Interrobang - What
„The interrobang
is a nonstandard punctuation mark
intended to combine the functions of the
question mark and the exclamation mark: ‽
A sentence ending with an interrobang asks
a question in an excited manner, expresses
excitement or disbelief in the form of a
question, or asks a rhetorical question.”
Interrobang develops new performative and digital formats to explore contemporary social phenomena and issues. In immersive theatrical spaces and participatory AI and game settings, the audience can experience, test, and reflect on new models of scenic communication—whether in analog, online, or hybrid formats. The play with theatrical community thus becomes a play with current and potential future social forms and value systems.
CRITICAL IMMERSION
New forms of theatrical participation, artificial intelligence, futurology (preenactment), political and social relevance, humor, digital dramaturgies, installative hypertext systems, self-built and programmed performative apparatuses, and easy accessibility—since its founding in 2013, Interrobang has developed a distinctive artistic signature centered on the audience as responsible actors. Thematically, our work revolves around (hidden) power structures in digitalized neoliberalism: the possibilities and societal impacts of artificial intelligence, digital self-optimization, surveillance, gamification, and privatization. Through their participatory nature, our projects always address the possibilities and limits of co-determination.
In Deep Godot, the audience interacts individually with an artificial intelligence as an aging companion. Familiodrom explores educational models within a collective online parenting experiment. Emocracy and Preenacting Europe examine the crisis of democracy, emotion politics, and populism: What populist tendencies lie dormant within each of us, and how can they be awakened? Where do we reach the limits of our tolerance? In Commune AI, an international online audience experiments with living alongside artificial intelligences in international online communes. In the stage performance Chatbot Challenge, the performers mobilize the theater to explore and challenge the AI black box—live and unpredictably.
In all our projects, we aim to make the respective topics tangible: giving participants the opportunity to “navigate” these issues participatively while also enabling critical engagement—a critical immersion.
INTERROBANG’S EXPERTISE IN PARTICIPATION, DIGITALITY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, digitality and participation were central to our artistic work. Our projects, developed in collaboration with creative coders, question power structures in digital everyday life. We transform dramaturgies and narrative techniques from digital media into analog spaces, where they can be performatively tested and negotiated with the audience.
A key aspect of our work is multi-optionality: our pieces rarely follow a linear sequence but instead offer space for branches, multiple outcomes, or unpredictable dramaturgies. The decision-makers are almost always the audience, who are confronted with the consequences of their own actions in a self-reflective way. Therefore, our projects always touch on democratic processes, co-determination, and the (in)freedom of choice within a set system.
In the wake of the pandemic, digitality and participation have gained a new, broader societal focus. We incorporate these fundamental changes into our work. For us, analog and digital theater forms are not in competition with each other; both offer unique opportunities, and with Interrobang, we are exploring new ways and formats to create and intertwine analog, digital, and hybrid experiential spaces.
In collaboration with creative coders, we engage with artificial intelligence, critically addressing the societal questions and challenges of the AI era while also examining the production conditions behind the AI illusion.
We produce and present our works in an international context, including venues such as HAU – Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Sophiensaele, Ruhrfestspiele, Heidelberger Stückemarkt, HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts, Ivan Franko Theater Kyiv, Internationales figuren.theater.festival, STUDIO THEATRGALERIA Warsaw, ARGEkultur Salzburg, Schlachthaus Theater Bern, Kleintheater Luzern, Goethe Institutes in Prague, Kyiv, and Mexico City, among others.
Since 2022, we have been realizing our works in co-production with the digital stage HAU4 Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin: in 2022, the hybrid performance Chat-Inferno; in 2023/24, the international online co-production Commune AI; and in 2024, the stage performance Chatbot Challenge.