Pilots
Perfolab Lisbon
A week of performing arts and technology projects with students in videogame, acting, digital humanities, and computer engineering degrees from Portugal, Italy, and Spain, focused on ecology and green practices.
First Pilot Workshop on transdisciplinary methodologies in Performing arts and technologies.
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Date
2nd to 6th February 2026
Main theme
Ecology, green practices
Impact of digitalization in local, national, and global environments, pollution and waste management of computer and mobile devices, consequences of mining of rare minerals, impact of e-commerce in transportation and production chains.
Entry point
“questioning technology”, “taking science out of the lab”, "humanizing technology”, and “path to progress”
Challenges
This workshop invites students to investigate the environmental impacts of digital technologies through the lens of media ecologies, combining practices from ecology, physical computing, videogames, and performance. Rather than treating media as immaterial or virtual, the work foregrounds the material interdependence between the digital world and the living planet: rare mineral extraction, energy consumption, infrastructures of data circulation, and the global trajectories of electronic waste. Encourage participants to physically explore or enact these processes, e.g., through gesture-based mapping of e-waste flows or performative representations of digital infrastructures.
Students will work in mixed interdisciplinary teams, integrating individuals from performative and technological areas, and bringing together participants from the three partner universities. Each team will develop a site-based or site-responsive creative research project. Forms may include ecological sensing systems, documentary interventions, participative installations, speculative artworks, or interactive or body-activated elements where participants’ movements affect the installation or performance.
collaboration
Beyond Green Games, a project founded by Isabelle Arvers (Kareron) and Livia Diniz, contributes to the Perfolab Lisbon pilot through a practice-based methodology combining ecological media art, performative research, and critical videogame design. Within the framework of TRANSPER, the project leads an augmented walk exploring media ecologies in the urban environment, inviting participants to investigate the material and environmental dimensions of digital infrastructures through embodied and site-responsive practices. This is complemented by an ideation and prototyping workshop in which interdisciplinary teams developed experimental projects that merge 360° capture, 3D scanning techniques, and environments created in game engines.
Schedule
Day 1 (2nd February - Monday)
| Time | Duration | Activity | Room | Games Students | Acting Students | Upna+Unige Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00–11:00 | 1h | Introduction Challenges & entry points Individual pre-assessment Oscar Ardaiz |
Z02 | X | X | X |
| 11:00–12:00 | 1h | Media geologies Rui Antunes Occupy the digital art and games space Isabelle Arvers |
Z02 | X | X | X |
| 12:00–13:00 | 1h | Make groups based on challenge Project requirements |
Z02 | X | X | X |
| 13:00–14:00 | 1h | Lunch Break | ||||
| 14:00–17:00 | 3h | Augmented walk Isabelle Arvers |
Jardim do Campo Grande | X | X | X |
Day 2 (3rd February – Tuesday)
| Time | Duration | Activity | Room | Games Students | Acting Students | Upna+Unige Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00–13:00 | 3h | Playability: Alternative controllers João Cabral |
Z02 | X | X | |
| 10:00–13:00 | 2h | Practices of Attention (A) Sílvia Pinto Coelho |
Y05 | X(A) | ||
| 13:00–14:00 | 1h | Lunch | ||||
| 14:00–16:00 | 2h | Performative & Immersive Technologies: Creative coding Oscar Ardaiz Multimodal Systems for the Performing Arts Gualtiero Volpe |
Z02 | X | X | |
| 16:00–18:00 | 2h | Practices of Attention (B) Sílvia Pinto Coelho |
Y05 | X(B) | X |
Day 3 (4th February – Wednesday)
| Time | Duration | Activity | Room | Games Students | Acting Students | Upna+Unige Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00–13:00 | 3h | Ideation/Prototyping Isabelle Arvers / João Cabral |
Z02 Y08 |
X | X | X |
| 13:00–14:00 | 1h | Lunch Break | ||||
| 14:00–17:00 | 3h | Prototyping Isabelle Arvers / João Cabral |
Z02 Y08 |
X | X | X |
Day 4 (5th February - Thursday)
| Time | Duration | Activity | Room | Games Students | Acting Students | Upna+Unige Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00–13:00 | 3h | Prototyping / Presentation preparation |
Z02 Y08 |
X | X | X |
| 13:00–14:00 | 1h | Lunch Break | ||||
| 14:00–15:00 | 1h | No Endgame: Performance, Play, Recycling for Sustainable Futures (Round table) Ana Rita Moreira (.JF. Lumiar) Ana Matos (Electrão) Gustavo Ciríaco chaired by Inês Marques |
U31 | X | X | X |
| 15:00–16:00 | 30m | Groups final presentations Closing |
U31 | X | X | X |
Day 5 (6th February - Friday)
| Time | Duration | Activity | Room | Games Students | Acting Students | Upna+Unige Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00–11:00 | 1h | Focus Group | Meeting room CICANT | X |
RESOURCES
- Welcome document
- Intro
- Challenge document
- Creativity workshop (Brainstorming)
- Occupy the art and game digital space
- Media Geology
- Multimodal systems for the performing Arts
- Performative and immersive technologies for the Performing Arts
- Pose and motion capture with Mediapipe + python file reading indicator (video input) + python file bouncing ball (webcam input)
- Result Sheet
- Satisfaction Survey
Group photo with the PERFOLAB Lisbon participants and the TRANSPER team at Lusófona University - Lisbon University Centre.
How to get to Quinta das Conchas e dos Liláses
By Metro: Quinta das Conchas (Yellow Line)
By foot: