Before theatre in Japan, there were puppets, and the puppets were gods. apanese performance was born from ritualistic beginnings where figures of deities were carried out of temples and shrines and into the streets. Ulrike Quade studied inside that tradition; its craft and care for objects today inform her understanding of technology.
What can you concretely do with immersive tech as a cultural organisation? During the Immersive Experience Day for Performing Arts, UQC along with other makers Urland and Studio Marble, presented three immersive performances. Heleen Rouw, Director of CIIIC, also spoke to us about the growing immersive experience indurstry. The event was organised by DEN and Innovation:LAB.
July 2026 – We are delighted to announce that our consortium Inside Out Outside In (IOOI) has been selected for round 1 of ADRIE – Artistic & Design Research for Immersive Experiences, a grant launched by CIIIC – Creative Industries Immersive Impact Coalition.
July 2026 – UQC was invited by the Dutch Embassy in Rome to be part of this year’s Kilowatt Festival, a festival for the performing arts in San Sepolcro, Italy. We met several partners from the consortium of the Creative Europe project Digital On Stage to share insights about the field of art and technology.
Artistic researcher Ulrike Quade and dramaturg-researcher Sorcha Ní Bhraonáin were invited to speak at the Data CARE Festival organised by Inclusive AI Lab.
February 2026 – What if robots are not almost-human, but fundamentally other? Science fiction and robotics alike have long been shaped by the assumption that robots should resemble humans as closely as possible in appearance, communication, and behaviour.
May 2026 Utrecht – This seminar looked at the intersection of grief and technology through the lens of performance and artistic research. Ulrike Quade spoke about this creation of Roman & ELIZA, joined by dramaturg-researcher Sorcha Ní Bhraonáin (UQC), and media and performance studies artist-scholar Evelyn Wan (UU).
How will robots be designed and puppeteered? What kind of strings will be attached? The central question of Dramaturgy for Devices consortium remains how the performing arts can help develop human-robot interaction (HRI) so robots can be integrated better into society.
Autonomous drone kills human being. No human in the loop.
Roboverse explores the underbelly of technology, the robot from within. What would the world look like from the perspective of a robot? A dancer, a drone and different robots share the stage — their sensors turning movement into sound and music. Human and machine mirror and challenge each other, from target to companion.
Ulrike Quade interviewed by Hayel Ali Al-Mathabi for Arab Theater Magazine. At the heart of the radical transformations taking place in contemporary performance, the work of Netherlands-based director and scenographer Ulrike Quade stands out as a bridge between the richness of tradition and the precision of technology.
