QUALIA

Philip Wölk & Moshe Linke
Wednesday May 13, 20:30 — Kuppelhalle

Qualia combines different new-media practices and perspectives, rethinking how realtime simulations can intersect with live music performance. The result guides the audience on a pilgrimage into the inner world of an organism, an agent revealing its hidden systems, symbols and hierarchies raising the question: what is it like? The characteristics of mental states are often described to carry an explanatory gap in which we struggle to tell about experiences to others. This ontological shock cannot be communicated, or apprehended by any means other than direct experience. Simulating empathy in this, is an attempt to directly understand and relate to the qualia of another's experience, bridging the gap between multiple, separate inner worlds.

Moshe Linke is an artist and experimental game developer who utilizes real-time media and game engines as a medium. His primary interests include architecture as a guiding principle for level design, solipsism, sonder, isolation and the ongoing importance of personal, author game projects in the landscape of contemporary art and communities within internet culture. Over the last decade, his work has been displayed in various venues and has been the topic of several magazines and publications.

Philip Wölk is a composer, sound designer, and audio artist working at the intersection of games and interactive media. His work combines textured, noise-based soundscapes, carefully layered compositions, and expressive foley to create immersive sonic experiences. Through an ever-evolving approach to synthesis, he explores the balance between chaos and harmony, revealing new perspectives within the subtle sonic details that often go unnoticed.

quantcept

alpha_rats
Wednesday May 13, 21:00 — Betonhalle

quantcept is a video-game performance where a call-center operator acts as a bridge between the audience and disembodied entities such as ghosts and corporations.

During the show, the audience can answer calls from the operator by entering the call-center booth on the side of the stage to answer statistical studies questionnaires. Some answers and questions trigger the appearance of Bebius avatars, each with their own mysterious agenda.

Developer and artist based in Marseille. Works across XR, interactive installation, VR, games, live AV and visual art.

REAL VAMPIRES CONCERT

Bjørn Svin — world premiere
Thursday May 14, 19:30 — Betonhalle

Are you folk or vampire?

A live concert by electronic composer Bjørn Svin. Based on his music for the game Real Vampires and 500 years of authentic accounts of vampirism, the work unfolds as an immersive musical and visual narrative, drawing on the game's elements and reshaping them into a new sonic experience.

The music moves between day and night, carrying shifts in mood, tension and perspective. The audience is invited into selected moments, entering the Real Vampires universe through simple, shared choices. A first public showing of an evolving format where music, story and play meet.

History is moving!

Bjørn Svin is a sound synthesist and sound designer who operates in the alternative/experimental field of rhythmic electronic music.

labRats

Nathan Leigh & Nicole Orabona (cirqueSaw)
Thursday May 14, 20:00 — Kuppelhalle

Despite all your rage, you are still just a rat in a cage. Luckily, you're also a rat who's been outfitted with a neural implant that allows you to communicate telepathically with the other rats in your cage. Maybe that'll help.

labRats is a digitally native interactive performance by the award-winning duo cirqueSaw. Pulling equally from classic games, silent films, and a generous helping of Lewis Carroll, the piece seeks to blur the line between reality and unreality, between wonder and horror. Audiences play as lab rats in an experiment beyond their control, who have to work together to take control of their lives. Whether they choose to escape, take over the lab, or deconstruct the fabric of the reality of their experience itself is entirely up to them.

cirqueSaw explores the intersection of live performance, film, and games, co-founded by partners Nathan Leigh and Nicole Orabona. They use a custom-built web platform to create remote, interactive experiences designed to foster community, accessibility, and audience agency. Their award-winning interactive pieces include labRats (A MAZE. / Berlin Nominee, IndieCade Winner, GDC ExGS, NarraScope Featured Showcase), You Have Already Won and POV: You Are An AI Achieving Consciousness (NoPro Immie Winner).

CLit BAiT

Gabe Darling (Robin Rutenberg) & Fleshpiece (Ruby-Kale)
Saturday May 16, 21:00 — Urban Spree (15 Year's Anniversary – Positive Chaos Party)

A stage jam packed with T7r4nS3Xu4Lz, puppets, pups, video gaymez, live music, krushing, things to make you sweat, wet, and teary-eyed; …Come laugh and recharge with us as worlds collide in a performance drag comedy special… Bring yourself in to take a ride through an immersive visual & emotional rollercoaster. A performance mash up of campy sets, late night shows, with a sesame street special. Gabe Darling (Robin Rutenberg) & Fleshpiece (Ruby-Kale) host a mash up of digital worlds, music, puppetry, physical comedy, interviews, talents and special guests. What happens when 90's trash TV, Pewee's Play House, Mr. Rogers, The Muppet Show and SNL make a baby… you get Clitbait!!!