SRF (Re-)producing Realities | University of Stuttgart

Direct to

SRF Re/producing Realities Re2

SRF Re² links literary, engineering, simulation, and visualization sciences in existing and future collaboration. Founded in 2023 and funded by the Research Council of the University of Stuttgart, SRF Re² involves the Institute of Literary Studies ILW, Stuttgart Mechanical Engineering, the High Performance Computing Center HLRS, Simtech and the Visualization Research Center VISUS. This interfaculty alliance characterizes the Stuttgart Way, connecting three profile areas identified in the University of Stuttgart Structure and Development Plan SEPUS. The interdisciplinary center SRF Re² develops interconnections between Digital Humanities, Production Technology and Simulation Science.

SRF Re² also establishes a diverse partnership network, extending expertise with external cooperation partners: the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design ABK, the German Literature Archive Marbach DLA, the Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media Tübingen IWM, the Stuttgart State Theaters, and Junges Ensemble Stuttgart JES. This extensive knowledge base promotes innovative research on the mechanisms and consequences of the digital turn. SRF Re² is open to all University of Stuttgart scholars working on mediated re/produced realities, offering a diversity of theatrical techniques to open up and convey a diversity of realities.

The phenomenon of re/producing realities has always been central to both the arts and sciences and is understood in historical reference. SRF Re² recognizes the increasingly critical need for such research in our times of digital transformation and media culture.

Re² research analyzes the conditions of digital realities. These inevitably arise from cultural rather than digital paradigms. Theater is one such cultural paradigm which also offers a model to productively combine engineering and artistic techniques. The cooperation with the Stuttgart State Theaters and Junges Ensemble Stuttgart JES enables pioneering joint research activities. This cooperation characterizes the structural profile of SRF Re².

Ein großes Bild mit einem Kopf einer Person in der Mitte, die eine VR-Brille trägt. Um die Person sind Bilder zu sehen.

Photo: © WEISERDESIGN (2023); Henri Gissey: Scenery Design of Sea Shore for First Warsch, 1st Entrée, Ballet de la Nuit, Paris 1653 (© Waddesdon, Rothschild); Pierre Corneille, Engraver Jacques Dequevauvillier (© Château de Versailles)

Interdisciplinary concepts

Theater serves as a model for the diverse scientific fields in participating institutes and disciplines. SRF Re² collaboratively develops digital concepts to recreate and understand historical processes and through interdisciplinary dialogue presents intuitive solutions for the variety of disciplines:

At HLRS, 3D scans of historical theaters are used to analyze historical theater machinery. At VISUS, theater techniques such as narrativity or scenography inform and are reflected in visualization. In literary studies, the functional designs of theatrical techniques are analyzed across different literary genres, and theatrical machines are used as aesthetic design tools within theatrical texts. In mechanical engineering, kinematic analyses develop digital twins to recreate the function of historical theater machines.