This is a research-creation project with Furkan Ak, director, actor and doctoral student in performing arts at the Conservatoire. He is developing participatory dramatirgues using immersive technologies.
As part of the EUR Arts et Humanités seminar Arts et mutations actuelles (ecologies, technologies), co-organized by Brigitte Joinnault and Stéphane Hervé, teacher-researchers in performing arts at Université Côte d'Azur.
This research on spectral dramaturgies explores how artistic works using immersive technologies challenge dominant narratives on migration by focusing on migrants' experiences. Drawing on hauntological dramaturgy and migration hauntology, I develop spectral dramaturgy as a theoretical framework in which recourse to the figure of the ghost metaphorizes the invisible but persistent presence of migrants in Western society. Moving beyond the "empathy machine" paradigm, I examine how immersive sound and virtual reality technologies create "haunting affects" that critically connect to migratory experiences. In this seminar, I will present works using different mediums, including my Rare Sun production and works by Clouds Over Sidra, to illustrate how performance and immersive technologies can create more nuanced understandings of migration.
Furkan Ak, trained in Turkey and Belgium, is a director, actor and doctoral student in performing arts at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. His work lies at the intersection of performance, memory and technology. His "practice as research" approach explores immersive technologies, hauntological dramaturgies and migration. His recent creations, Ghostly Matters and Rare Sun, use immersive sound and binaural recording techniques to evoke spectral presences and interrogate themes of displacement and urban memory. Rare Sun (2024), his final Master's project, premiered at the KVS and was a finalist for the Roel Verniers Award at the TheaterFestival. He is a regular contributor to international journals and magazines devoted to the performing and visual arts. Alongside his work as a director and researcher, Ak has acted in TV series and theater productions. He is currently developing Ghostly Places (2025), a virtual reality performance exploring migration, nocturnal urban spaces and immersive technology, as part of his ongoing research project Spectral Dramaturgies.
