AVK4 is the cryptonym of Clemens Kowalski and Oscar Loeser. Together, they seek to investigate the moving image in the space between theater and installation. Their work is aligned with media philosophy and real, live encounters of image and space. Founded in 2013, AVK4 developed an installation, Kapsel, which adapts to any space in which it is shown. AVK4 also provide visuals for (dance) theater companies and mappings. Loopstation was developed in 2017.

Clemens Kowalski  is a stage designer. His working areas are spatial relations between human beings and nature. For many years now, his artistic preoccupations have been analog and digital projections.

OSCAR LOESER is a Berlin-based visual artist who develops visual concepts for dance pieces and installations in addition to projections for theater and open spaces. He graduated from the Potsdam film school as an editor and has worked for choreographers, musicians, and institutions as well as documentary directors (mostly experimental films). In 2013, he founded AVK4 with Clemens Kowalski, producing installations and dealing with projection mapping. Oscar’s great love is to capture dance performances. 

More at: www.avk4.net, www.vimeo.com/oscarloeser

ENI BRANDNER is a filmmaker and multimedia/video artist who lives and works in Vienna as a writer, director, animator, and visual effects consultant. Since her studies in multimedia art at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg and classical animated film at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, she has focused on experimental ways of creating narratives in the interdisciplinary realm between film, music, and performing arts. Her most recent works are a short film called “Pantopos” for the project “Happiness Machine”—a performance about the common good economy by the Klangforum Wien; a film called “Me-Log” as part of the experimental TV format “Pixel, Bytes & Film” for ORF III (Austrian national public service broadcaster) and Arte Creative (Franco-German free-to-air television network); and projection design for the theater piece “Kein Groschen Brecht!”—a feminist take on Bertholt Brecht’s work.

GERTJAN BIASINO constantly looks for the synergy between different media. Gertjan studied audiovisual arts (experimental film) at Sing-Lukas Brussels, where he focused on combining film with theater, performance, and fine arts. Since leaving his studies, he’s enjoyed confronting spectators with the limitations of human perception and observation at the same time, creating a kind of poetry between technology and performance. While producing his projects, he considers how the audience will access the world he creates in his installation-performances. In addition to his own work, Biasino collaborates with other artists in Belgium and abroad. He specializes in real-time video installations in combination with moving objects and practical effects. He always finds ways to tell the story with a combination of technical mastery and subtlety. 

Many of you will know GRAHAM THORNE as skulpture from his website, Isadora forum, blog, and social media channels. Graham is a visual production lecturer and course leader at Backstage Academy in Wakefield, UK by day. He has worked on various projects around the world, including locales like Glastonbury, Helsinki, London, and many more. His work generally involves projection mapping, custom user interaction, or motion tracking. Graham has been using Isadora for over a decade, also working for TroikaTronix for over 10 years as a Pro User, Beta tester, and Forum moderator. Graham is a qualified lecturer and likes to make his sessions professional yet playful with a nice pace for learning.

IAN WINTERS is a video & media artist working at the intersections of physical performance, installations/architectural form, and time-based media. His work often looks at the interfaces between the analog and digital worlds through physical performance, technology, and explorations of temporality and data. He also collaborates with composers, directors, and choreographers to create staged and site-specific media environments through performance, visual, and acoustic media as well as more traditional projection/visual design for opera, dance, and contemporary music for many noted venues and companies worldwide. Recent projects include commissions from EMPAC and the Hewlett Foundation’s Creative Work Fund. He is currently a visiting research fellow at the University of Sussex. 

More at: Ianwinters.com

JOSCHA ECKERT works as a freelance lighting and video technician as well as a technical manager for artists and productions from the independent theater and performance scene. After graduating in 2013 from his studies in event and theater technology at Städtische Bühnen Osnabrück, he worked as a technical manager and head of the lighting department at Theater Ramp in Stuttgart (with Marie Bues and director Jan-Christoph Gockel) and Backsteinhaus Produktion. He’s been busy using all his skills collaborating with artists such as Monstertruck, Vinge/Müller, and Showcase Beat Le Mot on national and international stages.

L WILSON-SPIRO is a media artist, technical design consultant, multimedia show control programmer, freelance theater technician, and lighting, interactive technology, and projection designer. They are particularly passionate about creating original, text-based works that incorporate interactive technology, often operating projections live on stage while performing. L is a member of the TroikaTronix Technical Support Team and assists Isadora users via the TroikaTronix ticket system and the online forum.

