One of the main aims of this project was to take stock of the current situation, by looking at schools in ten European countries that provide training in scenography and stage technology, and to examine how they are tackling these changes. As most schools are poorly equipped in terms of advanced technologies, we also wanted to test the pedagogical potential of miniaturized equipment on the scale of a scale model, enabling students to learn how to use them to explore their creative potential. The project's cross-cutting aim was to encourage exchanges between equivalent schools in Europe, to initiate a network of exchanges of ideas and best practices between teachers, and to foster intercultural exchanges by uniting students from different countries around the legacy of scenographer Josef Svoboda, a pioneer of the advanced technologies we use today. We also wanted this project to be aimed not only at art school students, but also at young non-students with guidance difficulties, to introduce them to the technical professions of the performing arts, and inspire them to start or resume training for a career in stage management.
With the digital transition and the development of advanced technologies, the performing arts industry of the 21st century is equipped with ever more innovative tools, which entail major investment and training needs: while machines and automation often replace jobs in industry, the same cannot be said of the performing arts industry, where each new technology that enters the scene generates the need for new specialists to know how to implement it and exploit its creative potential. Tackling this transition is a challenge for the schools that train tomorrow's creators. On the one hand, many do not have the necessary equipment, and on the other, teachers are not always trained in this area. A generation gap is widening, and there are major disparities from one school to another, and from one country to another. We felt it was important to launch a debate on how to support and optimize this transition, and to explore ways of optimizing the employability of the young designers and technicians who will be entering the job market tomorrow, a market that has become hungry for skills in high-tech and intermedia management.