The ear as a window – how 3D audio expands the stage

What happens when the audience immerses themselves in the action via headphones? What level of experience does acoustic proximity open up?
Director and author Christiane Mudra stages investigative theater evenings on highly topical social issues, including those outside of traditional theater spaces. In her productions "Selfie & Ich" about mental illness in a meritocratic society and "The Holy Bitch Project" about domestic sexual and digital violence against women, she uses 3D audio to bring the audience closer to the protagonists' experiences.
The immersive sound was developed by Martin Rieger (VRtonung). In close collaboration with Christiane Mudra, an acoustic dramaturgy was created based on the text version and original sound recordings, condensing authentic testimonials, spoken dialogues, and psychoacoustic elements into an emotionally immersive listening space.
A central element of both productions: the audience wears headphones throughout the entire performance. This creates an intimate proximity to the protagonists. Voices move around the head, sounds flicker up close, acoustic perspectives shift. In addition to the stage action, another space emerges in the ear – personal, collective.
We will present sound examples, reflect on the challenges and opportunities of this form, and report on audience reactions. This lecture is aimed at anyone who understands sound not just as an effect, but as a narrative tool—and who wants to know how to create theater for the ears.

Christiane Mudra (director, author and founder of investigative theater) & Martin Rieger (VRtonung)

Christiane Mudra is a director, author, and founder of investigative theater. For more than 10 years, the core of her productions has been journalistic, long-term research into political topics such as right-wing extremism, surveillance, and misogyny. For many years, she has worked with digital tools and interactive formats, often outside of traditional stage settings. Recent productions in Munich and Berlin included "The Holy Bitch Project," about domestic, sexual, and digital violence against women; "Selfie & Me," an evening about mental illness in a meritocratic society; and "Hotel Utopia," an interactive board game about the value of passports, in the control tower of Tempelhof Airport. In 2024, BETA, her first music theater production about the threat to democracy posed by Big Tech, premiered in the carpentry workshop of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She was an artist in residence at the Venice Biennale and directed in Brazil. Her film "The Holy Bitch Project" screened at the 2023 NYC Independent Film Festival. For "No Complainant – Nazi Lawyers and Their Postwar Careers" (2019), she filmed interviews with 10 contemporary witnesses from Germany and Israel, including the prosecutors from the Eichmann and Auschwitz trials, to make them visible in Munich's urban space using augmented reality and an app. Christiane Mudra's research on right-wing extremism has also been published in nonfiction books and podcasts, for example, in the series "Terrorism – Strategy of Terror" published by the Federal Agency for Civic Education.