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), Eisenhuettenstadt and Dresden (East Germany), São Paulo (Brazil), while also directing workshops on dance technology both locally and internationally. |
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Collaborative
production led to the formation of AlienNation Co. in 1993. Touring
productions of new dance-theatre works, a documentay film ethnography
on the border-lands in Germany, and several media and technology projects
followed. 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 directs the DAP-Lab, and links performance and digital media projects with 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 on software programming for the premiere of El Entrecejo. |
Recent
professional work (directed, choreographed, performed) includes:
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2014
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
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for the time being (Victory over the Sun), dance opera, Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler's Wells, April 3-4, London Lung Pulmo Pneumo,
video installation at Cinedans // Dance on Screen Festival, 12-16 March,
2014, The Eye, Amsterdam for the time being, choreosonic performance, Watermans International Digital Arts Festival Artaud Forum, conference-workhop featuring butoh performances, films, video and photographic exhibitions. Artaud Performance Centre, Brunel University. bourdon, interactive dance, Interaktionslabor Göttelborn, Germany UKIYO (Moveable Worlds), choreographic installation, KIBLA media Arts Center, Maribor, Slovenia; Lilian Baylis Studio/Sadlers Wells London "UKIYO (Moveable World)," mixed reality choreograophic installation, Antonin Artaud Centre, Brunel University, London "Corpo, Carne e Espírito," digital oratorio, music composed by Paulo C Chagas, premiered at Klauss Vianna Theatre, FIT-BH Festival, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. "Suna no Onna," interactive dance performance, premiered at Laban Centre, London, December 8. Watermans Art Center, London, March 2008 "Puntos de Fuga," new interactive play written by Angeles Romero, stage reading, Talento Bilingüe, Houston, December 21 "Klüver", diptych video installation, revised version, Prague Quadrennial, Design-in-Motion Festival. First presented at Wearable Futures, Newport, Wales, and subsequently shown at Dartington College of Arts during the 2006 DRHA convention; also selected for the B-Sides Program at Upgrade! International, Oklahoma City, USA, curated in collaboration with New Media Scotland. "Cançoes dos olhos/Augenlieder", SARC spring concert series in Belfast (Northern Ireland); Dança em Foco, Rio de Janeiro (Brasil). "See you in Walhalla," coproduced with Amorphy.org at a series of production workshops in Europe, including a summer residency at Interaktionslabor Göttelborn. Premiere on 13-14 September, Athens, Greece. "Digital Cultures," dance and technology festival, curated at Nottingham Trent University, Powerhouse Theatre and Sandfield Theatre, Nottingham, UK "Tedr", telematic performance film, exhibited at Wearable Futures, Newport, Wales. "Cançoes dos olhos/Augenlieder", intermedia song cycle, 5-channel DVD, with Veronica Endo and Paulo C. Chagas. Libretto by Angeles Romero. Premiered at Interaktionslabor, Night of Interactive Media, July 2005, Göttelborn, Germany. Canções dos olhos was screened at SARC's spring concert series in Belfast (Northern Ireland) on February 1, 2007, and also selected for the Brasilian video festival Dança em Foco, Rio de Janeiro, August 2007. "Xu", film installation, choreography/dance by Wan Su, camera and direction by Johannes Birringer, music by Paulo C. Chagas, soprano voice by Carrie Henneman "Saira Virous" multi-player online performance environment, LATela Nottingham, ScreenPlay Festival, Broadway Cinema, Nottingham "Sueño" multimedia theatre play, written and performed by Angeles Romero. Collaborated on direction and videography. Mount Hall, Ohio State University. "East by West" DEAF/V2 "Data Knitting" Festival, Pakhuis Las Palmas, Rotterdam, The Netherlands "finally
a place..."
