Creative Workers – Creatieve Werkers (VZW)
Koolmijnenkaai 30 Quai des Charbonnages
1080 Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, België

BE 0446.917.602

CREW is an international team of researchers, performers, technologists, dramaturgs, musicians, programmers, writers and designers with currently at its core two artists: Eric Joris and Isjtar Vandebroeck. As an arts company crossing the boundaries of art, science and technology, CREW continues to ask a simple question: how does technology change us?
Immersive performance is the perfect medium to investigate this: we envelop the spectator in a different world and interact with them in the (not) here & (not) now.

CREW was founded by Eric Joris in 1990 and has been a trailblazer in linking art and science. Various technologies were developed for the artistic needs of CREW, for example putting the first VR headset on a theater stage with the help of the University of Hasselt in 2003. CREW served as a model case in the European Union’s stARTs program and is currently active in European Union research programs. CREW offers different perspectives to scientists and innovators: the arts tend to travel different roads.

As technology progresses, our interaction with it is constantly redefined. CREW offers a critical, but not paranoid perspective. We believe this needs to be informed by practice, not only discourse: the human experience should be central. CREW is currently working on new productions that redefine the role of performer, immersant* and audience in XR performance.

*immersant: person in immersion e.g. wearing VR goggles.

Team

Eric Joris, Art & Strategy
Isjtar Vandebroeck, Art & Technology
Haryo Sukmawanto, Technology & Operations
Lauranne Nédée, Coordination
Anouk Focquier, Distribution
Salomé Kahn, Technics
Balthazar de Tonnac, Programming
Vivian Bolsée, Programming
Lawrence Kudria, Technical Art

Board

Mr. Jean-Pierre Deschepper, president
Mrs. Geert Werkers
Mrs. Milica Ilic
Mr. Joris Janssens
Dr. Georges Otte

CREW platform artistic creation and production

Booi Kluiving, actor, NL
Wieke van Rosmalen, actor, NL
Jerry Killick, actor, UK
Shelbatra Jashari, performer, BE
Karel Vanhaesebrouck, dramaturg, BE
Mia Vaerman, text, BE
Herman Venderickx, setbuilder, BE
Dries Gijssels, theater maker, BE
Nikolas Lestaeghe,actor , BE

Publications by researchers and academics, and a selection of critical reflections.

2024
OTTE Georges, DE RIDDER Dirk, JORIS Eric, VANDEBROECK Isjtar, WILLIAMS Kristin (2024). Soulhacker: An Artist-Medical Collaboration to Treat Depression via Artistic Virtual Reality. Int J Mental Health Psychiatry. [Link→]
MICHIELS Nick, JORISSEN Lode, PUT Jeroen, LIESENBORGS Jori, VANDEBROECK Isjtar, JORIS Eric, VAN REETH Frank (2024). Tracking and co-location of global point clouds for large-area indoor environments. Virtual Reality. [Link→]

2023
MICHAELIDES Costas , CASASNOVAS Miguel , MARCHITELLI Daniele, BELLALTA Boris (2023). Is Wi-Fi 6 Ready for Virtual Reality Mayhem? A Case Study Using One AP and Three HMDs.

2022
VANDEBROECK Isjtar, JORIS Eric (2022). Delirious Departures. ACM. [Link→]
SEOK Jin Han (2022). Digital Performance Aesthetics. Worin Publishing Co.
Aneta MANCEWICZ (2022). Hamlet after Deconstruction. Palgrave Macmillan.
Robin NELSON (2022). “Hamlet Encounters”, Ch. 5. In: Practice as Research in the Arts (and Beyond): Principles, Processes, Contexts, Achievements. London: Palgrave.
Aneta MANCEWICZ (2022). Liveness in VR and AR Shakespeare Adaptations. In: Early Modern Liveness: Mediating Presence in Text, Stage and Screen. Edited by Danielle Rosvally and Donovan Sherman. Arden Shakespeare. Bloomsbury Publishing.

