UrbanDig Project explores teleconferencing as an interactive narrative medium
On May 29-31, UrbanDig Project (www.urbandigproject.org) coordinated a free-entry online three-day workshop on co-designing narrative performances
How can the art of storytelling take advantage of the interaction, self-direction and the varying degrees of privacy that teleconferencing provides in a show? Is there anything in teleconferencing that inspires performing artists? With the physical presence absent, what new opportunities for "meeting" with the public are there in teleconference?
We invited storytellers and live-artists to explore how performing arts can take advantage of the possibilities of teleconferencing and internet interaction. The invitation had a special result: 22 participants from different parts of Greece as well as 1 from Australia, met, co-created and collaborated for 3 days and thus four groups were formed, each of which came up with an idea. Some of the participants are already developing these ideas , having a symbolic financial support from the UrbanDig Project.
By coordinating the workshop, we facilitate a group research process that Ohi Pezoume / UrbanDig Project is carrying out since the start of the lock-down. Having already worked in the relationship between dance and the internet, we now bring speech to the fore. Through the coordination and organization of the action we found the artists' willingness to research and experiment on the part of the performing arts and storytelling through tele-conference, this form of communication that has occupied us so much the last couple of months, when our live meetings stopped so suddenly.
The coordinators of the workshop - Eirini Alexiou, Odysseas Velentzas and George Sachinis - say of this overall endeavor: "Last May, looking for new directions for a live show in the middle of a pandemic, we uploaded" Eurydice ", a dance live-art performance specifically for individual teleconferencing, and organized a three-day e-workshop on co-designing narratives through teleconferencing. . (…) We feel full of what we exchanged with the artists for the obstacles and the possibilities that the medium brings to the living performing art. We are also impressed by the first tests designed collectively The availability of all artists regardless of age, experience and familiarity for collective research and practical testing, rejuvenated us to continue to explore the question with subsequent actions. We have secured for the artists that they will be involved a symbolic production support. This support came from FEST Network and the EU's Creative Europe program, as we were told a few days before the workshop. ''
THE PROJECT TEAM
Laboratory coordination
Eirini Alexiou: Co-founder of Ohi Pezoume / UrbanDig Project, choreographer, dancer, live-artist, yoga instructor and graduate of Theatre Studies in University Of Athens. The award-winning live-art "Eurydice" which co-created with Katerina Kokkinos Kennedy was offered for free during the lock-down and until the end of May in a teleconference version.
Odysseas Velentzas BEcon, MSc in Organizational Behavior: He has worked as a leadership trainer and facilitator. He has offered his services to international organizations, the European Commission, Greece and abroad. Methodologies he applies are: Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry, Circle Practice, Collective Mind Map, etc.
George Sachinis: Co-founder of Ohi Pezoume / UrbanDig Project, director and civil engineer. He actively participates in the coordination of most of the participatory processes of research and implementation of artistic and cultural activities in neighborhoods (Neos Kosmos, Omonia, Strefi, Kypseli, Delphi, Corinth, Hadrian, etc.) of the group.
Production Management- Communication :
Maria Logiotatidou- Matina Magkou- Nadia Siokou
Coordination and management of Digital Live Art platform
Maria Logiotatidou
Graphics - Visual Material:
Nadia Siokou
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email: contact@urbandigproject.org
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Digital-Live-Art-UrbanDig-Project-103247121366072/
The workshop was selected to be supported by the Federation for European Storyteling (https://fest-network.eu/) and is co-funded by the EU under the Creative Europe program.
