DIGITAL on STAGE | Stage of the Future

STAGE OF THE FUTURE
Immersive Workshops for Artists (and Other Curious Participants)

8–16 December 2025
(five workshops: 8, 9, 10, 15, and 16 December 2025)
1 p.m.–5 p.m. (feel free to join us at any time during the workshop)
KIBLA PORTAL, Valvasorjeva ulica 40, Maribor

This December, KIBLA is organizing a series of five workshops as part of the Digital on Stage project, designed for creators in the performing arts. The goal is to share both theoretical and practical knowledge about using advanced technologies in artistic practices. Because the workshop topics are broadly conceived, we warmly welcome established artists, those just beginning their creative journeys, and everyone in between. There are no age limits, as enthusiasm for new technologies (AI, 3D, XR, etc.) is timeless, even if the technologies themselves are not. Our understanding of performing arts is also intentionally broad – from live audiovisual performances, puppetry and shadow theater to dance performances and more. Previously developed methodologies and handbooks created within the Digital on Stage project will also be available as helpful resources.
The aim of this workshop series is to share knowledge on using various contemporary technologies in the performing arts by presenting good practices, learning from the invaluable experience of mentors, and exploring the limits of both hardware and software together. We invite high school and university students, technology and engineering enthusiasts and creators of new content.

What do participants need?
A laptop, a smartphone, curiosity, and creativity.

A few thematic starting points:
1. the creative process in artistic practices and new technologies
2. immersive performance
3. the audience experience
4. script, choreography, and directing

What topics and subtopics will the workshops address?
- digital avatars, characters, real-time 3D, animation
- use of KIBLA2LAB tools for digitization
- motion capture
- stage principles and the 360° perspective
- AI as a tool in the (co)creation of artistic works

#1
8 December 2025, 1 p.m.–5 p.m.
AI Avatars, Digital Doubles and Performance Experiments
Through practical and playful exploration, participants will discover how contemporary AI tools can generate text, voice, character, and movement, and how these elements can intertwine with the stage. The central motif of the workshop is the digital double – a concept thoroughly examined in Steve Dixon’s theory of digital performance, where it appears as a reflected double, an alter ego, a spiritual emanation, or a manipulable puppet. Participants will explore the relationship between the live body and its digital variation in a simple, beginner-friendly way by creating a basic AI avatar that serves as an extension of personal imagination or as a performing partner.
The workshop is designed to provide accessible entry points for beginners, including simple tools, straightforward procedures, and quick results, while also offering challenges for advanced participants, who can deepen their dramaturgical approach and experiment with voice editing, multilayered text, or basic motion capture. The workshop treats the digital stage as a laboratory for experimentation, a space where technology does not compete with the performer but instead creates a new field of play and a subtle distortion of reality.
Expected outcome of the workshop: By the end of the first day, participants will have created their first AI avatar – as an image, a voice, or a textual personality – along with the foundation for a short scene they will continue developing throughout the workshop. They will move through the entire creation process, from idea to stage effect: defining the avatar’s identity, interpreting text, exploring the interplay between the physical body and the digital double, and attempting a brief real-time performance. They will gain an understanding of how AI can function as dramaturgical material, as a performing companion, or as a projection of their “other layers,” which digital-double theory calls an alter ego or a shadow version of the self.
The outcome of the workshop is not a formal product but a first iteration – an initial seed that participants can expand into a “hybrid micro-performance” on 16 December.

Mentors: Monika Pocrnjić and Jaka Waldhütter
Monika Pocrnjić holds a degree in art education and is an intermedia artist. She works in DIY electronics, drawing, and puppet theater. Her work explores concepts such as the object as an interface, robotic theater, and the role of technology in the contemporary world. In her artistic practice, she combines various methods, media, and techniques, including 3D technologies, hacking, and creative coding. She presents these elements in performative events and theater productions. She lives in Ruše and works in Maribor and internationally.
Jaka Waldhütter began participating in robotics competitions at a young age, taking part in two international and three world-level events. At these competitions, he won several first and third prizes and received special awards for best innovation and other achievements. After completing his secondary education, he received a special commendation from the mayor and an award from the company Elektro for being the best student at SERŠ Secondary School in Maribor. He continued his studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Maribor, where he earned his master’s degree. As part of the RUK project, he participated in the 2023 Speculum Artium festival with the project Northern Lights of People, which incorporates a brainwave sensor and laser projectors.

#2
9 December 2025, 1 p.m.–5 p.m.
(In)visible Puppets and Costumes
Experimenting with wearable electronics offers new ways to explore costume as a theatrical element that blurs the boundaries between performer, puppet, prop, light, and sound. Digitally enhanced costumes are more expressive and immersive; they transform over time and expand into space. In Tuesday’s workshop, we will combine costume and light. Participants will wear illuminated costumes and control them in real time using their phones. Whether wearing the costumes or observing, we will explore the interaction among bodies, light, and movement as a catalyst for scenography, choreography, and dramaturgy. We will pay special attention to the sensory aspects of wearing them in the dark, the tactility of fabrics and membranes, the experience of embodying light, kinesthesia, and haptic perception. The session will be recorded, and in the following days, the short group scenes created with these light-based bodies will be transferred to 360° video and VR.

Mentor: Iztok Hrga
Iztok Hrga is a theater costume designer who has created costumes for more than 200 productions in Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, and Spain. His work spans classical drama, musicals, dance, and puppet performances for children and adults, as well as performances, exhibitions, installations, and street theater. He is trained as a design engineer. He earned his degree in Clothing and Textile Design at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, University of Ljubljana. He completed an interuniversity master’s in Theater Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and, in 2024, earned his PhD at the University of Ljubljana in Textile Engineering, Graphic Communication and Textile Design. His doctoral research focused on bodily scenography and the creative potential of electronics for designing interactive and immaterial costumes. His research has been published in various articles and presented at conferences and lectures at universities in Birmingham, Helsinki, Guildford, Prague, Ljubljana, Rijeka, and Oslo.

