Elena di Euripide

Art Direction — Scenic Design — Live digital drawing

Euripides' Helen. Teatro La Fenice, Senigallia (2022).

The fourth collaboration between the Digital Experience Lab held by Daniele Tabellini at UNIRSM Design and the Classical Theatre Lab of Liceo Perticari directed by Giorgio Sebastianelli. After Macbeth (2022), Le Nuvole (2023), and Inseguendo Orlando (2024), this was the year Daniele asked a different question: what if the scenography could be drawn live?

Students became a visual orchestra, performing live on stage with iPads, Tagtool, and a generative AI engine enabled via TouchDesigner, translating Euripides' text into live drawings, shadows, and light. Not behind a screen. Inside the scene.

The most unexpected instruments were three flags. Golden banners — made from emergency thermal blankets, the kind used to rescue people crossing the Mediterranean — were carried on stage by student performers. Wrapped in conductive tape and connected to an Ableton Live setup controlled from the wings, these flags became sound instruments: when moved, oscillated, or pressed, they generated live audio. Waves. Wind. The sea. The same sea Elena crossed, the same sea people still cross today. One flag, one performer, one scene: a solo. The sound distorted at the end, like an overdriven guitar amplifier breaking apart.

The Elena Sessions explored the boundary between instrument and gesture, between authored image and improvised mark, between ancient text and present emergency. Part performance, part design process, part experiment in collective presence.

About the Lab

Each production is the final project of the Digital Experience Lab, a semester-long course in the Master's Degree in Interaction & Experience Design at UNIRSM Design. Starting from a brief on making the invisible visible, students learn to research, design and direct complex open source projects, approaching generative design, creative coding and machine learning from a designer's perspective, with the methods of a creative technologist, art director and artist. The final project is not a prototype: it is a live performance in a real theatre, where the scenography they built runs in front of an audience. All tools and documentation are released as open source on GitHub.

Course Syllabus

Poster

Docs

GitHub Wiki (new tab)

Credits

Scenic Design 

Art Direction: Daniele Tabellini
Scenography and drawings: students from the Master's Degree in Interaction & Experience Design at the University of the Republic of San Marino
Project support: G. D'Ambrosio, T. Lucinato, E. Lumini, P. Petrangolini
A D/venti initiative for the twentieth anniversary of UNIRSM Design
Technical sponsors: OMAI, Tagtool, DataTrade
Tech: Tagtool / Touchdesigner / Live drawings and generative visuals + Custom flags + Live sounds

Students: Morte Oro: Silvia Bonfini (@SilviaB2111), Fabio Caponetto (@fabioocaponetto), Andrea Mannino (@Scatalozzo97) / Doppio Oro: Nico Adamo (@Nicoadamo99), Alessia Lo Preiato (@alessialpr), Amelia Messina (@mlmssn), Giada Succi (@GiadaSucci) / Divino: Arianna Faccioli (@arifaccioli), Marta Gulino (@mirti01), Giulia Marchetti (@GiuliaMarck) / Mare: Gaia Zuccaro (@zetalcontrario), Domenico De Pasquali (@ddepasquali), Edoardo Oliva (@edoli01), Andrea Scorrano (@Andresco1799) / Audio Support: Giulia Costantini (@gggggggggiulia), Francesco Lodovici (francescolodovici), Stella Azzolin (@Stellaaa13)

Text

Directed by Giorgio Sebastianelli
Performed by students from the Classical Theatre Lab of the G. Perticari State Classical High School (Senigallia, IT)
Choreography: M. Mancini, C. Mari, M. C. Mazzaferri, R. Onori
Dance Therapist: M. Mancini
Costume Design: M. C. Mazzaferri
Collaboration: M. Bellocchi, M. C. Mazzaferri, R. Onori
Sound Design: S. Barchiesi
Assistant Director: S. Giudilli, P. Vici

Images