In diese Welt geworfen by Theda Nilsson Eicke
In the framework of S+T+ARTS EC(H)O – Challenge 1: Modeling the Mind
The project
Theda Nilsson-Eicke is developing a new theater piece for the “Modeling the Mind” challenge, derived from a deeply personal family situation but generalized to explore themes such as the limits of care and mental fragility. The installative part of the project involves a replica of the artist’s parents’ living room, with one side morphed into a Tribüne. The audience experience is intentionally split into two perspectives: one audience member sits inside the room wearing VR glasses, seeing the physical space augmented with digital elements, while the other sits on the Tribüne, observing the VR participant’s movements as a Kammerspiel. In the VR experience, a bird from the father’s drawing comes to life and performs a monologue about losing one’s mind, connecting personal context to broader themes of shared trauma and vulnerability. The audience outside the VR experience hears fragments of Shakespeare texts exploring the loss of sanity.
Hosted by: Technische Universität Dresden
The artist
An artist, author, and director renowned in the European performing arts for her avant-garde and innovative projects that challenge conventional boundaries and norms. Her work is notably multidisciplinary, often situated at the intersection of theater, performance, and visual arts, allowing for deep explorations of complex themes like identity, corporeal existence, and human relationships. A significant aspect of her practice involves merging technology and theater, examining how digital techniques transform traditional theatrical experiences or how technology influences self-perception and understanding of the world. Belonging to a “transitional generation” born before the 1990s information boom, she has focused biographically on the impact of new media on the individual. Her residency project, In diese Welt geworfen (Thrown into This World), is a new theater piece centered on the Heideggerian concept of being ‘thrown’ into a new world—whether synthetic, technical, or analog—and how individuals adapt or fail to adapt to revolutionized circumstances.
