (Faculty of Dramatic Arts / Hop.La! Belgrade)
Discussion participants: Adam Alston, researcher and lecturer (University of Surrey, Guildford, Great Britain); Rose Biggin, author and theorist (London, Great Britain); Luciana Lara, author and researcher (Anti Status Quo Companhia De Dança, Brasilia, Brazil); Milica Ivić, art theorist (Matrijaršija, Belgrade); Seppe Baeyens, theatre author and performer (Ultima Vez, Brussels).
Emerging as one of the outcomes of the system, at the turn of the century, are immersive theatre practices in search of all the opportunities offered by the “economy of experience”. Theatre is an art of relations, this is for certain: it is impossible to remove, let alone ignore the potentiality of relations that are produced during each and every performing act. The immersive experience in a collective that theatre participants can jointly create, even before they feel it or even awaken it fully, is, at the same time, an experience of collectivity as a whole. Of one collectivity. Of a new collectivity. Of a possible collectivity. Perhaps a temporary one at the beginning, but no less important or strong.
The participants in the discussion on the potential influence of contemporary performance practices are theorists and authors who in their work recognize different forms and outcomes of immersive processes, as well as their political implications. There will be discussion of participation, the direction of actions set in motion, certain turns and the hidden powers of theatre contemporaries.
*Commoning – Any organization that through the process of utilization and management of a given resource produces a community (commoners). The community manages the production and distribution of a common good, therefore it primarily strives to satisfy the needs of its members, without the motivation of achieving a profit in the market