Key details
Professor Jorge Lopes Ramos
Professor of Interactive Theatre and Performance; Practice Hub Lead
Over the past two decades, Jorge's research has addressed a fast growing, yet significantly unresearched area of investigation: immersive, participatory and interactive theatre. His research contributions have helped advance the subject area, both nationally and internationally, through an extensive record of original, significant and rigorous research through publications in book chapters, research reports, conference papers and practice-as-research (PAR) outputs. Prior to joining the University of Greenwich, his research outputs formed part of University of East London's REF2014 submission.
Over the past 15 years, Jorge's PAR outputs have taken the form of performances and productions, digital work, public installations and exhibitions in venues, conferences and festivals including TaPRA (Cardiff and Sheffield), IFTR Munich, London2012, Southbank Centre (Hayward Gallery), FACT Liverpool, LIFT Festival, The Lowry, Latitude Festival, Summerhall Edinburgh, Festival de La Imagen (Manizales), Festival du Nouveau Cinema (Montréal), University of Campinas (São Paulo), WorldCup 2014 Official Cultural Programme, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Concordia University (Montréal), amongst others.
His most significant production to date was Hotel Medea (2006-2012) - recognised as a pioneer in the field of immersive theatre in books by leading researchers Babbage (2011), White (2013), Sigal, Hodgman, Turner (2013), Trencsényi, Cochrane (2014), Alston (2016), Lavender (2016), Frieze (2017), Komporaly (2017) and Kekis (2019). Beyond academia, Hotel Medea reached over 7,200 audiences and secured international awards, 'critics choice' titles and 5* reviews in various publications (METRO, Time Out, Sunday Times, Scotsman), influencing a wide range of researchers and theatre makers internationally.
As co-founder and Executive Director of ZU-UK, he has also worked with Artistic Director Persis Jadé Maravala to create #RioFoneHack (2012-), Binaural Dinner Date (2016-), Pick Me Up & Hold Me Tight (2018-) and Radio Ghost (2020-), as well as creation and delivery of the DRIFT International Residency (2006-), Body Brain Bingo for UCL/Wellcome Trust (2017-18) and Garota Hacker for British Council's DICE Programme and Battersea Arts Centre's Co-Creating Change (2019).
For more information please visit: zu-uk.com
Responsibilities within the university
- Practice Hub Lead
Awards
- 2022 Lumen Prize Winner – 3D/Interactive Digital Art Award
- 2022 IndieCade Nominee – Live Action Category
- 2021 British Council International Collaboration Award (UK, Brazil, Colombia)
- 2020 Co-Creating Change Award for Garota Hacker (Battersea Arts Centre and CCC network)
- 2019 East London Innovator - HereEast, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
- 2019 Leader in Participatory Theatre & Performance Art - Greater London Enterprise Awards
- 2018 Developing Inclusive Creative Economies, awarded by British Council DICE Programme
- 2017 Best of 2016 - Latin Culture Social Congress, Rio de Janeiro
- 2016 Arts Council ELEVATE Programme - Creative Case for Diversity
- 2014 THE SPACE Digital Theatre Prize Finalist
- 2014 State of Rio de Janeiro Award for Socially Engaged Art
- 2011 Herald Angel Prize for Hotel Medea, Edinburgh Festival
- 2011 Prix Ars Eletronica (Austria) - Honorary Mention for category: Hybrid Art
- 2010 Total Theatre Awards – Finalist category: Innovation
- 2010 Oxford Samuel Beckett Trust Foundation Finalist
Recognition
- Horizon Fellow at Concordia University, Montréal (2022)
- External Examiner MA Virtual Reality at UWE (2019-22)
- Fellow of Rose Bruford College (awarded 2019)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)
- Member of International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR)
- Member of Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA)
Research / Scholarly interests
Hacking the familiar | Jorge Lopes Ramos | TEDxUniversityofGreenwich
From making all the pay-phones in the UK ring at the same time in response to suicide rates, to creating a dating agency using binaural sound, Brazilian-born Jorge Lopes Ramos reflects on how his inferiority complex and his very long name have impacted on his way of creating interactive theatre and games. During this talk, he invites his audience to create something new, together - in less than 1 minute (if you watch until the end).