2021
Pieter T’JONCK (2021). Delirious Departures / 1:87, Sporen naar nergens. Pzazz. [Link→]
Dana LINSSEN (2021). Een VR-Droste-effect over zijn of niet zijn, zien of niet zien. Eric Joris over Hands-On Hamlet. de FILMkrant. [Link→]

2020
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2020). A Million Pictures Magic Lantern Slides in the History of Learning. In: John Libbey & Co. [Link→]

2019
Xavier Flament (2019). Eric Joris: “On vit déjà à travers le médium”. L’Echo. [Download→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2019). Lucid Dreamers: Immersive re-enactment in the work of CREW. In: Archéé, arts médiatiques & cyberculture. [Link→]
Ágnes Karolina BAKK (2019). Performativity and Worldmaking. Interview with Chiel M. Kattenbelt. In: Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies, 17. p. 169–178 [Download→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2019). Performing Astronomy: the Orrery as Model, Theatre and Experience. In: Nele WYNANTS [edit.].Media Archeology and Intermedial Performance. Deep Time of the Theatre. p. 145–172 Palgrave MacMillan. [Link→]

2018
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2018). Appropriation, Re-use and Re-enactment: Contemporary Perspectives on the Lantern. [Link→]
Prof. Robin NELSON (2018). Doing-knowing in intermedial theatre and artistic research: CREW’s Hamlet Encounters. In: Discussion Paper for IFTR Intermediality in Theatre and Performance Working Group. [Download→]
Robin NELSON & Chiel KATTENBELT (2018). Hamlet Encounters, A Practice as Research. In: Hamlet Encounters, a matter of playing the senses. Belgrade, Serbia: IFTR conference.

2017
Sebastien SOUBIRAN (2017). A trip to heaven: building a new planetarium at the university of Strasbourg. In: Early Popular Visual Culture. p. 258–267 Routledge, Taylor & Francis online, Vol.15, NO 2.
Nele WYNANTS (2017). De binnenkant van het beeld. Immersie en theatraliteit in de kunsten. AraMER Paper Kunsthalle. [Link→]
Nele WYNANTS (2017). Media Archaeology and Intermedial Performance, Deep time of the Theatre. Palgrave McMillan.
Joris WEIJDOM (2017). Mixed Reality and the Theatre of the Future Fresh Perspectives on Arts and New Technologies. IETM – International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, Brussels. [Link→]
Charlotte BIGG, Kurt VANHOUTTE (2017). Spectacular Astronomy. In: Early Popular Visual Culture, online Vol.15, NO 2. p. 115–124 Routledge, Taylor & Francis. [Link→]
Charlotte BIGG (2017). The view from here, there and nowhere? Situating the observer in the planetarium and in the solar system. In: Early Popular Visual Culture, online, Vol.15, NO 2. p. 204–226 Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. [Link→]
Maaike BLEEKER (2017). Who knows? The universe as technospace. In: Early Popular Visual Culture, online, Vol.15, NO 2. p. 247–257 Routledge, Taylor & Francis. [Link→]

2016
Nele WYNANTS (2016). Betwixt and Between. De plaats van de toeschouwer in immersieve performances.. [Download→]
O. GRAU, V. HELZLE, E. JORIS, T. KNOP, R. MEMBARTH, B. MICHOUD, S. ROGMANS, J.STARCK (2016). Dreamspace: A Platform and Tools for Collaborative Virtual Production. IBC. [Link→]
Julie-Michèle MORIN (2016). Réalité virtuelle et alternée dans la pratique de CREW_ERIC JORIS : mise en oscillation du corps immergé. Université du Québec à Montréal. [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2016). Genius Loci: On the Logic of Space, Technology and Drama in Science Theatre Then and Now. In: Presenting the Theatrical Past: Intermedial Federation for Theatre Research Annual Conference, university of Stockholm (June 2016).
Liesbeth GROOT NIBBELINK (2016). Nomadic Theatre: Mobilizing Theory and Practice on the European Stage (Thinking through Theatre). Methuen Drama. [Link→]
Vincent JACOBS (2016). Tools for creating holographic live performance and installation art.

2015
Henk HAVENS (2015). Theater en het performatief spectrum. Transities in het contemporaine theater van de Lage Landen. Universiteit Maastricht. [Link→]
Ariane BOURGET, Rosalie LEBLANC HOULE, Julie-Michèle MORIN (2015). L’écart au coeur de l’extrême proximité, l’exemple de CREW et d’Ontroerend Goed. [Link→]
Maaike BLEEKER, Jon Foley SHERMAN, Eirini NEDELKOPOULOU (ed.) (2015). Performance and Phenomenology. Traditions and Transformations. Routledge. [Link→]
Charlotte BIGG (2015). Restaging astronomy. In: Restaging Chemistry at University College London (6 juillet 2015).

