Translocal Theater

Ritual as Method explores how ritual can operate as a spatial and media-based design system. The project takes the contemporary Chinese palace banquet as a cultural prototype. Rooted in traditional Chinese banquet culture and reconfigured through contemporary media technologies, it forms a complete cultural universe in which space, costume, food, performance, projection, and live transmission are intertwined. Based on this prototype, the project develops a translocal theatre across three sites: Taizhou, China; Penang, Malaysia; and Vienna, Austria, where participants are able to celebrate and interact with one another in real time. The project asks how cultural identity can be staged, embodied, and shared through architecture, media, and collective participation.