🔵 On Friday, May 30th, 2025, the first international symposium Digital Performance Now took place in the virtual world of VRChat. The event was organized by the platform DPN: Digital Performance Now, an innovative initiative that merges virtual reality with live theater. The University of the Peloponnese participated through the Department of Performing and Digital Arts!

🔴 Artists and researchers from seven countries gathered as avatars in the specially designed virtual world created by Polish artist, director, and founder of the Digital Lab – Dream Adoption Society, Krzysztof Garbaczewski. At the same time, the symposium was streamed live via Twitch and simultaneously screened in physical venues such as the Warsaw Theater Academy, DOCK 11 digital in Berlin, and the University of the Peloponnese.

During the symposium, presentations explored the boundaries and possibilities of extended reality (XR), the performing arts within virtual worlds, and the hybrid intersections of art and technology. Performative lectures were also featured, combining sound and image, navigation through virtual space, ritual elements, and narrative experimentation.

🟡  The Department of Performing and Digital Arts (DPDA) of the University of the Peloponnese participated in the symposium with two presentations by faculty members (Anastasios Theodoropoulos and Elina Roinioti). Throughout the event, a live broadcast was held on the university premises (Aria, Nafplio). DPDA students had the opportunity to wear virtual reality headsets and take part in a different kind of “marketplace” of ideas — an experimental space of artistic and political exchange.

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