FESTIVAL PROGRAM 2023
Performances, exhibitions, and events for Puncture The Screen 2023
All events taking place online, some events with in person sharings as well in Nottingham and Norwich
Lifetimes
by Lotty Holder
Lifetimes is a new play by Lotty Holder that investigates innovation in the NHS, privatisation of medical data, and the human cost when the kinks aren’t worked out of new technologies or policies.
With an innovative and immersive design, using the audience’s own biometric data, this rehearsed reading will tell an impending and important story in a gripping and personalised way for audiences in person or at home.
Lifetimes will be available throughout the festival:
Monday November 20th - Nonsuch Studios, Nottingham - 19:30 - 21:00
Available online for the duration of the festival
Fabula: A Hologram Theatre System
by Chronic Insanity
Fabula is a hologram storytelling system prototype, developed by Chronic Insanity. The experience will allow for audiences to experience an augmented reality theatre performance, where the performers will appear as if they are in the same space as the audience.
Not only will the performance take place on a stage or table top in your own home, but the audience has the ability to cast the productions themselves, much like the character select screen of a video game. This empowers home theatre audiences to be more creative and to have more control over the theatrical experience in their own homes, as well as giving them the ability to see how different stories change when being performed by different casts or told by different people.
Fabula will be available in person throughout the festival:
Saturday November 25th - The Garage, Norwich - 17:00-19:00
Friday December 1st - Broadway Cinema, Nottingham - 12:00-17:00
Stewed
by Natalie Patuzzo and Joe Strickland
Stewed uses speech recognition to encourage people to dedicate time to relax while cooking something healthy and tasty.
Horrible Histories meets Saturday Kitchen, the experience consists of a little invisible magical creature appearing in your kitchen via spatial audio. It then teaches you how to cook ratatouille while telling you stories about their life, the history of the dish and the region of France that it comes from. The idea was to take the blurb at the top of an online recipe and to collapse it into the cooking instructions to create a storytelling experience that could make the process of cooking more entertaining.
The speech recognition technology allows the audience to navigate the experience at their own pace and in a hands free way. Once the food is cooked, the experience offers you the chance to listen to music from the region, as well as a soundscape of the countryside, as you eat and enjoy your dish.
Stewed will be available online from Friday 8th December.
Allsorts
Award-winning theatre company, Chronic Insanity, bring their gig-theatre scratch night to Nonsuch Studios as part of Puncture The Screen 2023
Come along, grab a drink, and watch and listen to the most exciting emerging performers in the East Midlands.
Taking part is easy, let us know in advance or turn up on the night. Anyone can come and perform, so if you want to be heard, come make noise with us!
Allsorts will be on at Nonsuch Studios on December 14th at 19:30
The Ashes World Tour
by Naomi Westerman
The Ashes World Tour is a digital exploration of bereavement, grief, loss, and the importance of memory. The piece uses written and spoken text placed over still imagery and soundscapes, combined with digital data on rates of gender-based violence, to create a piece that is both universal and deeply personal. A series of self-contained but interlinking sections follows a woman as she travels the world scattering her mother's ashes, and asking why her mother had to die.
The Ashes World Tour will be available online for the duration of the festival
Augmented Art
by Tom Shennon
Blurring the lines between the artist’s and AI’s intentions, Augmented Art, uses a disinterested AI as a collaborator in the process of creating intensely personal videos exploring identity and neurodiversity. GPT-3, an AI released in beta in mid-2020, has capabilities 10x greater than previous deep learning language models. After priming with personal information, the artist used GPT-3 to augment the creative process, co-authoring scripts that are then filmed and edited by the artist.
Augmented Art will be available online for the duration of the festival
Displacement Native
by Michael-Jon Mizra
Michael-Jon Mizra reflects on the Syrian Civil War. Beginning in 2011, the war continues to displace the Syrian population. Societies take in new people but there is an undercurrent of fear. A fear which gives rise to narratives which further shape our response. But, if fear is what drives the story on both sides, how can we empathise through this fear? Drawing on data taken from the UNHRC, Mizra maps the arduous years of conflict. The result is an audio-visual tribute to all those displaced.
Displacement Native will be available online for the duration of the festival
Graphic Nature
by P.A.BITEZ
Graphic Nature bares all. Exposes the internets obsession with women’s bodies, from the manosphere, to revenge porn and proanorexia P.A.Bitez examines how HTML has exaceserated the ways in which women can be humiliated. Following one girl, played by Bitez and her revelation algorithms are coded to scruitinise women. A surreal voyage into the underbelly of the internet, were eyes are currency. Bitez highlights how the virtual is modifying reality.
Graphic Nature will be available online for the duration of the festival
MALPER
by Rachel Parry
Weird and wonky web-based, interactive clickable experience, using the artists’ personal data from their project “MALFUNCTIONING PERFECTLY” Rachel Parry and Creative Technologist Rachel Smith have been teaching the A.I bots about liveness from a Neurodivergent/disabled point-of-view. Resulting in a playful but often disastrous choice-driven uncanny experience that devolves into chaos.
MALPER will be available online for the duration of the festival
Who We Are and Where We Come From
by Megan Gates
The British Museum wants you to create an exhibition. You’re in charge of what gets displayed, hidden or sent home. But history is never simple and the museum is a business. The exhibition must be full, sponsors won’t like losing artefacts and the public are getting stirred up. Will you create a truly British exhibition, or bend to the pressures of history?
Who We Are and Where We Come From will be available online for the duration of the festival
Masterclass Archive
This year we are bringing back some of the masterclasses from previous festivals, including:
Introduction to Digital Theatre by Kill The Cat
Introduction to animation by Edalia Day
A beginner's guide to making an animated short by Edalia Day
Technology and immersing audiences at home by Tom Black
Introduction to Creative Captioning using Isadora by Tim Kelly
Introduction to Digital Theatre by Adam Lenson
All masterclasses will be available online for the duration of the festival
Workshop Series
Our digital producer, Joe Strickland, is running a series of their most popular workshops for the festival this year, including:
How to make Digital Theatre
How to make your work creatively accessible
How to make Immersive and Interactive Theatre
These workshops will be on Tuesday evenings throughout the festival