Composer and media artist MARK CONIGLIO is widely recognized as a pioneering force in the field of interactive performance. With Dawn Stoppiello, he cofounded the media intensive dance group Troika Ranch in 1994. As a result of this artistic practice, he created Isadora—a software tool that provides deep interactive control over digital media. Isadora has become the tool of choice for thousands worldwide, including such notables as Francis Ford Coppola, The Wooster Group, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Coniglio has received a “Bessie” award, a prize from Prix Ars Electronica, and the World Technology Award, which recognized his long-term legacy in art and technology.

Since the end of the 1990′s, MICHEL WEBER has dealt with still and moving pictures. He started out as a light operator and then began working as a video technician in 2004. Since 2008, he has led the video department of the Theater der Künste, which is part of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), and taught courses in digital video technology. He collaborated with the research team IPF, Institute for Performing Arts and Film (ZHdK), in the research project Actor and Avatar. He is an Isadora beta tester, forum moderator, and part of the TroikaTronix Team. Michel often works with analog and digital signals, computer networks, and communication protocols like RS232, DMX, MIDI, and OSC.

MONTGOMERY C MARTIN is a Toronto-based digital media artist specializing in projection design, interactive performance, and live-streaming. He is a technical consultant and writer for TroikaTronix. Recent projection design works include: “Moro and Jasp in Stupefaction” (Kabin and U.N.I.T Productions 2017); “Riverboat Coffee House: The Yorkville Scene” (Soulpepper 2017); “A Moveable Feast: Paris in the 1920s” (Soulpepper 2018); “Out the Window” (Luminato 2018); “Rose” (Soulpepper 2019); “The Virgin Trials” (Soulpepper 2019); and “Hook Up” (Tapestry Opera & Theatre Passe Muraille 2019). Montgomery is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. He also co-hosts Dungeon Dudes, a YouTube-based web series about tabletop roleplaying games (www.dungeondudes.com). 

Inspired by rebels, visionary pedagogues, and magicians, RUTH SERGEL creates bold and compassionate works that bridge art and technology, memory, and wonder to incite individual and social transformation. Ruth’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, the New York Historical Society, and 3LD Art and Technology Center. In 2011, Ruth was honored to be included in the Community Leaders Briefing Series at the Obama White House. Her book, See You in the Streets! won a 2017 American Book Award. More at: www.streetpictures.org

RYAN WEBBER has developed multimedia applications since the mid 90’s. His first experiments in generative image creation and video mixing were developed in Director’s Lingo script. This work led to developing online games in shockwave and Flash, and then on to the development of front and back-end websites for major broadcasters. His love of real-time video art continued through his regular VJ engagements at a number of Toronto electronic music events, which inspired the development of a fashion label that he continues to design and market online. These experiences come together in his role as a member of the TroikaTronix Team, where he has worked extensively in Isadora, both as a platform for live video performance and as a framework for creating rich interactive and data-driven installations.

Sammy Chien (Chimerik似不像) is a first-generation Taiwanese-Canadian immigrant and queer artist-of-color. He is an interdisciplinary artist, director, performer, researcher and mentor who works with film, sound art, new media, performance, movement and spiritual practice. Her work has been exhibited across Canada, Western Europe, and Asia including Centre Pompidou (Paris) and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing). They have worked with pioneers of digital performance: Troika Ranch and Wong Kar Wai’s Cinematographer Christopher Doyle. Currently, he is active in research/creation/mentorship projects engaging various marginalized groups including activists, poverty survivors, the mental health community, spiritual teachers, QTBIPOC and young artists. Sammy is the official mentor of Isadora (TroikaTronix) and Co-Founder/Artistic Director of Chimerik似不像 collective. www.sammychien.com

SIMONE GRÜNWALD likes to see how things change. She is a professional transformation observer. She used to design clothes but but nowprice she designs your mood—in the shape of coffee!

As a cultural manager, XENIA LEYDEL’s work with artists is informed by a dramaturgical process. Bridging practical concerns, creative impulses, and business development, Xenia provides holistic artist support and career management. Born in Dresden, she is company manager for TroikaTronix and producer of the Isadora Werkstatt. Xenia trained in contemporary dance and was a dancer and choreographer in Berlin before becoming the new media program coordinator for the Stuttgarter Filmwinter and employed by the Forum Neues Musiktheater of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. She has worked with many artists including: Susanne Linke, Antonia Baehr, SheShePop, Josephine Evrard, and the Internationale TanzFilmPlattform Pool.