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Tjaša Ferme

Science. Consciousness. Ritual. Interactive theatre. Eclectic. Vagabond. Pirate. Siren.

Tjaša Ferme is an award-winning actor, playwright, and creator who has received a Slovenian National Film Award and Stane Sever classical stage award. The Founding Artistic Director of Transforma Theatre Inc., dedicated to creating interactive theatrical experiences at the nexus of science, consciousness and ritual, she created The Female Role Model Project, blending interactive theatre with neuroscience and premiering Off-Broadway at 3-Legged Dog and produced at Edinburgh Fringe; the play received a NYITA nomination for Outstanding Innovative Design and Fast Company’s honorary mention for World Changing Ideas Awards. In 2021 Ferme created and produced the sold-out Science in Theatre Festival at NYC’s cell theatre, covered by Forbes and American Theatre Magazine. Tjasa is the creator of the short film Ophelia’s Flip (Cannes Film Festival, 2012), farce stage hit Cocktales - Confessions of a Nymphomaniac (Abingdon Theatre, Miami Art Basel), and interactive solo shows, Wild Child in the City and My Marlene (HERE). Award-winning acting credits include MacArthur-winning Hooded: or Being black For Dummies (59E59),The Upper Room (NYTimes critic’s pick), Three Trembling Cities (Best of Stereable, Toronto, Brooklyn, Philly Web Fests and more), Larry Gone Demon (10 film awards), and Dutch Kills (Best Thriller Manhattan FF). https://tjasaferme.com/

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Theatre By and For Gamers
Podcast

Theatre By and For Gamers

14 March 2024

In this episode, Emma Bexell from Bombina Bombast, a performing arts company in Malmö, Sweden, takes us to the space of gamified society and theatre. Bombina Bombast combines documentary audio, gaming interface, and immersive installation in a Virtual Reality show where audience members can rest with insomniac Swedish gang members—all while criticizing the attention economy.

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Aerial Performance in a Wheelchair 
Podcast

Aerial Performance in a Wheelchair 

7 March 2024

Disabled choreographer, dancer, designer, engineer, and founding member of Kinetic Light Laurel Lawson talks about performing aerially in a wheelchair, accessibility as its own artform rather than an add-on, and their app Audimance which includes haptic interpretation and sensory modulation.

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Gore and Myth in Theatre Mitu's (holy) BLOOD
Podcast

Gore and Myth in Theatre Mitu's (holy) BLOOD

29 February 2024

In this episode we talk with the founding artistic director of Theater Mitu, Rubén Polendo, about the hope for the future that inspired Utopian Hotline—now traveling through space as part of the Golden Record. We also discuss the gore, myth, and puppet-robots with their own point of view in Jodorowsky-inspired Santa Sangre.

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Science Theories Are Like Swiss Cheese
Podcast

Science Theories Are Like Swiss Cheese

22 February 2024

Annemarie Hagenaars is an astronomer, physicist, and actress. In this playful conversation with Tjaša, Annemarie speculates about Einstein's famous equations, love, and shares her own experiment that she conducted with her one woman show The Story of the Einstein Girl, where she performs the play four different ways and lets the audience choose.

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Finding the Individual in Your Digital Choreography Library
Podcast

Finding the Individual in Your Digital Choreography Library

15 February 2024

LaJuné shares about the inception of Black Movement Library: a database of motion capture data from Black folks they created, while seeking to avoid the paradigms of erasure, extraction, and exploitation of Black bodies. In their work, they encourage freedom and personal expression over correct data capture. They believe none of us are just numbers, and to treat our movements in our bodies as just data sets is very harmful.

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A Circus Robot’s Death-Defying Act 
Podcast

A Circus Robot’s Death-Defying Act 

8 February 2024

This week, Tjaša speaks with Josh Corn, a true renaissance man. He uses technology to tell absurd and subversive stories about humanity. Josh built René—the most technologically advanced robotic arm from 2002, who had her own circus act. He also made Field Day Games where you can compete with groups over video call to spill, drop, break, crack, ignite, and burn machines in their studio. Everyone wins except Josh. He has to clean up.

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Automation, Slavery, Monsters, and Misery in Search of the Whole
Podcast

Automation, Slavery, Monsters, and Misery in Search of the Whole

1 February 2024

Maud discusses monsters, and the “humanization process”: the idea that humanity asks of us to leave some part of the world at the door and opt in for a very specific, very small part of all that life has to offer. They also dissect the West’s capitalist need to reject the consciousness of inanimate objects in order to participate in the consumer culture.

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A Twelve-Foot Robotic Arm, Like Chekhov Would Have Wanted 
Podcast

A Twelve-Foot Robotic Arm, Like Chekhov Would Have Wanted 

25 January 2024

In this episode, Tjaša chats with director Igor Golyak of Arlekin Players about the power of virtual theatre and the experience of using technology that had never before been used for live performance. And if you were wondering why there was a twelve-foot robotic arm on stage, serving coffee and sweeping the floor in The Orchard at Baryshnikov Center, Igor thinks that’s what Chekhov would have wanted.

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Quipu: an Ancient Incan Recording Device 
Podcast

Quipu: an Ancient Incan Recording Device 

18 January 2024

We dive deep with Anonymous Ensemble into LIontop: a technologically ambitious installation and multilingual performance that centers on Quechua voices; Google finally translating Quechua; and the mystery of the ancient Incan Quipus. 

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Using Technology to Heal Trauma
Podcast

Using Technology to Heal Trauma

11 January 2024

Guest Heidi Bosivert believes that our bodies are archives of stories and if we can't get those stories out, the whole fabric of society will break down. When she worked in tech, addressing social issues, she had a crisis of faith and figured that bringing people into physical spaces and working with the body might be one way of mitigating deleterious effects of technology. Now, she’s creating a media biogenome.

Theatre Tech Talks: Artificial Intelligence, Science, and Biomedia in Theatre
Teaser image for Theatre Tech Talks: Artificial Intelligence, Science, and Biomedia in Theatre.
Series

Theatre Tech Talks: Artificial Intelligence, Science, and Biomedia in Theatre