The Participatory and Immersive Creation group (PIC) aims to provide a space for IETM members to tackle central issues we have in creating, presenting and producing this genre of work, through open discussions, experience sharing, and creative exchanges.

PIC hosted an online session on September 27, 2021 from 16:00 to 18:00 CEST focusing on Immersive and Participatory writing: How can we write as/for/about embodied experiences?

The meeting was be led by Henny Dörr, joined by the research group Beyond Free Writing. The group collectively develops writing strategies that do away with some pertaining myths about writing. The writing strategies can be explored in exercises and explored as an integral part of the creative making process. There is a strong focus on performativity, collaboration and experience.

In the session, experiences with writing as part of our immersive and participatory creations were shared, but the main part consisted of a practical exploration of writing strategies.

Facilitator: Henny Dörr

Henny was joined by the artistic research group Beyond Free Writing (more info below).

More about the moderator and Beyond Free Writing representatives

Henny Dörr
Former Course Director of the Ba Theatre Design and the MA Scenography at HKU, Henny works as researcher in the Professorship of Performative Creative Processes. Henny graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1986 on a ‘practice-based research project avant la lettre’, on the relation between movement and music in both thesis and performance (interrelated). After her graduation she combined a practice as dramaturg/advisor with teaching in several institutes in Higher Arts Education. Meanwhile she specialised in site-specific (location) theatre within and without festivals, in scenography and worked as an advisor for different groups and committees. Between 1992 and 2001, she developed the new bachelor course Design for Virtual Theatre and Games at HKU Theater (now: Interactive Performance Design), and she led a European Masters of Arts in Scenography in Utrecht. Within the area of Scenography, she has a large international experience and network, having worked with schools and professionals from all over the world: Helsinki, Sevilla, Prague, Barcelona, Madrid, London, Berlin, Giessen, Hong Kong, Macau, India, Canada, USA. As core member of the Professorship of Performative Creative Processes at HKU in Utrecht her research interest lies making processes/creative design in the theatre, with a focus on co-creation.

Nirav Christophe
Nirav is a writer for theatre and radio, whose radio plays have been broadcast in twelve countries. He is an internationally-renowned creative writing lecturer and pedagogue, and has published books as ‘Writing in the Raw; the myths of writing’ (2008), and more recently ‘Ten Thousand Idiots; Poetics, writing process and pedagogy of Writing for Performance based on Bakhtin’s polyphony’ (2019). Research focus: polyphony in transdisciplinary co-creative processes.

Daniela Moosmann
(BA New Dance Developments, BA Writing for Performance, MA Theatre Studies), Daniela is HKU-lecturer Writing processes and dramaturgy at BA- and MA-courses.
Research focus: contemporary playwriting processes and the use of writing strategies as research methodology in Higher Art Education. 

Ninke Overbeek
(BA Writing for Performance, BA Theatre Studies, MA Comparative Cultural Analysis), Ninke is a fiction-author and author for performance and lecturer writing for performance/ theatre.
Research focus: ficto-critical writing and connections to embodied knowledges.

Marjolijn van den Berg
(BA Writing for Performance, MA Education in Arts), Marjolijn is a lecturer in Writing as Making within Higher Art Education.
Research focus: art-writing, generative writing and experiential writing education.
 

Image in banner: ©️ Andrew Ridley