Seeking expressions of interest by theatre and performance practitioners and companies interested in creating a live theatre performance for the Manchester incarnation of TROIA - to be presented as a part of Futuresonic06 in July 2006.
Deadline 16 May 2005
troia-project.org/contest
www.futuresonic.com
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TROIA (temporary residence of intelligent agents)
TROIA is an intelligent and mobile building located in public space - an event platform of the future. The innovative blueprint for TROIA by Californian architect Neil Denari has received the International Ace Award for Architecture 2004.
TROIA is an European theatre-project. An interactive radio play and theatre performance will be developed locally in each city it visits, in addition to films and media projects that will be presented during the day.
TROIA combines art, science, emergent technology, theatre and architecture. Within the building wearable multimedia devices, a positioning system and the world's first 5-sided pixel screen create a unique immersive space. Outside TROIA people will be tracked and contacted via their mobile phones.
The mission is to generate public debate on homeland security systems and about technologies of political control.
TROIA is supported through the Culture 2000 programme by the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Union.
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Participate in TROIA
It is possible to participate in TROIA in a number of ways.
TROIA theatre piece:
We are currently asking for expressions of interest by theatre and performance practitioners and companies interested in creating a live theatre performance for the Manchester incarnation of TROIA. At this point, those interested should submit background information and some very initial ideas. Ultimately we will commission one artist or company to create a piece to run for 3-5 performances over 10 days in the TROIA space. The piece created should engage with the theme "Technologies of political control" and/or "Technologies for crowd control". The UK partner in TROIA is Futuresonic, and the theatre piece will be developed in association with Manchester's Contact theatre.
Deadline 16 May 2005 - More details below.
Media Art projects:
The TROIA mobile event-platform will be open during the day for artists and technical innovators to present projects (fully realised or works-in-progress). TROIA can provide technical infrastructure but cannot fund artistic projects. The final presentation of TROIA shall form a part of Futuresonic06 and shall coincide with the PLAN (www.open-plan.org) final conference and exhibition. This will take place in Manchester, UK during July 2006.
TROIA short pixel films:
Submissions are invited of short films and moving image for the 5-sided pixel screen and the Arm-Pods, created to exploit the low resolution of the pixelroom walls and the restriction to 128 grey shades. Contentwise the movies must refer to the theme "Technologies of political control" and/or "Technologies for crowd control". These films shall be shown at the first presentation of TROIA in Stuttgart in June 2005.
BBL-Movie-Format: A Blinkenlights Movie is a simple text file that you can create with any text editor. The file starts with a single identifier line and then contains all the images of your movie (frames) one after the other. Each frame starts with a @ followed by its delay time in milliseconds. @1000 equals 1 second. Following this comes the image. Every image consists of 8 lines with 18 digits each. A 1 represents a switched-on lamp while a 0 stands for complete darkness.
Closing date for films is 23 May 2005. Submission details available at troia-project.org/contest
TroiaPreview is a program that demonstrates the Troia pixelroom in true scale, available at troia-project.org/contest
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TROIA theatre piece:
'STOP KILLING THE CUSTOMER'
The centre piece of TROIA shall be comprised of two live components to be presented each evening during the exhibition:
1. an interactive radio play using the 5-sided pixel walls and wearable devices, featuring spoken word drawn from a radio play on non-lethal weapons and sound and moving image by a commissioned artist.
2. a live theatre piece involving performers responding to the theme of the exhibition, developed locally by theatre makers in each country TROIA visits.
The live theatre piece should take as its starting point extensive research undertaken by TROIA into homeland security systems and "technologies of political control". The main point of reference for this is a report of the EU-internal science-directory-board STOA (Scientific and Technological Options Assessment). A particular focus are "non-lethal weapons". While the tazer has become common place, many more fantastical forms are in development. Non-lethal weapons are the new neo-conservative fantasy of today, and - like the psychological experiments of the 70s that have resurfaced at Abu Ghraib - are likely to enter the mainstream in 10 or 20 years time.
A collage of highlights of the research will be provided to the theatre makers, including transcripts of texts by the ideologues of political control, and documentation of new technologies. The task of the creative team would include filtering this, and making from scratch a dialogue and performance from this material.
Casting
Need an accomplished director or creative team, used to working in non conventional theatre, or on cusp of theatre and live art, who can cast equally accomplished performers, and run with this brief to produce something visionary.
The performers need not be conventional actors, but they should be (aggressively) communicative people, and be comfortable with 'speaking to the crowd' - something traditional 'actors' are not always good at because of their training.
Writing
The dialogue could be created by the theatre makers or by a writer brought in for the project.
Deadline for initial expressions of interest
16 May 2005
Please send proposals to
troia@futuresonic.com
TROIA c/o Contact Theatre
Oxford Road
Manchester
M15 6JA