Christiane Kühl & Chris Kondek (doublelucky productions)

If the goal of theater is to “hold the mirror up to society” what happens when that mirror is a data mirror? And when the world itself is rethought as data what does that mirror reflect? How is an audience affected, when their data, gathered in real time, is projected back to them during an evening’s performance? And what happens when that data guides the dramaturgy?

Christiane Kühl and Chris Kondek, working under the name doublelucky productions, create theater works and installations that explore and play with the invisible algorithmic architectures that structure our daily lives. Doublelucky productions has traded stocks live on stage in order to make profit for the audience, hacked audience’s cell phones to reveal how vulnerable we are, and tracked their heartrates in order to create a perfect community with hearts beating in sync.

In this lecture, Kühl and Kondek, will show examples of their work, portraying strategies and obstacles encountered when trying to turn the theater space into an interactive information space.

Doublelucky productions regularly collaborates with musician Hannes Strobl as well as set designers, creative coders, media artists, and data visualization artists. Their performances are produced by HAU Berlin, Residenz Schauspiel Leipzig and others, and have toured internationally. Chris Kondek also works as a video designer for theatre and opera; Christiane Kühl also works as an author/editor as well as collaborating with other theater companies. Starting this semester Kondek/Kühl share the professorship of Interdisciplinary Artistic Practice and Theory at UdK Berlin.

Please note: Prior to the lecture, our OPEN DAY with studio tour will take place at 5 pm. The lecture will be held in German and English. Followed by drinks on a donation basis.

Fotocredits: “You Are Out There” (c) Jörg Baumann, “Auflösung” (c) Klaus Weddig, “The Hairs of You Head are Numbered” (c) Kim Albrecht