Games, Interactive Art and Digital Theatre in North Rhine-Westphalia

In November, the International Visitors Programme took a look at the digital arts and gaming scene in NorthRhine-Westphalia (NRW) as part of the research trip ‘Games, Interactive Art and Digital Theatre in North Rhine-Westphalia’. The seven guests from France, Hungary, Lithuania, Peru, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom visited the NEXT LEVEL - Festival for Games, Interactive Art and Digital Theatre, which was founded by the NRW KULTURsekretariat in 2010 and returned in a new form after a one-year break, taking place at five venues in Dortmund from 14th to 17th November. The festival focuses on digital games culture and the use of new technologies in art and combines performances, interactive installations and a rich supporting programme.

In addition to the festival visit, the visitors’ programme included a number of talks with and excursions to institutions from NRW, for example the Academy for Theatre and Digitality, Cologne Game Lab, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, media art collection at Kunstpalast, MIREVI Lab at Hochschule Düsseldorf, FFT Düsseldorf - Forum Freies Theater, MiR.LAB at Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen and, last but not least, meetings with the festival team and the participating artists.