An initiative of Theatre Studies at Utrecht University and the theatre festival Festival aan de Werf, in cooperation with the Faculty of Theatre at the Utrecht School for the Arts (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht – HKU).

Camillo’s theatre of memory was a wooden construction meant to allow the spectator access to all existing knowledge, as well as providing the possibility to orate about this ‘as if he were Cicero himself’. Though world renowned in the 16th century, Camillo’s theatre was forgotten after the death of its inventor, only to make an impressive comeback in the second half of the 20th century as an initiator of the computer and the World Wide Web (Eco, Bolzoni, Winkier, Davis). Camillo’s theatre is simultaneously a kind of external memory as well as a representation of the way in which memory functions, including the way in which the relation to the spectator is constituted. The construction displays the Ars Memoria: the techné of memory (Yates). This move makes Camillo’s theatre of memory unto an emblem and a historic point of reference which resonates in the subject of this conference, namely: the performing arts as providing a perspective on and embodiment of the relation between technology, memory and experience.

Camillo 2.0: Technology, Memory, Experience combines science, scholarly pursuit and art in a five-day programme consisting of lectures, presentations of current research (both theoretical and practical), performances, debates, workshops, as well as so-called ‘shifts’ (hybrid programme components introduced by participants or initiated by the organisers which pave the way to unconventional types of presentations). The goal is to combine the most productive elements of international theory and to ensure a maximum interaction. In this way, the proposed programme highlights cutting edge research and allows for structured dialogues in different shapes and forms while making space for informal encounters between scholars and artists.

Technological developments allow more people access to more information than ever before. Additionally, they make it possible to store and share all experiences, inputs, and topics of conversation. The desire to remember and share every single detail of one’s life even has a name. It is called lifelogging or lifecaching and is practiced by tens of thousands of people all over the world. These kinds of practices exemplify what Huyssen calls ‘mnemonic fever’: an obsession with recording and memorisation that manifests itself in an increasing concern with cultural heritage, in expanding archives, and by an expanding museum-like fashioning of the self through photographs, videos, blogs, Facebook and Youtube. The ‘now’ appears to shrink in the face of the ever-increasing speed of technological developments, while the past grows and with it the fear that all will eventually disappear. Major cultural and social changes undermine a sense of historical continuity and pave the way for alternative, forgotten, or self-made forms of cultural memory. According to some, the ‘connective turn’ heralds the end of collective memory (Hoskins). Google has replaced Omniscience in its overkill of information.

Technology plays an important role in the way in which this culture of memory is shaped. Technological developments allow for storing and retrieving more and different kinds of information. These technologies alter what and how much can be stored but also transform how memory is shaped, how the stored is experienced, how our and others’ memories are entangled in the here-and-now, and, in the end, even how we think and imagine. This does not only concern the newest high-tech developments. From the first occurrence of tools to the complex interactions between humans and digital technologies, our consciousness, our ways of thinking and imagining, are the product of our co-evolution with technology. “We have always been Cyborgs” (Andy Clark).

Theatre Studies at Utrecht University
Utrecht University, founded in 1636, is one of the best universities in the world and is ranked 11th in Europe, 1st in the Netherlands, and 52nd in the world on the Shanghai university ranking list. Theatre Studies at Utrecht University is part of the department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University. This department also includes Film and Theatre Studies, Musicology, Gender Studies, New Media and Digital Culture, and Art Policy and Management. Many collaborations occur, both at the level of education and research. Herein, the interplay between the mediatisation of cultural heritage and the mediatisation of culture plays an important role, not only from the perspective of performativity and theatricality, but also highlights the connected questions of the specificity of various media and their underlying relations: intermediality, crossmediality, and transmediality. Theatre Studies research and education focuses specifically on current developments in theatre and dance from an interdisciplinary, intermedial, and international perspective.
(See also: www.theatrestudies.nl)

Festival aan de Werf
Festival aan de Werf is a yearly ten-day festival in May that takes place at different locations in Utrecht and subsumes the city in a performative atmosphere. Festival aan de Werf presents own productions that creep up to (and beyond) the boundaries of what theatre is. Also, the Festival aan de Werf contextualises these works in an international programme of performances, visual art, (free) music shows, after talks, workshops, debates, food & drinks, and parties. Huis and Festival aan de Werf is a production company and festival in one. The production part – Huis aan de Werf – invites artists to create performances, do research or to take up a position as artists in residence. Every year, eight to twelve makers conduct research projects or realise a performance in one of the many studios and rooms in Huis aan de Werf. Makers who the organisation successfully presented are: James Beckett, Roos van Geffen, Floris van Delft and Dries Verhoeven.

The Faculty of Theatre (Utrecht School of the Arts)
The Utrecht School of the Arts (De Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht – HKU) is one of Europe’s largest educational institutes in art and culture. The Faculty of Theatre is one of five faculties at the Utrecht School of the Arts alongside the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, the Faculty of Art and Economics, the Faculty of Art, Media and Technology, and the Faculty of Music (‘Utrechts Conservatorium’). The Faculty of Theatre offers a wide array of preparatory degrees and courses in the various elements of theatre (acting degrees, theatre design, writing for performance, design for virtual theatre and games, theatre management, and theatre and education). The common denominator of all degrees and courses is the collaboration between actors, theater makers, writers, designers, and teachers.