“Griefbots in Research and on the Stage” — Ulrike Quade (Ulrike Quade Company), Sorcha Ní Bhraonáin (Ulrike Quade Company), and Evelyn Wan (Utrecht University)

What remains of a person after death? And what happens when technology becomes a means to fill that void?

Technology as a tool for grief

The theatre performance Roman & ELIZA by Ulrike Quade Company is about technology as a tool for grief, and relationships between humans and griefbots. The performance is inspired by the world’s first chatbot, ELIZA, and the true story of Roman Mazurenko. After Roman’s death, his partner Charly uploads messages and photos to ELIZA, resurrecting Roman’s digital presence. What follows is a charged interplay between a grieving lover and Roman’s shadow, trapped in a data center. 

On Wednesday 20 May 2026, Ulrike Quade will speak about this creation and the research that informs it. She will be joined by dramaturg Sorcha Ní Bhraonáin (Ulrike Quade Company), and media and performance studies artist-scholar Evelyn Wan (Utrecht University). What kind of phenomena are griefbots? What happens to the data of the deceased when they are created? What do they do with the process of grief and mourning? How can theatre provide a space for investigating this, and make the consequences of such technical innovations relatable and experiential?

The discussion will be moderated by media and performance scholar Laura Karreman (Utrecht University).

For Ulrike Quade Company, technology is integral to the creative process, enabling them to explore new forms of storytelling and artistic expression. Together with researchers from technology, science, and the humanities, they explore the creative potential and the social, philosophical, and societal implications of technology.

About the speakers

Ulrike Quade is a theatre maker and artistic researcher. She creates visual theatre at the intersection of scenography, technology, science and society . With a background in Japanese puppetry and a Master in Scenography (Central Saint Martins, London & HKU, Utrecht) she investigates how form, space and technology create meaning and raise questions about our humanity. Her work examines the influence of technological developments such as AI, digital networks and robotics. Quade sees theater as a space for experiment and research, where urgent social issues become imaginable, visible, and tangible.  As an artistic researcher, she actively engages in societal and academic discourses on how technology influences daily life and how people influence its development. From a critical-performative perspective and with a creative approach, she involves students, researchers, and artists in this dialogue. Ulrike Quade collaborates internationally with scientific and artistic partners and received the Wim Meilink Prize for her oeuvre.

Sorcha Ní Bhraonáin is a dramaturg-researcher in performance, art and technology at Ulrike Quade Company. She did research and dramaturgy for the 2026 performance Roman & ELIZA about grief in the digital age and her chapter on the making of Roman & ELIZA features in Maaike Bleeker’s forthcoming edited volume on Bleeker and Quade’s ongoing artistic research collaboration (Routledge, 2026). Previously Sorcha undertook research with IDlab (Amsterdam University of the Arts) for the Horizon Europe project PREMiERE where she co-wrote a deliverable on the ethics of motion-capture based artistic research. Throughout her rMA, Sorcha worked as research assistant to Transmission in Motion at Utrecht University and Editor in Chief of Junctions, co-editing their 2024 issue ‘Transformative Kinships’. Her article on cloud ethics in the multi-media installation ‘Entanglement’ at the 2021 Venice Biennale was published by Irish University Review (Edinburgh University Press, 2024). As of 2026, she coordinates the plasticity research group at the interdisciplinary university alliance Centre for Unusual Collaborations.

Dr. Evelyn Wan is an artist-scholar and dramaturg. She is Assistant Professor in Media, Arts, and Society at the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University, where she coordinates the MA Arts and Society programme and works on interdisciplinary curriculum innovation in Humane AI. An award-winning scholar in media and performance studies, her work facilitates inter- and trans-disciplinary dialogues across theory and practice, grounded in feminist and decolonial scholarship.

This event is funded by the SIG AI in Cultural Inquiry and Art.

This session is part of the Transmission in Motion seminar (2025-2026): “Navigating Entanglements.” To stay updated with more seminar sessions, please subscribe to our newsletter.