Digital twin of actor and AI costumer: GITIS presents theatre of future at hackathon

The Russian Institute of Theatre Arts – GITIS has concluded Russia’s first cross-disciplinary hackathon (“Theatre. AI. Human”), a team event in which participants develop prototypes of new products within a limited timeframe. The teams presented working prototypes of solutions for the performing arts to the experts, developed using artificial intelligence (AI). The TV BRICS International Media Network served as the event’s international media partner.

Participants – students of theatre, technical and medical universities – worked for a week on projects in three areas: the use of AI in theatre practice, the application of neuroscience and the creation of the “theatre of the future”.

One of the most striking outcomes of the hackathon was a project for creating a digital twin of an actor. “The project consists in digitising an actor and selling this digitised model. For example, it can be used to create separate video clips and sell them to game developers. [...] To display, for instance, the actor’s thoughts on stage in the form of a hologram [...] And this is not a pre-recorded video – the neural network creates the hologram online,” shared sound engineer Elizaveta Kudryavtseva (GITIS, 2nd year). She noted that the biggest challenge was finding technical specialists to implement the idea.

Another practically orientated development was an AI assistant for costume designers. “It does not offer any creative solutions. As a costume designer, I tell it what I want to do, and it solves certain technical issues. It quickly visualises, rapidly selects materials and calculates the budget,” said Polina Vylegzhanina (GITIS, 4th year). According to her, the project was named “The Costume Designer’s Apprentice” and is intended not to replace creativity but to accelerate work processes.

Experts highly appreciated the potential of the ideas presented. “On the one hand, the trends are fairly standard. It is clear where artificial intelligence can be applied: various avatars and an assistant. [...] On the other hand, the students have done well; together with their mentors, they have indeed captured the trends correctly,” concluded Andrey Raigorodsky, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Director of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics.

The first hackathon, “Theatre. AI. Human”, was launched at GITIS on 18 November with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Russia and the Priority 2030 programme. Its aim was to develop innovative products and methodologies for theatre. The event was held in a hybrid format: the launch and main project work took place online, while the final was held in person at the GITIS campus in Moscow. The winning teams will receive prizes, and the best developments will be implemented at the institute in 2026.

Photo: Dragos Condrea / iStock