Johannes Birringer
Johannes Birringer
A German-born performance and media choreographer, Johannes Birringer currently resides in Houston (Texas), London (UK), and Saarbrücken (Germany). He has been working in theatre, dance, performance art and multimedia collaborations on both sides of the Atlantic, and created
numerous dance-theatre works, video installations and digital projects in collaboration with artists in Europe, the Americas, China, Japan, and South Africa.
He began directing in the mid-1980s while finishing his PhD at Yale University, and then moved to Dallas and Houston to work in the independent visual art/performance scenes.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and moving to Chicago in 1990, Johannes developed long-term video and performance projects that involve interactions with other artists and cultural workers in several locations: Havana (Cuba), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Eisenhüttenstadt and Dresden (East Germany), São Paulo (Brazil), while also directing workshops on dance technology both locally and internationally.
He is also the founder of an annual intermedia laboratory held at a disused coalmine in southwest Germany (http://interaktionslabor.de). DAP-Lab’s recent dance installations, kimospheres III–V (2016–19), explore the convergence of physical-sensory and augmented VR spaces. The dance performances Mourning for a dead moon (2019) and The river of no one (2022) address the climate crisis. Birringer’s publications include Performance, Technology and Science; Dance and ChoreoMania; Tanz der Dinge/Things that Dance; his latest book, Kinetic Atmospheres (Routledge, 2022) probes the implications of environmental immersion and mixed reality digital architectures.
Collaborative production led to the formation of AlienNation Co. in 1993. Touring productions of new dance-theatre works, a documentary film ethnography on the border-lands in Germany, and several media and technology projects followed.
After teaching performance studies at Northwestern University, he finished books on „Media and Performance“ (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1998) and on his cross-cultural work, entitled „Performance on the Edge “ (London: Continuum, 2000). He previously published „Theatre, Theory, Postmodernism“ (Indiana Univ. Press, 1991), and works as contributing editor for „Performing Arts Journal“ (New York) and „Performance Research“ (London). His most recent book is „Performance, Technology & Science“ (2009). In 2011 he co-edited a new volume of critical writing on „Tanz & WahnSinn/Dance and Choreomania.“
In 1997 he moved back to Houston, working as an independent choreographer and as curator of Winter Street Art Center. At the end of 1997, AlienNation Co. was formally instituted as a non-profit arts organization in Texas. In 1999 he was invited to build a dance-technology program in the Department of Dance at Ohio State University, where he then taught the annual experimental laboratory „Environments“ from 1999-2003.
For information on the Environments Lab and other dance technology research, visit Environments.
In 2003, Johannes founded the Interaktions-Labor in a former Coal Mine in southwest Germany as an international media and interactive technology laboratory; during its ninth installment in 2011, the Lab constituted itself as an independent Performance Academy. It resides in the renovated Mine architectural facilities every summer. He joined Nottingham Trent University’s well known School of Art and Design (Live Art) as a principal research fellow. In November 2003 he formed LATela, the Live Art Telematics Lab at Nottingham Trent. He launched the Lab as a node of international cross-cultural research in online performance technologies (ADaPT). In October 2004 Johannes taught a three-week dance media workshop at the Beijing Dance Academy (China); at the end of this residency he premiered „Xu“, the prolog to a new opera (Ensaio sobre a cegueïra) created in collaboration with composer Paulo C. Chagas. The intermedia song cycle „Cançoes dos olhos/Augenlieder“ premiered in 2005, and was most recently featured in the 2007 spring music series at SARC, Belfast, as well as at the Dança em Foco festival in Rio de Janeiro of the same year. After organizing the international DIGITAL CULTURES LAB in late 2005, he was appointed Professsor of performance technologies at Brunel University in London. There he has co-directed the DAP-Lab with fashion designer Michèle Danjoux, and combined performance and digital media projects with the associates in London as well as the members of AlienNation Co.’s studio based in Houston.