2014
Eirini NEDELKOPOULOU, Mary OLIVER (2014). Editorial Hybridities: The Intersections between Performance, Science and the Digital’. In: International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 10:2. p. 125–129 [Link→]
L. BLEUMERS, W. VAN DEN BROECK, B. LIEVENS & J. PIERSON (2014). Extending the field of view: a human-centred design perspective on 360° TV. In: Behaviour & Information Technology, 33 (8). p. 800–814
Catherine BOUKO (2014). Interactivity and immersion in a media-based performance. In: Participations Journal of audience and reception studies, Volume 11, Issue 1. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. [Link→]
Eirini NEDELKOPOULOU, Eric JORIS, Philippe BEKAERT, Kurt VANHOUTTE (2014). Editorial: On the border between performance, science and the digital.. In: International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 10:2. p. 246–254 [Link→]
Charlotte BIGG, Kurt VANHOUTTE (2014). On the border between performance, science and the digital: The embodied orrery. In: International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 10/2. p. 255–260

2013
Robin NELSON (2013). CREW’s Terra Nova: experiencing modes of immersion in actual-virtual space. In: Body, Space, Technology, Vol.11 No.2.
Nele WYNANTS (2013). De binnenkant van het beeld : een kunsthistorisch onderzoek naar immersie, theatraliteit en ervaring. Doctoral Thesis. Universiteit Antwerpen, Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte, 2013. [Link→]
Helena DE PREESTER (2013). De onbewoonbaarheid van beelden, essay at the occasion of the ‘aXes’ exhibition in the castle of Gaasbeek, Brussels.

2012
Julie SERMON (2012). Distorting appearence, expanding inner space : technological manipulations of the perception. In: Utopia and Critical Thinking in the Creative Process. p. 105–122 [Link→]
2011
Sigrid MERX (2011). ‘From doing to performing phenomenology: implications and possibilities’. In: Foundations of Science special issue “Opening up the in-between” Vol.16.3. [Link→]
L. BLEUMERS, B. LIEVENS, J. PIERSON (2011). From Sensory Dream to Television Format: Gathering User Feedback on the Use and Experience of Omnidirectional Video-based Solutions. In: P. Turner (Ed.).Proceedings of the International Society for Presence Research Annual Conference (6p.). Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh Napier University. [Link→]
Catherine BOUKO , Natacha SLATER (2011). “Identity, otherness and the virtual double”. In: Technoetic Arts: a journal of speculative research, Vol. 9, n°1. p. 17–30 [Link→]
Nele WYNANTS, Claire SWYZEN (ed) (2011). Landschapstheater in kaart : van tekstueel tot virtueel landschap Het statuut van de tekst in het postdramatische theater. Brussel [Link→]
Catherine BOUKO (2011). Les parcours immersifs et l’expérience quotidienne de la marche. In: Réel-Virtuel, revue électronique éditée par l’Université de Paris 1, Vol. 2. [Link→]
Rosemary KLICH, Edward SCHEER (2011). Multimedia Performance. Bloomsbury publishing. [Link→]
J. DECOCK, , J. VAN LOOY, L. BLEUMERS & P. BEKAERT (2011). The Pleasure of Being (There?): An Explorative Study into the Effects of Presence and Identification on the Enjoyment of an Interactive Theatrical Performance using Omni-Directional Video.. In: P. Turner (Ed.).Proceedings of the International Society for Presence Research Annual Conference (12p.).. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh Napier University. [Link→]

2010
Kurt VANHOUTTE & Nele WYNANTS (2010). Performing Phenomenology: Negotiating Presence in Intermedial Theatre. In: Foundations of Science, 17. p. 275–284 [Link→] [Download→]

2009
Kurt VANHOUTTE, Eric JORIS (2009). Dans van het verkabelde lichaam. In: Homo futuris: kunstenaars en wetenschappers over mens en maatschappij in de toekomst. p. 102–119 Gent: Unesco Centrum Vlaanderen. [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE, Nele WYNANTS (2009). Pending presence: negotiating the space in between. In: Klaveren, van, Rosanne [edit.]; et al. [edit.].Space cowboys: how art creates, networks and visualises hybrid spaces. p. 58–72 Genk: Media and Design Academy. [Link→]