audiovisual installation, with AlienNation Co. Trans-Site Studio, Houston "Embers" telepresence dance, Sullivant Theatre, OSU, Columbus, Ohio. |
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2001
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"ghost island" dance environment, Intermediale Festival, Mainz, Germany. | |
2001
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"Moving Voices" interactive dance environment with Interface , Sullivant Theatre, Columbus. | |
2001
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"Irregeleitete Anatomie" digital installation, Kunstfestival Dreieich, Germany. | |
2001
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"MIRAK" opera recital , Houston Composer Alliance, Shepherd School of Music, Houston. | |
2000
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"Irregeleitete Anatomie" videodance installation, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden, Germany. | |
1999
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"MIRAK" new dance opera, DiverseWorks, Houston. | |
1999
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"Fishgarden digital video installation, Vogelfrei exhibition festival, Darmstadt, Germany | |
1998
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MIGBOT,
digital-architectonic installation, Winter Street Art Center, Houston
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1998
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Parachute Online, webcast | |
1998
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North by South, dance-film concert, First Annual Fringe Festival of Contemporary Dance and Performance, Diverse Works, Houston | |
1998
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between the places, dance-film environment, DiverseWorks, Houston | |
1997
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before nights falls, digital dance work, Goethe Institute Atlanta; Cleveland Performance Art Festival; Deutsches Hygiene Museum Dresden; Barockgarten Grossedlitz, Dresden, Germany | |
1996
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Lovers Fragments, exhibition performance, Deutsches Hygiene Museum, Dresden, East Germany | |
1996
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LBLM, performance/digital art workshop production, Split Screen Festival, Chichester, England | |
1995
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Lovers Fragments, Acts I-IV, film-concert/performance, Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Cleveland; Barber Theatre, Northwestern University; Blue Rider Theatre Festival, Chicago; Casa de las Americas, Havana, Cuba. | |
1995
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Parsifal, opera installation, Festspielhaus Hellerau-Dresden, East Germany. | |
1995
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Closed Spaces, urban art performance, Eisenhuettenstadt, East Germany. | |
1994
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AlienNation, dance-theatre performance, European tour (Germany, France, Holland, Slovenia); Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Cleveland; Gran Teatro de Habana, Cuba. | |
1993
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AlienNation, dance-theatre performance, Blue Rider Theatre Festival, Chicago | |
1993
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From the Border, cross-cultural performance-exhibition festival, Josephine Louis Theatre/Block Gallery/Annie May Swift Auditorium, Northwestern University. | |
1992
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Orpheus and Eurydike, multi-media dance-opera, Josephine Louis Theatre, Northwestern University. | |
1990
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AD MORTEM, film-dance-music concert, DiverseWorks and Lawndale Art Center, Houston. | |
1989
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Invisible Cities, A performance-exhibition, Lawndale Art Center, Houston. | |
1988
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Description of a Landscape, A performance-exhibition, Lawndale Art Center, Houston.
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Video/Radio work :
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2014
2013
2012
2009
2008
2006
2000-01 |
Design and Performance Lab's wearable designs, created by Michèle Danjoux, featured on BBC World Service, in a special edition of the programme “Click” from the BBC’s radio theatre live on 25 February. This was hour long programme looking at aspects of wearable technology, including DAP-Lab, Atau Tanaka, CuteCircuit, Google, etc. … the podcast is here RedMicroDress in the 10th Country, interactive dance, Interaktionslabor Göttelborn, Germany
Lung Pulmo Pneumo, dance film, featuring Aggeliki Margeti Leben in seiner Wunde, film, Kafka's Wound collaboration, The Space/BBC Open Score. Keynote Film Lecture for kedja Festival:
Ming Yi (Die Verfinsterung des Lichts), digital film Suna no Onna, Dance-Tech. Net, http://dancetech.ning.com/video Intimate Klüver, design performance video Klüver 2, design performance video Vespucci film installation, University of Brasilia Art Gallery, Brasilia (Brazil); Media Center, Graduate School of Semiotics and Communication-PUC-University (Performance Art School), SÜo Paulo (Brazil); Performance 2000 Platform, Dartington (England); Performance Studies International, ISA, Arizona State University; 1999: Winter Street Art Center, Houston, and ACA Gallery, Artplex Austin |
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1999
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Trails film short, Aurora Picture Show, Houston. | |
1996
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bewegungen in der mitte der dritten stadt (ort 1), dance film, Berlin, Germany | |
1996
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Lovers Fragments, dancevideo, International DanceScreen Festival, Lyon, France | |
1995
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The Obscene/Off-Scene Body, video installation, Montreal, Canada | |
1994
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AlienNation, videodance, International DanceScreen Festival, Lyon, France | |
1994
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Observations, dialogue with the Egon March Institute, Radio Student, Ljubljana, Slovenia | |
1993
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Cross-cultural Radio Workshop/Production of 15 PSAs, with Guillermo Gomez-Pena and other artists, Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. Public Installation at Chicago Cultural Center, June 1993. | |
1993
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The Making of 'From the Border', videodocumentary, International Film & TV School, Havana, Cuba. | |
1993
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Orpheus and Eurydike, videodance, International DanceScreen Festival, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany. | |
1991
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After the Revolution, video documentary, Loews Theatre, Festival of Nations, Houston. | |
1990
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Border-Land, video documentary, exhibited at: Greenway 3 Plaza Theatre, Houston; Studio 71, New York; Hallwalls Gallery, Buffalo; Houston International Film Festival, Houston; Universidad Nacional, Madrid; Chicago Filmmakers, Chicago; Saarländisches Konstlerhaus, Saarbrücken, Germany; Grenzland-Festival, Kultur Zentrum, Eisenhüttenstadt. | |
1990
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Memories of a Revolution, documentary, Rice Media Center, Houston. |
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