Conference Puppets and Technology

As part of the Gaudeamus Theatrum International Meeting of Performing Arts Students, Drak Theatre is organizing its fifth public conference, this time focusing on Puppets and Technology. How do new technologies influence contemporary puppetry? Where do traditional animation principles meet cameras, artificial intelligence, or robotics? What space remains for the physical presence of the puppet in the digital age? From live cinema and multimedia approaches to questions of artificial intelligence and robotic performers. Where do the boundaries between theatre production, installation, and performance lie? When does technology cease to be a mere tool and become an active creative partner? The conference will offer inspiring examples from practice, and provide a space to discuss the possibilities and limits of technology in contemporary theatre.

Gaudeamus Theatrum 2025 is realized in cooperation with LOUTEX, a festival showcasing puppet theatre for adult audiences and Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre Academy od Performing Arts Prague.

Participation in the conference is free of charge. If you are interested, please REGISTER at this link no later than March 7, 2025.

The conference is simultaneously interpreted into Czech and English.

Block I – Puppeteers and Technology

Guests: Gavin Glover, Dominik Migač, Nafiseh Saadat, Jakub Maksymov

Gavin Glover: Micro Cinema Theatre – When Small Becomes BIG!

The role of live-feed video cameras in puppet theatre: How can the camera be used on stage to expand artistic and narrative possibilities? Gavin Glover, director, stage designer, and puppeteer, explores this question through his own experience – from his work with the renowned theatre group Faulty Optic (1988-2011) to his current collaborations with a wide range of theatre and visual artists. How can this technology be integrated into theatre, and where are its limits? Is the camera a collaborator or an intruder in the sacred space of theatre?

Gavin Glover specializes in contemporary puppetry and micro-cinema techniques. Inspired by absurdist storytellers such as Kafka, Lynch, and Beckett, his work has always been on the mysterious edge of puppet theatre – first with cult theatre group Faulty Optic and now through his short films, which have received acclaim from The Guardian, BBC Front Row, and The Stage. He currently works in Glasgow and Krakow.

Dominik Migač: When (Not) to Use Technology in Theatre

A reflection on how theatre can remain humble in an age of virtual realities, robotics, projections, video games, interactive elements, etc.; not to remain traditional, but to still exploit its strengths over other media. Examples of his projects, examples of artists who have succeeded, and examples of productions where they have failed. Why puppet theatre is inseparable from multimedia. An attempt to probe into how he thinks about theatre. An attempt to spark discussion and a fight.

Dominik Migač is a playwright, stage designer, and puppeteer. He graduated from the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre at DAMU. He focuses on creating theatrical microworlds and animating miniature puppets, often using multimedia and technology for his work. Examples of his work include Micro Sputnik (2016), a production for one audience member, and Prefaby (2019) an exploration of the prefabricated housing phenomenon, for which he won the Divadelní Noviny Award for Best Puppet Production.

Nafiseh Saadat: From Super-Puppet to Robotic Actor – New Perspectives on Theatre Material in the AI Era

At the beginning of the 20th century, renowned actor, director, and stage designer Edward Gordon Craig made the radical statement that theatre needed a superior material – something more than human actors or traditional puppets. Just as painting works with colours, and music employs sounds, theatre, he argued, requires a non-naturalistic, controlled medium to achieve true artistic innovation. In the 21st century, the arrival of robots on the stage brings a new theatrical model. As artificial constructs created by humans, robots offer a unique stage presence that can transcend the limits of human actors. Unlike actors, robots are not subject to physical fatigue, emotional instability, or subjective interpretation. Yet, their use opens up fundamental questions: do they bring real innovation, or are they merely a programmed extension of human intent? How does their interaction with the audience redefine our understanding of acting?

Nafiseh Saadat is an interdisciplinary artist, puppeteer, writer, and director with a Master’s degree in Theatre from the University of Tehran. She has worked in puppetry, visual arts, and performance for 18 years, creating and directing innovative works under the name Saba Saadat. She has worked at leading Iranian universities, but after restrictions on academic freedoms, she has refocused on independent artistic research. In 2023, she founded Tree of Life, an independent art institute. In her work, including her publication Robotic Theater: An Introduction to Actor’s Death on the Stage of the 21st Century (2021), she explores the intersections of theatre, technology, and philosophy. Her current projects focus on uncanny valley theory in performance and robotic puppetry, pushing the boundaries of traditional theatre. For more information about her work, see https://sites.google.com/view/sabasaadat.

