During their one-year-long residency at iMAL, CREW conducted research and further experimentation on their new project Tremens.

CREW has been exploring new artistic digital modes of expression and pushing the boundaries between art, technology and human perception since the 90's. Coming from the performing arts field, Crew Brussels is, in fact, one of the pioneering collectives in exploring XR technologies from an artistic perspective. Their experimental applications make experienceable how technologies change us (and not the other way around) and led to the very first embodied VR performances.

For several years now, CREW has been working on a new base that allows audiences to explore large virtual worlds and interact live within them with performers and so called intelligent autonomous avatars. Artistically and performatively, the collective is currently experimenting with the new creation Tremens.

Their previous experience with Delirious Departures, an installation during Europalia Trains & Tracks that brought 3D scans of railwaystations & environments into the museum space, has taught them that this is an ideal environment.
The installation took about 80 square meters, dedicated for one performer and one 'immersant' (the latter with video glasses) at a time and interacted beautifully with museum-goers that were accidentally passing by. Tremens aims at bringing together several other immersants, which are physically crossing these large 3D worlds together, walking from one room to another, meeting dozens of avatars, aware of the participants presence and even addressing them personally at moments.

How to physically navigate through a virtual building when we are, in reality, walking through a completely different one? And how can an audience without video goggles witness your immersion? With ‘Tremens’, the artists are enlarging the performative playing field, while working around 'the promise' that precedes every hype and without which no progress seems possible.

This residency was made possible by the transnational cooperation project Realities in Transition, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, which aims at supporting alternative Extended Reality (XR) productions. CREW's research residency at iMAL is a major contribution to the further expansion of the field of XR as artistic medium.

The public will have the opportunity to experience CREW's new production in a public presentation in November 2024, having accomplished a one-year residency at iMAL.

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 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 (insert piece). CREW served as a model case in the European Union’s S+T+ARTS 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.

Members: Eric Joris (Artistic director), Isjtar Vandebroeck (Artist & Technical director), Lauranne Nédée (Coordinator), Haryo Sukmawanto (Technical-artistic collaborator), Anouk Focquier (Distribution)