Over the weekend of 15-17 October, audiences around the world can join online performances exploring the theme “mobilise/demoblise”.
The festival launches the new and improved UpStage platform, which has been pioneered since 2003 by Helen Varley Jamieson and Vicki Smith.
Click here for the programme
with time converters and live links to each stage at show time
Mobilise/Demobilise began as an artistic response to a world of increasing conflict, crisis and emergency, before Covid19 lockdowns and travel restrictions forced us to live more and more of our lives online. Now, issues of human mobility and the impact of mobile technologies have become even more urgent. The unsustainability and inequality of the old “normal” can no longer be ignored, and we must imagine a new way forward. Mobilise/Demobilise brings a critical and artistic perspective to the current crises.
Over the past year, artists in Germany, Austria, Sweden and New Zealand have researched the theme and learned to use the online platform UpStage for presenting live online events. Different thematic threads have emerged in each locations. In Austria, the artists’ collective Schaumbad Freies Atelierhaus Graz have asked the public what kind of a city they want, and how might the city look without cars. In Malmo, Sweden, Teater InterAkt is working with young skaters to understand their perspective on issues of mobility and the environment. And in Nelson, New Zealand, the tidal flooding of a carpark has become a metaphor for the relationship between human society and the natural environment.
Connecting and underscoring the performances are the universal concepts of loss and grief associated with climate change and societal upheaval that the world is experiencing. Opening and closing events will provide opportunities for audiences in Europe and around the world to reflect on and discuss the theme and concepts.
The performances will launch the newly “mobilised” version of UpStage, which now functions on mobile devices as well as desktop and laptop computers. Audiences click on a link and UpStage opens in a web browser; they can interact in real time via text chat and reaction emojis.
Mobilise/Demobilise is a Creative Europe funded collaboration between Teater Interakt (Sweden), Schaumbad – Freies Atelierhaus Graz (Austria) and UpStage@CCT (the Centre for the Cultivation of Technology, Germany).
Time converters and live links to the stage are available at www.mobilise-demobilise.eu.
About the Partners:
UpStage is an online platform for cyberformance (networked performance) and an international community of artists. The platform was first developed in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2003 and since then has hosted many online festivals, performances and events. www.upstage.org.nz
Teater Interakt is a documentary theatre company based in Malmö, Sweden, that works intensively with refugees, migrants and people in the asylum process. www.teaterinterakt.se
Schaumbad – Freies Atelierhaus Graz is a multi-disciplinary artists’ collective in Graz, Austria that organises festivals, events and intercultural exchanges. www.schaumbad.mur.at
The Center for the Cultivation of Technology acts as a host organisation for international free software projects, providing organisational infrastructure. www.techcultivation.org