Jakub Maksymov: Experiencing Matter

Puppet theatre is an inherently synthetic theatre form – a live actor and an inanimate puppet together form one character. Quite naturally, this system can interact with other theatrical components and various modern technologies. The current tendencies of puppet theatre aim to deepen the perception of the materiality of the puppet – not just as a sign, but as a tangible object with its own physicality. In an age of visual oversaturation, the puppet is literally becoming a fetish; modern technology is one of the tools to bring the viewer closer to the very material essence of the puppet: through the eye of the camera, the diaphragm of the microphone… How can technology mediate the haptic experience of the puppet in theatrical form?

Jakub Maksymov graduated from the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre at the DAMU and is particularly interested in puppet theatre in combination with various technologies and non-traditional forms. He has directed in Slovakia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Slovenia and Germany. His puppet cinema productions include Chronoskřiatkovia (Bratislava Puppet Theatre) and Kubik (Kindertheater Fraunhofer Munich). He used the principles of sonic work in the production Na vukovom tragu (Pozorište Mladih, Novi Sad, Serbia). He worked with physical experiments in Tesla (Komedie Theatre, Prague). Parallelly, he explores the possibilities of communicating with the viewer outside the field of linear narrative. A for Antarctica (Puppet Theatre Žilina, Slovakia) is a theatrical lexicon, Komodo (Kladno Lampion Theatre) works on the principle of interactive play. He was awarded Talent of the Year 2020 in the Theatre Critics Awards. From 2018 to 2021 he was the core director of Lampion Theatre, and in 2023 he became the artistic director of the Puppet Theatre Ostrava.

Block II – Between Theatre, Performance and Installation

Guests: Maryia Kamarova, Tomáš Procházka, Apolena Vanišová

Maryia Kamarova: Autonomous Objects – Material Dances and Technology Performances

When I work, I constantly alternate the roles of creator, performer, and facilitator of performance material. Looking at artistic practice from a posthumanist perspective, non-human actors – including space, time, tools, and technology – play an active role in performance. How (and whether) can we set up conditions so that the material acts independently? How does the material dance, and when does it become a partner in collaboration? In my talk, I will discuss material agency, autonomous objects, and hacking as a strategy for the emancipation of machines/tools. In particular, I will focus on examples from sound art, installation, and contemporary theatre.

Maryia Kamarova is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of performance, stage design, sound art, and installation. She works with objects, DIY electronics; she is currently exploring the materiality of sound with a specific focus on the aesthetics and politics of technology. Maryia is one of the founders of di.pole and the PYL art collective. She graduated from the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre (DAMU, Prague, 2023), having experienced numerous internships in Expanded Scenography (HKU, Utrecht, 2022), and Sound Art (Overtoon, Brussels, 2019-2020; Sonoscopia, Porto and Institute of Ethnomusicology in Aveiro, 2023).

Tomáš Procházka: Technology Memory and Applied Media Archaeology

Technology is a fundamental source of inspiration in the work of the Handa Gote research & development group. This group has been working since 2005 at the intersection of theatre, contemporary dance, visual art, music, performance, and conceptual art. The group is interested in the concept of post-dramatic and post-spectacular theatre, non-linear modes of storytelling, and the application of contemporary music and visual art experience in theatre. Their work utilizes technology in creative ways, both old and cutting-edge.

Tomáš Procházka is a puppeteer, puppet animator, actor, director, musician, and sound experimenter. He studied acting at KALD DAMU. He has worked in the theatre troupes Derevo, or Buchty a loutky. Since 2005 he has been a member of the artistic group Handa Gote. As a director, he has worked with Lampion Theatre, Alfa Theatre, Ponec Theatre, Buchty a loutky, VerTeDance, etc. He is currently a teacher at KALD DAMU, and the artistic director of the Alfred ve dvoře Theatre.

Apolena Vanišová: Technology between Installation and Theatre

I am exploring the theatrical possibilities of electro-mechanical object performance. Whether it is the computer-controlled scenic object called Kračun or the project Zákon řady (The Law of the Series), in which four human actors meet fifty-five robotic balls on stage. I am interested in the process that combines inanimate material, technological skill, and individual spectatorial experience with the need to create associative or rational meanings. In my performative installations, in which the viewer enters actually, while the performer enters distantly, I then observe how the public blurs into the private and the near into the distant in this expanded space. In general, I am interested in the contact between creators and spectators, and the moment of emergence and disappearance of theatrical communication in technologically oriented projects existing at the intersection of visual art and theatre.

Apolena Vanišová is a theatre director, founder and curator of the artodo art lab, active member of the Mamatata community project, and mother of three children. In her projects she focuses on visual language and its symbolism, she does not look for drama in the situation, but in the arrangement and layering of scenic images and stage actions. She works with different types of objects, which she composes, decomposes, and transforms during the action in its material meaning or on a metaphorical level. She regularly directs at MeetFactory theatre and frequently realizes her installation projects at Studio Hrdinů. Under the guidance of Professor Karel Makonje, she studied directing at KALD DAMU, where she has been completing her PhD.