NTT-TIFA – 2022 Changing Perspectives

TIFA Key Visual

National Taichung Theater – Taiwan International Festival of Arts (NTT-TIFA) productions emanate from many perspectives. On the surface, they may appear to wear a similar technological cloak, but if you look deeper into their origins, you will notice that they focus on aesthetic pursuits, each imbued with the fervent desire of human expression. Art and science may appear to be entirely different entities but they complement each other. Years ago, a cellular company coined this brilliant promotional slogan, “Human technology.” From its very beginning, art is intimately tied with expressing our humanity. Looking at the new vistas that 2022 NTT-TIFA artists are preparing, we see shows integrating AR or VR that traverse real and virtual worlds: Living Room, FreeSteps AR Yours 2.0 and Acqua Alta. In Chronicle of Light Year: Taipei-Copenhagen and The Ultimate Battle (a reprise from 2020 NTT-TIFA), 4D BOX AI spatial mapping technology is applied to wow the audience. Image is the selected theme for our NTT Emerging Artists Project, and Dance Lab will present See, which explores the relationship between space and visual images.  

Very Theatre Chronicle of Light Year: Taipei-Copenhagen 

Two travelers — one from Denmark, the other from Keelung, Taiwan — meet after faring light years in the void of space and time, and traverse through the memories of their childhood, moments that they do not want to let go, yet will soon dissolve into the deep sea of oblivion. 

After its premiere at the 2018 Taipei Arts Festival, Chronicle of Light Year: Taipei-Copenhagen has garnered further international acclaim at festivals in Austria and Denmark. A collaboration between visual poet CHOU Tung-yen and his Very Theatre, and The Culture Yard in Elsinore, Denmark, this piece features hologram technology used in The 4D Box at Elsinore in a fusion of theatre, imagery, dance and technology. 

Chronicle of Light Year ©Carl Emil Carlsen

Artistic Director CHOU Tung-yen 

CHOU Tung-yen holds an MA in Scenography with distinction from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and a BFA in Theatre Directing from Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). He is the founder and director of Very Theatre and Very Mainstream Studio. Centering around the theatre and moving image, he makes interdisciplinary works of performance, installation and documentary. His VR production IN THE MIST which was filmed in the NTT’s Playhouse was selected as the special event in 2021 Venice Biennale VR Expanded. 

CHOU Tung Yen ©林政億 Terry LIN

WANG Lien-cheng Living Room 

Living room, the most intimate family space is about to welcome the arrival of robots as new household members. New media artist WANG Lien-cheng applied AI, experimental sound, and image technology to generate a scene in real-time of the living room by programming algorithms when the audience walks into the Tutu Gallery. In addition to the exhibition, 10 interactive performances have been arranged, in which the robots imitate dancers’ moves and interact with the audience. Wearing motion capture devices, the dancers drive changes in sound and images with their physical movement. When you come to the Living Room, having the robots as your companions will tell you more about the development of AI and how the human body would look like in the future. 

Living Room ©黃柏瑜

WANG Lien-cheng is a digital artist whose works stretch across interactive devices and sound performance. He often displays a cluster of installation art in a space to achieve extraordinary physical perceptions; his sound performance typically combines real-time program-generated visuals with real-time computed sounds. In recent years, WANG is committed to combining images and sounds generated by computer algorithm. His works have been exhibited and performed at multiple world-class art festivals including Les Journées GRAME (France), CONCIERTOS AUDIOVISUALES MADATAC, Círculo de Bellas Artes (Spain), OSTRALEΌ16, Dresden in 2016 (Germany), UPDATE_6, Ghent in 2016 (Belgium), Linz Ars Electronica (Austria), etc. 

Lead Artist, Playwright & Director: WANG Lien-cheng

Robert Lepage ╳ Ex Machina Courville 

Internationally acclaimed Canadian playwright and director Robert Lepage presents his new work, Courville, a sketch of the portrait of a complex adolescence. In 1975, 17-year-old Simon is facing confusion about family, friends, love, and self-identity, while the social unrest that is gradually taking place will find dramatic and decisive echoes in the life of this young man. The show borrows from the ancestral technique of Japanese Bunraku and brings life to puppets of all sizes that embody Simon and his entourage. Robert Lepage will be the narrator on stage and create a spellbound story inside a piece of history.  

Courville ©Elias Djemil

Artist: Robert Lepage 

Versatile in every form of theatre craft, Robert Lepage is equally talented as a stage director, playwright, actor and film director. His creative and original approach to theatre has won him international acclaim and shaken the dogma of classical stage direction to its foundations, especially through his use of new technologies. His works have been presented in Taiwan several times including the plays 887 (2020), Needles and Opium (2016), Lipsynch (2010), and The Andersen Project (2008). 

©V. Tony Hauser