Sebastian Schmidt
Artist in Residence
Sebastian Schmidt is a contemporary dancer, choreographer, and dance educator. He began his formal training at the Palucca University of Dance in Dresden, where he developed a strong foundation in ballet, improvisation, and contemporary dance. He later completed a Bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Dance Pedagogy at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK) and is currently enrolled in the Master of Arts Education program at MUK.
As a performer, he has appeared in a variety of theatre and stage productions, including works presented at the Schönbrunn Palace Theatre, Theater Nestroyhof Hamakom, WUK Vienna, and several graduation productions at MUK. His artistic work combines technical precision with openness to contemporary performance practices.
Alongside his performance work, Sebastian Schmidt is developing his choreographic voice. His piece Encounter, created in choreographic collaboration with Victoria Becker, has been presented at several venues in Austria and abroad. In his choreographic practice, improvisation serves as a central research tool through which movement, structure, and composition emerge.
In addition to his artistic work, he is active as a dance educator, teaching contemporary dance, ballet, and creative movement to diverse age groups. His interests focus on collaborative processes, artistic research, and the dialogue between pedagogy and contemporary performance.
"The Weight of a Prompt", 2025
Contemporary dance performance
The Weight of a Prompt is a contemporary dance performance that explores the hidden ecological impact of artificial intelligence.
The work focuses on the water consumption behind AI systems, especially the resources needed to cool data centers. While AI often appears fast, invisible and weightless in everyday life, the performance asks what material traces these digital processes leave behind.
Through movement, physical tension and choreographic repetition, the piece translates abstract data into a bodily experience. The dancers explore the contrast between the smooth, seamless use of AI and the heavy infrastructure that supports it. The “prompt” becomes something with weight, consequence and physical presence.
Developed during the residency, the performance draws from research, discussion and embodied experimentation. It reflects on the relationship between technology, water, sustainability and responsibility, making visible what usually remains hidden behind screens and systems.
The Weight of a Prompt invites the audience to question the resources behind contemporary digital life and to consider how seemingly immaterial technologies are deeply connected to the natural world.