AlienNation Co. activities in Texas are also intertwined with the Talento Bilingue de Houston and with Meca. In January 2012 Johannes lectured at the TBC on „theatre histories,“ and in April 2014 he comoderated a postperformance panel at Meca (LAGARTIJAS TIRADAS AL SOL’s „El rumor del incendio“, presenrted in collaboration with CounterCurrent of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, University of Houston). In January 2015 he collaborated with Angeles Romero on software programming for the premiere of El Entrecejo.
in the last 10 years, Birringer moved between Houston and London and created numerous new dance works, installations and films/media works, which are included below in some of selected listings of his exhibitions,
After retiring from his professorship in London, Birringer now concentrates in working primarily with the visual arts communities in Houston and Saarbrücken (where is is conceptual manager for Gallery Puzić).
Recent professional work (directed, choreographed, performed*)
2026 Animalinside*, multimedia recital, Moody Center for the Arts, Houston, Texas
2024 BirdSongTree-Drawings*, KunstTreffPunkt Festival Darmstadt
2023 The Price of Water*, theatre performance, Artaud Performance Center, Brunel, London
2022 A Visit to the Minotaur, Voilà! Europe Theatre Festival, Cockpit Theatre, London
2022 The river of no one, telematic dance/music performance, The Telepresence Stage/Third Space Network
2021 Composition 1, outdoor draw-to-perform action, Interaktionslabor, Germany
2020 River Row / Electric Dance, off-site specific performance, Schmelz, Germany
2019 Mourning for a dead moon*, multimedia dance, Artaud Performance Center, Brunel, London
2019 Sor Juana and the Chambered Nautilus, written and performed by Angeles Romero, dir. By Rogelio Carrizales, programming/film by Johannes Birringer; MECA Art Center, Houston, Texas, 15-17 March
2018 Sisyphus of the Ear, concert-film, Musicacoustica Festival, Beijing, China
2018 En attendant Godot*, multimedia theatre, Arts@Artaud, Artaud Performance Center, Brunel, London
2018 Ephemeral Edgespace (metakimosphere no. 6), dance performance-installation, with Haein Song and Claudia Robles Angel, ISEA 2018, Durban City Hall, Durban, South Africa
2017 Metakimosphere no.5, immersive mixed reality installation, Queen Mary Drama and Film Theatre, London, Staging Atmospheres conference.
2017 Metakimosphere no.4/Horlà, immersive mixed reality installation, Artaud Performance Center, Brunel, London
2017 Sisyphus of the Ear*, concert-film, Auditorio del CMMAS (Centro Mexicana para la Música y las Artes Sonoras) Morelia, Mexico, 23 März 2017; “Audiovisual Music IV”, Culver Center Riverside, California, 19 Mai 2017;
2016 Sisyphus of the Ear*, concert-film, Artaud Performance Centre, Brunel, London; Bashkir State Philharmonic, Ufa, Bashkir; Moscow (Russia); Hong Kong;
2016 Metakimosphere no. 3, immersive kinetic installation, METABODY FORUM, Artaud Performance Center, Brunel, London
2015 Metakimosphere no. 2, immersive installation-performance at METATOPE, International Metabody Platform, MediaLab Prado, Madrid, Spain
2015 Synaesthesia*, live concert performance with Pantharei Live Cinema Combo, Sérgio Basbaum (Brazil), Artaud Performance Center, Brunel, London.