#3
10 December 2025, 1 p.m.–5 p.m.
The AV of the Future
In this workshop, we will learn how to integrate sound, video, and lighting into a unified, responsive multimedia system using a computer and MIDI and OSC/UDP protocols. We will start in the Ableton Live and Max for Live environment, building a foundation by generating control signals and time synchronization. These data will then be sent to external applications to control lights and visual elements. For this purpose, we will use MadMapper, though participants may use other software of their choice, such as Unreal Engine, Resolume, TouchDesigner, or others. Participants will receive pre-prepared Max for Live plugins to convert various types of information into OSC and will explore different approaches to mapping and combining control signals. In other words, turning and pressing buttons will be combined with sound analysis and pre-configured controls, creating a system suitable for multimedia performance or installation.
Requirements: A laptop (Windows or macOS) with Ableton Live Suite installed, and optionally MadMapper. A high-end computer is not necessary, but it is recommended to install the programs in advance and ensure they open properly.

Mentor: Tadej Droljc
Tadej Droljc is a Slovenian interdisciplinary artist and creative programmer working at the intersection of sound, image, and light. His work has earned him the Lumen Prize Student Award, the Dennis Smalley Scholarship for electroacoustic music, and the Most Promising Video Artist award at Madatac. He completed his doctoral research at the Centre for Research in New Music at the University of Huddersfield, where he received an award for outstanding work. He has performed and exhibited at festivals such as Ars Electronica, NEMO Paris Biennial, L.E.V., Brighton Digital Festival, Semibreve, Sonica Glasgow, Lunchmeat, Node, and others. Through his collaboration with the Ars Electronica Future Lab on the Immersify project, his work – permanently exhibited in the Deep Space 8K project space – has been presented at events including Inter BEE Tokyo, IBC Amsterdam, and Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes.

#4
15 December 2025, 1 p.m.–5 p.m.
Curious Machines and Computer Vision
In this workshop, we will explore how computer vision tools such as MediaPipe, OpenCV, and Kinect can capture the positions of bodies or objects, hand gestures, and facial expressions, and how this information can be used to co-create interactions based on gestures or the proximity of performers in real time and to trigger changes in sound and visuals on stage. We will also examine an emotional robot built on a Raspberry Pi with a camera and screen that responds to movement and mimics nearby faces, as well as an interactive installation that explores the limits of movement. Captured motion can, with some ingenuity or programming knowledge, be repurposed in other ways, such as face filters or character animation. The workshop will help participants realize their ideas and save captured data for potential further development.

Mentor: Matic Potočnik
Matic Potočnik is a computer engineer specializing in software development, artificial intelligence, simple electronics, and the exploration of technological change. Together with Dominik Mahnič, he created Lumen, drawing in augmented reality; with Dan Adlešič and Tilen Sepič, he collaborated on the mixed-reality project Form From Form; and with Saša Spačal, he developed Liminoid, an augmented and virtual experience of disintegrating subjectivity. He has also contributed his technical expertise to several works by Zoran Srdić Janežič, Mojca Založnik’s interactive installation Infinite Interfacing, the interactive sound installation Partíja by Matej Stupica and Jaka Berger – Brgs, Tadej Vindiš’s project Selfish Machines, and others. In Slovenia, his work has been presented at Kapelica Gallery, Aksioma, osmo/za, +MSUM, and Layer House, as well as at the Light Guerrilla and IZIS festivals and the International Festival of Computer Arts in Maribor. Internationally, his work has appeared at festivals such as Ars Electronica (AT), Device_art (CRO), and Queens (DK).

#5
16 December 2025, 1 p.m.–5 p.m.
Hybrid Performance: the Digital Stage as a Living Field of Interaction
The final workshop brings together all elements of the series: AI avatars, 360° video, sensors, movement, sound, light, and digital objects. Participants will build on material from the first workshop and incorporate it into short, multilayered stage scenes. The goal is to test the digital stage as a playground for experimentation, where – following Dixon’s framework – the digital double can appear as a reflection, an alter ego, a manipulable puppet, or a spiritual emanation of the performer. Special emphasis will be placed on interactive dramaturgy: how to create a scene in which technology is not merely an effect but a living structure that reacts to, provokes, or complements the performer. Beginners may work with simple tools such as projection, voice, and camera, while more advanced participants can explore motion tracking, MIDI triggers, or 360° environments. The workshop supports a diverse group: dancers, dramaturgs, visual artists, actors, and technical creators can each find their own way to elevate physicality, movement, or dramaturgy in the digital space.
Expected outcome of the workshop: Participants will create a short hybrid performance that integrates multiple layers of technology. The goal is not a polished final piece, but a working prototype that demonstrates the concept and potential of the scene. Participants will gain insight into the real challenges of the contemporary digital stage, including coordinating light, sound, camera, projection, sensors, signal delay, and dramaturgy. They will also explore how the digital double can serve as a partner, antagonist, or choreographic imprint of the performer. The workshop concludes by providing participants with clear guidance on developing their micro-performances into standalone works or full productions.

Mentors: Monika Pocrnjić and Jaka Waldhütter

Conclusion
Participants may attend one workshop or all five. The final workshop will integrate the knowledge, results, and formats developed in the previous four sessions. The goal is for attendees, through ongoing work and participation, to acquire a variety of skills that they can eventually combine into a unified piece in any format they choose, such as visualization, recording, 3D model, projection, choreography, digital language, or short (virtual) performance.

To register, please contact: peter.lubej@kibla.org