TEDx video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QCFSEr4Dik
Over the past two decades, Jorge's research has addressed a fast growing, yet significantly unresearched area of investigation: immersive, participatory and interactive theatre. His research contributions have helped advance the subject area, both nationally and internationally, through an extensive record of original, significant and rigorous research through publications in book chapters, research reports, conference papers and PAR outputs. Over the past 15 years, Jorge's practice-as-research outputs have taken the form of performances and productions, digital work, public installations and exhibitions in venues, conferences and festivals.
For more from Jorge Lopes Ramos and his work with Persis Jadé Maravala, visit ZU-UK: https://www.zu-uk.com
Research/Scholarly interests
Jorge's research career started twenty ago in Brazil, after completing an intensive course with Augusto Boal on the key principles of Theatre of The Oppressed. Before meeting Boal and understanding the Forum Theatre methodology, he had not realised that extraordinary art and activism were not mutually exclusive and could be such powerful allies for personal growth and social change. Until that moment, he had not seen a place for himself in the world of art or indeed in academia. Jorge also understood that games and theatre were intrinsically connected, and that relationship never left his practice.
Jorge was born at the end of the Brazilian dictatorship and raised within Borel (one of Rio de Janeiro's largest favelas) to a Polish and Romanian immigrant family. His grandfather was a watchmaker and his grandmother a street fruit seller in Rio. His mother was the first person in her family to get a University degree, and his late father dedicated his life to his two passions: art and politics, being one of the founders of Brazil's Workers Party in the early 80's. As a working-class 18-year-old student in Rio de Janeiro, what eventually brought him to the UK was a deep sense of curiosity about another cultural context, coupled with a desire to understand his own culture from the outside. As a result, his research career was shaped through a rich set of international, multi-cultural and cross-disciplinary relationships and driven by this newfound commitment to personal growth and development. This personal experience as an outsider has deeply informed him about the professional practice and research through MPhil and PhD (available below), and always defines why he makes the work he does and who he makes it for.
The overlap between immersive theatre, game-design and interactive technology has never been so relevant. This presents us with new challenges - from the sustainability of the professional practice to the ethics of audience participation. Therefore, since 2012 as a result of his work with Hotel Medea (2006-12), Jorge has led on a series of research projects to develop the scalability of intimate performance whilst retaining the quality and care in the live experience (2014-19) in over 5 conference, labs and symposia.
As well as his research practice, Jorge is committed to increasing access to postgraduate opportunities through a new practice-based VC Scholarship dedicated to researchers who are d/Deaf, Disabled and/or Neurodivergent.
PhD available to download:
Ramos, J. 2015. (Re-) Constructing the Actor-Audience Relationship in Immersive Theatre Practice. PhD Thesis University of East London Arts and Digital Industries
Download link:
https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/8552w
Funded Research Projects
Body Brain Bingo (2017-18) Funded by: Welcome Trust https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/projects/body-brain-bingo
Playing with Intimacy & Intensity Network (2019-20) Funded by: AHRC https://www.piinetwork.org/index.html
Urban Heat – Festivals in Transition (2015-18) Funded by: Creative Europe http://www.theatrefit.org/urbanheat.php
Garota Hacker (2019-20) Key Themes: Sustainable Fashion; Income Generation; Interactive Performance; Technology; Games. Funded by: British Council DICE Programme and Battersea Arts Centre's Co-Creating Change Network Partners: ZU-UK (London), Lá Da Favelinha (Belo Horizonte), Creative Youth Network (Bristol), Centro Popular de Conspiração Gargarullo (Rio de Janeiro) and others.