2015 El Entrecejo, multimedia play, software design, MECA, Houston, TX
2014 for the time being [Victory over the Sun], Lilian Baylis Studio –Sadler’s Wells, London
2014 TatlinTower and RedMicroDress, BBC World Series “Click” Program on Wearable Technologies, London, February 25
2013 RedMicroDress in the 10th Country, interactive dance, Interaktionslabor Göttelborn, Germany
2013 TatlinTower, performance and film, KINETICA Art Fair, London
2012 for the time being, choreosonic performance, Watermans International Digital Arts Festival, London
2011 Bourdon, interactive dance, Interaktionslabor Göttelborn, Germany
2010 UKIYO 2, choreographic mixed reality installation, UK premiere, Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadlers Wells, London
Ukiyo 2 (Moveable Worlds), choreographic installation, KIBLA Media Arts Center, Maribor, Slovenia
2009 Ukiyo (Moveable Worlds), choreographic installation, Artaud Centre, Brunel University
Auf der anderen Seite des Spiegels, sound installation, Interaktionslabor Göttelborn
2008 Corpo, Carne e Espírito, digital oratorio, world premiere FIT-BH Festival, Klauss Vianna Theatre, Belo Horizonte, Brasil
2008 Suna no Onna, interactive dance exhibition, Watermans Art Centre, London
2007 Suna no Onna, interactive dance exhibition, Laban Centre, London
2006 See you in Walhalla, live game performance collaboratively created with Interaktionslabor and amorphy.org, IME Industrial Performing Arts Complex, Athens, Greece
2005 Canções dos olhos/Augenlieder, intermedia song cycle, Interaktionslabor Göttelborn
Hydrophonics, interactive animated music installation-concert by Caroline Locke, created real-time digitalization of movement images
2004 Ensaio sobre a cegueira*, interactive opera (Act I), Interaktionslabor Göttelborn
2003 Oracles and Reappearances, multi-site installation-performance, Coal Mine Göttelborn
Sueño, multimedia theatre play, written/performed by Angeles Romero. Direction, scenography and videography. Mount Hall, Columbus, OSU
2002 Embers, telepresence dance, American College Dance Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2001 Moving Voices, Interactive Dance Concert, with the group Interface and dancers from the Interactive Dance Technologies Workshop. Sullivant Theatre, Columbus
2000 Mirak, opera recital, Houston Composers Forum, Shepherd School of Music, Houston
1999 Mirak, sci-fi dance opera, premiered at Diverse Works, Houston
Vespucci, dance/film installation and sonic/sculptural environment, Winter Street Art Center, Houston
1998 MIGBOT2, digital-architectonic installation/performance, Winter Street Art Center
East by West*, digital dance/music concert, Winter Street Art Center, Houston
North by South*, dance film concert, Diverse Works, Houston
Parachute, performanc/ installation cycle, Bayou Place/El Mercado del Sol/316 Main Street, Houston, commissioned by FotoFest ’98
between the places*, dance-film environment, Diverse Works, Houston
1997 before night falls 1.5*, videodance environment, Arena Dance Series, Houston Metropolitan Dance Center
before night falls 1.0*, videoperformance installation, Goethe Institute, Atlanta; Cleveland Performance Art Festival; Deutsches Hygiene Museum Dresden, Germany; Barockgarten Grossedlitz, Germany
1996 LBLM, multimedia performance, Split Screen Festival, Chichester, UK
Lovers Fragments V, performance-exhibition, Deutsches Hygiene Museum, Dresden, East Germany
1995 Lovers Fragments/Fragmentos de Enamorados*, new version, multimedia concert, Blue Rider Theatre Festival, Chicago
Parsifal*, opera installation/performance, Festspielhaus Dresden-Hellerau, 9th Dresden Festival of Contemporary Music, Germany
Closed Spaces*, public art/video performance, Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany
Lovers Fragments*, dance-theatre/film performance. Cleveland Performance Art Festival; Barber Theatre, Northwestern University
1994 AlienNation*, dance-theatre performance, European tour (Germany, France, Holland, Slovenia); Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Cleveland; Gran Teatro de Habana, Cuba
1993 Fluid Exchanges*, action event, with Andre Marquetti and John Cook, Fluxus Exhibition, Block Gallery, Evanston
AlienNation*, dance-theatre performance, Blue Rider Theatre Festival, Chicago
