Virtual and augmented reality are the wave of the future. How are these nascent technologies being integrated into performance, immersive experiences and artistic practice? Learn more from contemporary theater and dance artists working at the forefront of these technologies.

Meet Our Guests

Jo Cattell (Playwright/Director) is a leading voice in the convergence of live theatre and immersive technologies. Her work has appeared at Sundance Film Festival, the BBC, Sky Television, Cirque du Soleil, and multiple US and London theatre's. Cattell is a member of the LightPoets digital and immersive theatre collective, whose immersive graphic novel, PARTICLE, is being developed for live performance and as an AR mobile game. She is also under commission with San Francisco State University's Fabula(b) to adapt Shakespeare’s KING LEAR into an AR immersive theatrical experience. She is a 3Arts awardee, a Joan Mitchell Center Fellow, a 2021 Illinois Artist Fellow and a Perkins Coie awardee. Cattell was the Maggio Directing Fellow at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, with whom she is currently collaborating with the world-renowned Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois to create HUMMINGBIRD, an immersive theatrical experience with VR.

http://thefarsightedmonkey.com/

Christopher Knowlton, Ph.D., is a freelance movement artist and independent choreographer based in Chicago. He has worked as a collaborative performer with many artists, including ATOM-r, Erica Mott, Sildance/Acrodanza, Same Planet Performance Project, Khecari, Synapse Arts and UChicago STAGE Lab, among others. His own work spans multiple performative, interactive and immersive forms that explore the intersections of art, science, dance and technology. His work has been featured locally and internationally, including in Science Magazine’s Dance Your Ph.D. Competition, TEDxWindyCity in Chicago, DANSCIENCE Festival in Canberra, Brisbane and Sydney, Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the Movement Computing Conference, the International Society of Biomechanics and the Field Museum in Chicago. Chris is currently a Chicago Dancemakers Forum 2020 Lab Artist. In addition to performing and choreographing, Chris is a biomechanical research scientist and manages the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Rush University Medical Center.

The Pivot Arts Podcast is produced, edited and hosted by Julieanne Ehre with additional editing and sound engineering by Hannah Foerschler and original music composed by Andrew Hansen. The podcast is a program of Pivot Arts, an adventurous performance organization based in Chicago. You can learn more about us at pivotarts.org or follow us @PivotArts. The Pivot Arts Podcast is sponsored by FLATS, a Chicago-based apartment community.