Postdramatic theatre in smart city design

Abstract

Theatre provides powerful ways to engage people in the development of visions for future interactions, yet theatre is seldom used beyond scenario acting in interaction design. In this workshop the participants are exposed to a novel understanding of theatre, called Postdramatic Theatre, which has emerged as an Avant-garde movement in theatre community to break free of traditional characteristics of theatre, especially the dramatic text, mimesis and the exclusion of the 'real' in a play. Inspired by Postdramatic Theatre we introduce three novel formats of engagement for smart city design: Multi-stakeholder Theatre, Field Study Theatre and Future Product Theatre. The use of these formats will be explored in the context of particular foci that will be developed in collaboration with the workshop participants. As the result the participants are expected to become sensitive to the differences of Dramatic and Postdramatic Theatre and have better readiness to conceive of the potential of Postdramatic Theatre for their own design practice and research.