2008
Kurt VANHOUTTE , Liesbeth HUYBRECHTS [edit.] (2008). Reis naar de binnenkant van het beeld: immersie en narrativiteit. In: Crossover: kunst, media en technologie in Vlaanderen. p. 105–113 Leuven: LannooCampus. [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE, Nele WYNANTS & Philippe BEKAERT (2008). Being inside the image: heightening the sense of presence in a video captured environment through artistic means.. In: Spagnolli, Anna [edit.]; e.a..Presence 2008: proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Presence in Padova. p. 157–162 Padova: Libraria Universitaria Padova. [Link→]
Fleur BOKHOVEN, Maaike BLEEKER (ed) (2008). ‘Crash’. In: Anatomy Live: Performance and the Operating Theatre. p. 205–209 Amsterdam University Press. [Link→]
Kim GORUS (2008). Het falen als kunst. Digitale ontsporingen in het werk van Peter Verhelst. Kunst van het falen: esthetisch denken in de greep van de machine. In: p. 93–114 ISBN 978-90-209-7916-9: LannooCampus.

2007
Chris HERMANS, Maarten DUMONT, Philip BEKAERT, Eric JORIS (2007). A Camera-Projection System for Telematic Omni-Presence with Correct Eye Gaze. In: Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality 2007. Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2007). Les nouveaux médias et le tragique. In: Berghe, van den, Paul [edit.].Oedipe contemporain? Tragédie, tragique, politique /. p. 294–305 Vic la Gardiole, Entretemps. [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2007). Reality panic: theater in het tijdperk van zijn technologische immersie. In: FotoMuseum magazine. p. 34–44 Antwerpen, Provincie. Provincieraad. Bestendige Deputatie. [Link→]

2006
Kurt VANHOUTTE, Eric JORIS (2006). Flashes I. In: Dietsche warande en Belfort : tijdschrift voor letterkunde, kunst en geestesleven. p. 130–133 [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE, Eric JORIS (2006). Flashes II. In: Dietsche warande en Belfort : tijdschrift voor letterkunde, kunst en geestesleven. p. 292–297 [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE, Eric JORIS (2006). Flashes III. In: Dietsche warande en Belfort : tijdschrift voor letterkunde, kunst en geestesleven. [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE, Eric JORIS (2006). Flashes IV. In: Dietsche warande en Belfort : tijdschrift voor letterkunde, kunst en geestesleven. [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2006). Genealogieën van de toekomst. In: Havens, Henk [edit.].Theater & technologie. p. 170–190 Utrecht: Theater Instituut Nederland. [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE, Eric JORIS (2006). Radical confluences. In: Maska: časopis za scenske umetnosti – 21:1/2(2006). p. 130–133 [Link→]
Birgit CLEPPE (2006). Theater maken. Architecturale strategieën van hedendaagse podiumkunstenaars.. Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen Universiteit Gent. [Link→]

2004
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2004). Het virulente lichaam van Philoctetes. In: Dietsche warande en Belfort : tijdschrift voor letterkunde, kunst en geestesleven. p. 290–308 [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2004). Performatieve technologie: het perspectief van CREW. In: Proscenium : vakblad voor klank, licht en podiumtechniek. p. 13–22 [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2004). Prosthetic gods. In: ThK: journal of art theory and practice – 7:3(2004. p. 55–59 [Link→]

2003
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2003). De implosie van de avant-garde in de technologie (?) Het internet als atopische of utopische schouwburg?. In: Steunpunt Re-Creatief Vlaanderen, 2003. p. 78–90 Gent [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE (2003). Machines op het middaguur: werkverslag van Philoctetes/Man-o-war. In: Etcetera. p. 49–54 [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE, R. ASCOTT [edit.] (2003). The virulent body of Philoctetes: integrating performance art and technology Consciousness reframed. Perth: Curtin University of Technology. [Link→]

2002
Kurt VANHOUTTE [et al.] (2002). Multimedia as a prosthesis: mingling live performance arts and virtuality. In: Proceedings The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. p. 7–9 Toronto [Link→]
Tom DEWEYER, Karin CONINX & Frank VAN REETH (2002). Proceedings of CWUAAT. In: Keates, S. & Langdon, P. & Clarkson, P.J. & Robinson, P. (Ed.). p. 53–63 [Link→]
Kurt VANHOUTTE, Eric JORIS, Tom DE WEYER & Frank VAN REETH (2002). The virulent body of Philoctetes : integrating performance art and technology. Perth, Australia: CAiiA STAR 2002 Research Conference. [Link→]

2001
Tom DEWEYER, Karin CONINX & Frank VAN REETH (2001). Intuitive modelling and integration of imaginative 3D scenes in the theatre. In: Proceedings of the Virtual Reality International Conference 2001. p. 167–173 Laval, France [Link→]