MAX operates at the intersection of artistic creation, scientific inquiry and technology. Photo: Hayley Pfitzer

Since ancient times, theater has served as a mirror for society, with the stage acting as a site of representation and reflection where communities confront the forces shaping their realities, from politics and power to identity and belonging. In an era when our relationship to reality is increasingly mediated by devices that filter, support and structure perception and communication, the theatrical stage and performative space have emerged as natural platforms for experimentation across body, language, gesture and technology. Yet, traditional theater has long resisted this mediatization, clinging to a conservative posture that, for years, also defined much of the museum world, rejecting technology and digital expression as though they belonged solely to entertainment or spectacle. However, that resistance is beginning to erode. Theater and performance are opening new spaces for presentation and exchange within the expanding realms of technology and science.

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One clear example of this shift is Media Art Xploration (MAX), a creative laboratory, production studio and incubator dedicated to discovering, supporting and producing ambitious artistic projects that merge scientific inquiry with cutting-edge technology to reflect the pulse of contemporary culture. Operating at the intersection of art, science and technology, MAX places particular emphasis on performance, theater and multimedia art, catalyzing live and immersive experiences developed by collaborative teams of artists, scientists and creative technologists. Through its open-call fellowship program, MAXMachina functions as a true creative partner, offering financial, logistical and community support to ensure each selected group has the resources needed to realize its vision fully.

Following MAX’s recent presentations in New York, including the immersive sound experience Sonic Sunset, which debuted at the Museum of the Moving Image and the public showing of the first works by its MAXMachina fellows this November at MiTU580, Observer spoke with the genius ex machina behind the organization, Kay Matschullat, executive and producing director of MAX: Media Art Xploration.

Matschullat prefers to describe MAX as a laboratory—something that can function as both a production studio and an incubator, much like startup accelerators in the sciences. “Sometimes we’re the ones who catalyze the piece—we come up with the idea, gather the group and set things in motion. Other times, the piece comes to us already formed and we step in to support it, bringing collaborators together or working with collectives that already exist,” she explains. “It’s really a kind of scientific laboratory in that sense.”

With an extensive background in performance, Matschullat has directed premieres of plays by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Derek Walcott, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ariel Dorfman and Václav Havel, among others.

After decades in the theater, however, she began to feel the form was stagnating. “I began to feel like we were turning into an antique store. I wanted to find a way to........

© Observer