From the Border* [producer], cross-cultural performance-exhibition festival, Josephine Louis Theatre/Block Gallery, Northwestern University
1992 Orpheus and Eurydike*, multi-media dance-opera, Josephine Louis Theatre, Northwestern University
1990 AD MORTEM*, film-dance-music concert, DiverseWorks and Lawndale Art Center, Houston
Granite Dreams*, poetry-dance performance, Davis/McClain Gallery, Houston
1989 Invisible Cities, performance-exhibition, Lawndale Art Center, Houston
Der Stellvertreter, radio drama, Main Street Theatre, Houston
The Dream of Reason, theatre production, Chocolate Bayou Theatre, Houston
1988 Translations, theatre production, Satellite Theatre, Houston- Clearlake
Minotaurus-Fragment*, video installation-performance, Hungen Castle, near Frankfurt, Germany
Description of a Landscape, performance-exhibition, Lawndale Art Center, Houston
1987 Description of a Landscape, dance-theatre-film production, UTD Theatre, Dallas
1986 The Wall*, outdoor performance-intervention, Dallas
Die Nibelungen: Ende der Durchsage, theatre production, Alzenau, Germany (dramaturgy)
1986 Hamletmachine, theatre production, UTD Theatre, Dallas
1985 Catastrophe, theatre production, UTD Studio Theatre, Dallas
The Sea Gull, theatre production, Yale Theatre Studio, New Haven
1984 The Curse of the Starving Class, theatre production, Yale Theatre Studio,
Dr Faustus*, theatre production, Trumbull Theatre, Cambridge
Visual Exhibitions
2024 Gardens of Culture II – Can’t we learn? Painting and Digital Prints; exhibition at Poolhaus Blankenese, Hamburg,
Tage der bildenden Kunst, Open Studios and Galleries, paintings, September 23-24, Saarbrücken,
2023 Tage der bildenden Kunst, Open Studios and Galleries, paintings, September 23-24, Saarbrücken,
BirdSongTree-Drawings, KunstTreffPunkt Festival Darmstadt
2022 Ein Besuch beim Minotauros, film screening, Gallery Puzić, Saarbrücken
Tage der Kunst, Open Studios & Galleries, paintings, September 24-25, Saarbrücken, www.saarbruecken.de/tagederkunst
Wieviel von diesen Hügeln ist Gold, film and painting exhibition, Cultural Center Bettinger Mühle, Schmelz
2019 Sisyphus of the Ear, film, VERY LARGE WORKS, http://verylarge.works/ – online show organised by http://noemata.net/, containing a pavilion of https://thewrong.org/ new digital art biennale (Nov 2019 – Mar 2020) curated by Bjørn Magnhildøen and Zsolt Mesterhazy
VR Lost and Found, performance-exhibition, Verkstedhallen, Trondheim, Norway
The Forecast, exhibition, University of Alberta, Canada
Tunnel Sensings, https://h.aard.work/, The Burrow, online gallery
Restless, exhibition, University of Alberta, Canada
2018 Café Underground, exhibition of “Masterplan,” University of Alberta, Canada
2018 a thousand machines, online gallery exhibition, Art-f gallery, Houston
2017 Subjective Fashion, exhibition, Polyglot Journal, Alberta, Canada
2015 Metakimosphere no. 2, film, Clare Valley Film Festival, Australia, November 13-14.
2015 Metakimosphere no. 2, film and design objects, International Metabody Platform, Le Cube, Centre Création Numérique, Paris, France, October 6-9.
2015 Stirred Memories: Translating Memory Exhibition, group show. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 30 September
2015 Metakimosphere no. 2, immersive installation at METATOPE, International Metabody Platform, MediaLab Prado, Madrid, Spain
2015 Metakimosphere no. 1, immersive installation created with DAP-Lab/Meta-Lab, Artaud Performance Center, Brunel University London
2014 Translating Street Art, Launch of special issue, Transcultural, University of Alberta, Canada
2014 Exhibition of “Critical Costumes”, Film, ARTBAR, February 2014. MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art Australia), Sidney, Australia, curated by Chicks on Speed
2014 Lung Pulmo Pneumo, dance film, exhibited at Cinedans Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2013 Audible and Inaudible Choreography, Night of the Experiments, CYNETart 2013 Festival, Dresden/Hellerau, Germany
2013 The Postcard Exhibit, University of Alberta, Canada
2013 The Eleventh Hour, Group exhibition, Diverse Works, Houston, Sept. 6 – October 12 featuring AlienNation Co., Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Mel Chin, Karen Finley, Annie Sprinkle, Deborah Hay, Ben deSoto, William Pope.L. and others.
