CORRECTION: This post originally incorrectly had the THATCamp Performing Arts dates as the 19th and 20th. The correct dates are the 20th and 21st as noted below.
This June 20 and 21, the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center will be host to the inaugural THATCamp Performing Arts. As part of MESTC’s continued mission to bridge the gap between the scholarly and practical worlds of theatre, especially in New York, this gathering will bring together the many people who are either studying or using digital technology in the performing arts. Academics and practitioners are using digital technology to great effect to expand the horizons of performing arts, whether through innovations in stagecraft and performance technique or through the use of data visualizations and digital technology to research and archive performance history. Too often though the work of theatre and performance artists and academics happen in isolation and with little conversation about how they can help one another better grapple with the condition of contemporary performance. THATCamp Performing Arts will help to close that gap by bringing together scholars and artists from around the city and hopefully across the country and even around the world to talk informally about how technology can help in the creation and study of theatre, as well as play a role in bringing those scholars and artists closer together in their work.
In order to facilitate this conversation, this gathering will follow the THATCampunconference model. THATCamps, The Humanities and Technology Camps, are open, inexpensive meetings where humanists and technologists of all skill levels learn and build together in sessions proposed on the spot. Unlike traditional conferences THATCamps focus on a non-hierarchical, non-disciplinary, collaborative, informal, and spontaneous format. These “unconferences” are small in size and aim to be productive through the sharing of information and open dissemination of conference proceedings.
THATCamp Performing Arts will aim for approximately 70 participants, with interested parties able to apply on this website. Application will be open to anyone studying or working in the field. and we encourage interested participants with any connection to the performing arts (actors, designers, archivists, librarians, directors, professors, musicians, students, etc.) to apply. Registration will open on April 1st and the conference will take place on Thursday June 20 and Friday June 21 at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Kimon Keramidas
Director of Digital Initiatives
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
Good I plan to register for “That Camp”.
I plan to register.