NOOSTOPIA – A Digital Dance Event at Theatre Bielefeld

About

Together with Choreographer Moritz Ostruschnjak, aconica co-founder Martin Backes created a dance and theatre piece for Theater Bielefeld called NOOSTOPIA.

English Press Text:
„We were here“. There’s no way of denying it. Climate catastrophe, scarcity of resources and genetic control are phenomena of our present time. They were largely caused by those technological innovations through which we actually wanted to improve our lives. And now that things are getting out of hand, the maxim for action is shifting: we were just trying to subjugate the wild and unpredictable nature, but now it is to be protected and preserved. But what do we actually understand by „nature“? Isn’t our mental concept essentially determined by technologies? Where does nature end and where does the technosphere begin?
TANZ Bielefeld embraces the digital: walking robotic branches, pneumatic mushrooms and music robots determine the landscape of Noostopia (noos: „intellect“, „mind“, topia: „place“, „space“) and transform the TOR 6 Theaterhaus into an interdisciplinary experimental field that examines the consequences of the human urge for innovation. At the intersection of contemporary dance and digital media art, choreographer Moritz Ostruschnjak, artist Martin Backes, and stage designer Thilo Ullrich question the connection between what has born from nature and what has been made. What awaits us in the „Next Nature“? How can we encounter it if we haven’t outsourced ourselves beforehand?

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia in cooperation with the NRW KULTURsekretariat.

Robots / Automats

For Noostopia, three different robot parts were created:
1. Kinetic Walkers
2. Pneumatic Chirpers
3. Music Automats

Kinetic Walkers

Pneumatic Chirpers

Music Automats

Brand Identity
For the piece, we also created a fictional visual Brand identity which includes logo, typography and colors.

Costumes
For the costumes, we created a sort of fashion brand which follows the rules of the overall visual brand identity (see above).

Noopstopia Soundtrack / Spotify Playlist

Here`s the official NOOSTOPIA Soundtrack / Spotify playlist. Included are all tracks used in the actual dance piece. We also added a few more tracks which didn’t make it in the end, but were a big part of the process developing NOOSTOPIA. Happy listening.

Dates

Premiere: Friday January 24 at 8:00pm
Other dates: Noostopia runs until Thursday February 20. Follow the link for all dates and tickets.

Location

Please note, the show takes place at Theaterlabor Tor 6 which is very close to the Theater Bielefeld.

THEATERLABOR im TOR 6
Hermann-Kleinewächter-Str. 4
33602 Bielefeld
Germany

Credits

Idea and Concept: Moritz Ostruschnjak, Martin Backes
Staging and Choreography: Moritz Ostruschnjak
Media Art and Robots: Martin Backes
Set and Costume Design: Thilo Ullrich
Music and Sound Design: Martin Backes, Moritz Ostruschnjak
Dramaturgy: Janett Metzger
Choreographic Cooperation and Training Management: Sarah Deltenre
Production Management: Christa Beland
Project Assistance: Cara Marina Quartier
Development and Programming Robot Units: Michael Ang, So Kanno, Ties van Asseldonk, Martin Backes
Dancers: Dhélé Agbetou, Tommaso Balbo, Carla Bonsoms i Barra, Melissa Cosseta, Gyeongjin Lee, Noriko Nishidate, Alexandre Nodari, Adrien Ursulet, Simon Wolant, Elvira Zúñiga Porras

Photos: Joseph Ruben & Martin Backes
Videos: Sascha Vredenburg

More Information

Theatre Bielefeld Website