2013 Lung Pulmo Pneumo, dance film, Arts@Artaud, London
2013 for the time being/TatlinTower, KINETIKA Art Fair, London
Critical Costume: Audiophonic Wearables, Towards a vocabulary of scenographic bodies – Exhibition, The Arts Centre, Edge Hill University, Liverpool
2012 Leben in seiner Wunde, film, multimedia collaboration on “Kafka’s Wound,” BBC/The Space, with writer Will Self, http://thespace.lrb.co.uk/
Lung Pulmo Pneumo, dance film, http://youtu.be/0B_ZTFdSyqo
2010 UKIYO (Moveable World), diptych film installation, Staatstheater Mainz, Kleines Haus, Germany,
Becoming Leaf, butoh film, KIBLA Media Arts Center, Maribor, Slovenia
Ming Yi (Verfinsterung des Lichts), arts @ Artaud, Brunel University, West London
2009 Ukiyo (Moveable World), diptych screen installation, Subtle Technologies Festival, Toronto, Canada
2009 Ming Yi (Die Verfinsterung des Lichts), film, IAPL London
2008 Ceci n’est pas une pipe, Choreographic Capture festival, exhibited permanently online: http://www.choreographiccaptures.org
Nijinsky dreams of God, Choreographic Capture festival, exhibited permanently online: http://www.choreographiccaptures.org
Design in Motion, film, for exhibition by Michèle Danjoux, Inside Out, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham
2007 Klüver, Design in Motion festival, Prague Quadrennial, Prague, Czech Republic
Canções dos olhos, SARC, Queens University, Belfast, N Ireland
2006 Klüver, presented in the “B-Sides” Program at Upgrade! International, Oklahoma City, USA, curated in collaboration with New Media Scotland.
Intimate Klüver, diptych film installation, DRHA, Dartington College of Arts
AlphaZuppa, telematic exhibition, Performance Space, Sydney
The City, interactive dance performance, Çaty Dance Studio, Istanbul
2005 Canções dos olhos, Intermedia Songs, Neue Werkstatt, Coal Mine Göttelborn
2005 The emergent dress, dual film exhibition, Wearable Futures, Newport, Wales
2004 Gagarin System, multimedia installation, Erfurt, Germany
2004 Xu, Film exhibition, Media Lab, Beijing Dance Academy, China
Wechselwirkungen, DVD film installation, K4 Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Saarbrücken
2004 Reappearances, DVD film installation, ScreenPlay Festival, Broadway Cinema, Nottingham (UK)
2003 Interaktionen, DVD film installation, AoIR Conference, Hilton, Toronto
East by West, networked interactive installation, new version created with Sher Doruff, Orm Finnendahl, and Arjen Kersmaat. DEAF/V2 Festival, Pakhuis Rotterdam, The Netherland
East by West, networked interactive installation, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden, Germany, created with Orm Finnendahl and Sher Doruff. Realtime & Presence Festival, Organized by Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau.
Finally a place, multimedia exhibition, TransArt Studio, Houston
2002 VSS.01, real-time continuous performance system, Sullivant, Ohio State University
2001 energieRaum, digital video installation, Städtische Gallerie Dreieich Kunstfestival
Vespucci, film installation, University of Brasilia Art Gallery, Brasilia (Brazil); Media Center, Graduate School of Semiotics and Communication-PUC- University (Performance Art School), São Paulo (Brazil)
Ghost Island, interactive dance environment, created by Environment V Lab, Haskett Hall, Soundstage, Ohio State University; Intermediale Festival, Mainz
2000 Irregeleitete Anatomie, digital installation-performance, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden, Germany
In’ter, interactive dance installation, created by Environments III Lab Haskett Hall, Soundstage, Ohio State University
03/08/00, interactive dance installation created by Environments II Lab, Haskett Hall, Soundstage, Ohio State University
2000 Vespucci, film installation, Performance Studies International Conference, ASU, Tempe, Arizona; Performance Platform, Dartington College, England
1999 Fishgarden, digital installation-performance, Vogelfrei Biennial, Darmstadt, Germany
Trails, video, Short Film Festival, Aurora Picture Show, Houston
Vespucci, dance/film installation, „Dissolving Language,“ juried exhibition, ACA Gallery, Austin, Texas
1998 Migbot, interactive installation, Chichester Institute Dance Center
Parachute Online, Internet/webcast performance
Under Construction/Parachute, multimedia concert-exhibition, The Americas (El Mercado del Sol), Houston
1996 Lovers Fragments, multimedia exhibition, Deutsches Hygiene Museum, Dresden, Germany
1993 Lawndale Live: A Retrospective 1979-1990, group show, Lawndale Art Center, Houston
From the Border, cross-cultural installation/exhibition, produced for the Block Gallery, Evanston
1991 AIDS INTERFACINGS, intermedia group exhibition and performance, produced at Mary & Leigh Block Gallery, Evanston. Also produced at the Peachtree Center, Atlanta, GA
1988 Description of a Landscape, performance-installation, Lawndale Art Center,