Ilja Mirsky has been a dramaturg at the Residenztheater in Munich since the 2022/2023 season. From 2019 to 2022, he served as a dramaturg and occasionally as a programmer at the Institute for Theatrical Future Research at the Zimmertheater in Tübingen. He is pursuing a doctorate on theatre and digitality at the University of Tübingen and the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), and he is an associate in the doctoral program Epistemologies of Aesthetic Practices at the Collegium Helveticum in Zurich.

Ilja studied Cognitive Science at the University of Tübingen, as well as politics, literature, and psychology at the University of Haifa (Israel), and earned a Master's degree in Performance Studies at the University of Hamburg. For his master’s thesis, in which he examined choreography at the intersection of reality and virtual reality, he was awarded the 2020 research prize by the Society for Dance Research. His international artistic work is characterized by a strong focus on VR/AR, AI, and digitalization.

Abstract:

This PhD project, jointly supervised by Prof. Dr. Susanne Marschall (University of Tübingen) and Prof. Dr. Jochen Kiefer (Zurich University of the Arts), investigates the evolving interrelations between theatre, digital technology, and artificial intelligence (AI), with a particular focus on presence, liveness, embodiment, and the performative potential of non-human agents. In response to increasing mediatization and the integration of AI-driven technologies on stage, the project examines how concepts of co-presence and theatrical agency are challenged and redefined in the post-dramatic and posthuman context.

The dissertation focuses on how digital technology and artificial intelligence are reshaping dramaturgical approaches within institutionalized theatre, and how these transformations influence dramaturgical praxis at the intersection of artistic experimentation and technological development. By examining the integration of AI-based systems, such as chatbots and virtual agents, the research explores how dramaturgy is evolving in response to new creative possibilities and aesthetic paradigms introduced by digital tools. The project combines theoretical inquiry with practice-based research and contributes to an expanded understanding of digital dramaturgy as a hybrid field, situated between theatre-making, media art, and algorithmic design.