AI and Digital Technologies in the Performing Arts

How AI and Digital Technologies Are Transforming the Performing Arts Market

Artificial intelligence and digital technologies open up new artistic, technical, and organisational possibilities for the performing arts: they are changing production processes, stage spaces, formats of mediation, and forms of audience participation. At the same time, they raise new questions – for example regarding rights and the future development of engagements. There is also uncertainty about which technologies are actually relevant for one’s own practice, which skills will be needed in the future, and how working methods as well as the artistic identity of theatre and dance might change.

With the industry impulse “AI and digital technologies in the performing arts”, we are creating a platform for one evening for theatre and dance professionals from Hamburg for discussion, exchange and networking. Practitioners from music theatre and gaming, as well as other intersections with the performing arts, are explicitly invited.

Together, we aim to contextualise current developments, make concrete applications visible, discuss opportunities and risks, and consider perspectives for a self-determined, creative and responsible use of digital technologies on and off stage.

Thanks to funding from the Department of Culture and Media, admission to this event—part of the "Branchenimpulse" series—is free (regular price: 10 euros).

Foto Credit: Ahmad Odeh/ Unsplash

Programme

Procedure

6:00 pm: Admission
6:00 p.m.: Welcome by Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft and the Association of Independent Performing Arts Hamburg e.V.
6:15 p.m.: Impulse: Benjamin Seuffert, Co-Head of the Digital Theatre division at Staatstheater Augsburg
6:40 p.m.: Impulse: Jörg Löwer, Association of German Opera and Dance Ensembles e.V.
7:00 pm: Break
7:15 pm: Insight into participatory dance performance: Fernanda Ortiz, Deep Deep Love
7:30 pm: Insight into performance: Verena Brakonier and Lois Bartel (Bartel/Behrmann/Brakonier/Kim collective), ZUHAUSE
7:45 p.m.: Insight into theatre production: Brenda Alaís and Christopher Weymann, Frequenzsprung
8:00 p.m.: Discussion, exchange, networking
8:30 p.m.: End

Speakers

Benjamin Seuffert

Benjamin Seuffert studied interactive media at Augsburg University of Applied Sciences with a focus on virtual reality in theatre. Since 2019/20, he has been contributing his expertise in computer science and art to digital theatre, with a focus on VR, 3D animation, game development and video. Since 2023, he has led the Digital Theatre team together with Lukas Joshua Baueregger. His work has been shown at Ars Electronica and the Bavarian Theatre Days, among others, and was awarded the Augsburg Media Prize in 2025. Photo credit: Benjamin Seuffert

Brenda Alaís

Brenda Alaís is a director and performer. In her work, she combines performance with multimedia theatre forms and develops interdisciplinary projects with a focus on decolonial and feminist perspectives. She has been living and working in Hamburg since 2021 and has worked at FUNDUS THEATER / Forschungstheater, LICHTHOF Theater, Ernst Deutsch Theater and Kampnagel, among others. Photo credit: Margaux Weiß

Christopher Weymann

Christopher Weymann (he/him) is a queer-feminist performer, computer scientist and theatre maker. At FUNDUS THEATER / Forschungstheater in Hamburg, he develops projects at the interface of society, science and art in co-creation with children. Under the motto "Everything that is binary must be hacked!", he designs participatory theatre and digital formats to deconstruct power structures. Photo credit: Margaux Weiß

Fernanda Ortiz

Fernanda Ortiz (she/her) is a freelance choreographer, dancer and dance mediator at the interface of dance and art in Germany and internationally. As an artist with an indigenous biography, she develops intersectional, decolonial and participatory works. Her focus is on dance as a space for transformation and on the connection between the body, technology and social issues such as identity, memory and futures. She works process-orientated in transdisciplinary settings between stage, museum and digital spaces. Her work has been shown at re:publica, documenta fifteen and Kampnagel, among others, and tours internationally. Photo Credit: Anja Beutler

Jörg Löwer

Jörg Löwer has worked as a musical performer and choreographer in ensuite and municipal theatre productions as well as for musical, drama and cruise formats. After working for fischerAppelt, theatrejobs.de and the GDBA (President 2013-2021), he has been working for the Association of German Opera and Dance Companies (VdO) since 2022. Photo credit: Pascal Schmidt

Lois Bartel and Verena Brakonier

The interdisciplinary artist collective BARTEL/BEHRMANN/BRAKONIER/KIM has been exploring intimacy and closeness in the age of artificial intelligence since 2024. Lois Bartel is a freelance performer and theatre maker at the interface of choreography and performance. She studied acting in Bern and performance studies in Hamburg. Verena Brakonier is a dancer and choreographer based in Hamburg. In her artistic work, she combines dance, activism and an examination of classism. Photo Credit: Jonas Woltemate

Cooperation partners

Contact persons

Dr Susanne Eigenmann
Project Manager Consulting & Training, Knowledge Manager Cross Innovation Hub
040 2372435-54
Susanne.Eigenmann@kreativgesellschaft.org
Kurzbiografie
Marie Weinreich
Event organiser
040 2372435-89
Marie.Weinreich@kreativgesellschaft.org
Kurzbiografie

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