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Battle Royal Studios
Germany Berlin Intro： We’re a broad-minded creative powerhouse, passionate about all forms of experiential innovation. Our Berlin-based boutique agency offers specialised solutions and Creative Consulting for Hybrid Events, Show Production and Immersive Experiences. Our team is comprised of creatives, strategists, and event professionals working at the intersection of culture and commerce. We come from theatre, concerts, ground-breaking events, and exceptional Olympic ceremonies. This endows us with an unparalleled understanding of diverse audiences, and a special ability to craft unseen, bespoke concepts tailored to their needs and the desires of our clients.
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Mastering Hybrid Culture: Where is the realm of creative production headed?
© Battle Royal Studios x SIORUS Creative The past year has seen a fusion of opposites quite unlike anything previously experienced in recent memory — isolation and hyperconnectivity, physical slowness and virtual velocity, stagnation and creativity. Crucially, it has prompted the farewell of most infrastructures once deemed indestructible, revealing, along the way, the glaring cracks and fissures nestled within economic, political and cultural titans. Production methods, supply chains, accessibility, messaging and offer all found themselves entirely reworked by the environmental adversity of the pandemic. To withstand the cyclone inhaling the world as we know it, the sturdy machine of cultural production — like most of its coevals — was coerced into yielding to one tactic: adaptation. How the term is interpreted, imagined and applied is a different story. While adaptation is essential to progress, adapting can easily imply compromise, adjustment and concession — all of which, to our ears, ring dangerously similar to boredom when deployed as creative strategies. Instead, we chose to look at this challenge with curiosity and ask: how can the unprecedented hurdle the event industry has faced lay the groundwork not for compromise, but for a reawakening? © Battle Royal Studios x SIORUS Creative Hybridizing the cultural landscape A stringent answer would seem anachronistic. Amid environmental uncertainty, even the most radical overhaul finds itself in a state of impermanence; rebirth is not a one-stop operation, but a process in which the creative industries must learn to not just survive, but flourish. And, indeed, upon closer look, possibilities abound. Without clinging on to an outmoded past nor romanticizing a futuristic cyber-utopia entirely divorced from reality, our approach, strategy and philosophy tap into the in-between. Reflecting on the harmonious merger of what was and what will be led us to the concept of hybrid culture: a seasonal theme our team has orbited around for most of the past year, culling from it the strategic insight and creative inspiration permeating our projects. The hybrid modus operandi is porous and dynamic. Much like the zeitgeist itself, it champions extreme fluidity in its espousal of trends. Live event production has been at the core of our work for nearly a decade, and, needless to say, very far from us the idea of wanting to drown the physical experience into a stream of pixelated stimuli. Hybrid events have been an attempt at deepening our bond with technologies, and engaging varied audiences in a way that enables us to be mindful of contemporary limitations while remaining relevant, fresh and novel even once the (altogether questionable) ‘back to normal’ pop adage regains full credibility. Of course, execution, especially when treading new ground, isn’t a one-man show — nor can it rely on pre-pandemic production techniques. However, consistency is key, and the holistic creative processes we’ve espoused throughout our years in the game have not failed our mission. To us, culture has always been modular and never impermeable to structural change. Fittingly enough, so are our tactics. © Battle Royal Studios x SIORUS Creative Prototyping a vision for a hybrid future Creative Prototyping underpins our approach to cultural modularity, and it’s certainly harmonized with the amped-up pace of production resulting from a global surge in digital intervention. In a nutshell, the method stems from Silicon Valley’s Design Thinking, and subsumes a rapid transition from concept to prototype, and eventually product. With the acceleration of communication, brainstorming, ideation and execution, projects such as the Launch of the European Capital of Culture Esch2022 have benefited from Creative Prototyping, on steroids. Technology has taken on the role of the ultimate equalizer in the realm of idea production; and it would be safe to assume the implications of the pandemic have facilitated this democratization of corporate initiative, which in turn echo the fundamental battleROYAL values of diversity and collaboration. Physical exchanges are soaked in societal conditioning, doubts, concern for behavioral adjustment to the external gaze — most of which can prove to be detrimental, particularly to those not belonging to demographic(s) at the helm of Western heterocracy. When the pressure of performativity is lessened, creativity abounds. Reshuffling the open plan office structure into something altogether more fluid and less compartmentalized by means of digital mediation has carried the same energy into the production itself. Sure enough, the result is not nearly as easy to pin down — but isn’t that the point? © Battle Royal Studios x SIORUS Creative 2. The lasting value of the ritual What drives us to event production is people, and a desire to instigate a potent energy that galvanizes an audience. What drives people to events is, among others, the age-old human need for escapism. The event space has acted as a signifier of shared values, desires and curiosity; it’s a way to render those values tangible and relatable. Facilitating human connection persists as one of battleROYAL’s fundamental missions, and the past year has allowed us to observe the glue that binds communities amid the most adverse of circumstances. Rituals are at the heart of collective existence, be they small-scale or laborious, sacred or profane, tangible or symbolic. For as long as we’ve been operating, we’ve made the notion of ritual central to our mindset, and it’s (yet again) smoothly transmigrated towards the realm of hybrid event production. © Battle Royal Studios x SIORUS Creative 3. A chameleonic modus operandi The third fundamental pillar of our ideation and production cycle irrespective of the climate we’re working with has been the interdisciplinarity weaving our battleROYAL fabric. From performing arts, theatre and dance production to electronic music, our team hails from all corners of the creative sector. Practicing what we preach — or at the very least having done so — adds a streak of purity to all the creative endeavors we take on. Likewise, our proclivity towards experimentation coupled with an appreciation for fearless decision-making is most definitely also owed to the polymorphic nature of our team’s makeup. At the end of the day, nothing adjusts to environmental hardship quite like the flexible thinking of a polymath. Our processes are as enduring as our eyes are honed to spot, forecast and appraise trends. If the pandemic has indisputably narrowed the operational scope of our projects, it’s posed executive challenges and cultural riddles we have repurposed into fuel for a transformation. Hybrid culture is here to stay. Want to get the latest updates? Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. For more information on our work, visit our website. https://battleroyalstudios.medium.com/mastering-hybrid-culture-where-is-the-realm-of-creative-production-headed-624297cdf68a
Takeaways from the Esch2022 European Capital of Culture lead-up phase
How has the role of the audience changed? © Michael Adam Costey for Battle Royal Studios Spectacle and entertainment have always existed in unison with collective existence. They’ve aided communality, encouraging release, immersion, and escapism. Over the centuries, the stage has become a revered entity — the facilitator of a unique type of sensorial and mental experience. At its core, the performance-heavy pulse of each staged live act significantly relies on co-existence: a mutual, if tacit permission of enjoyment and thriving granted by the audience to the performers, and vice versa. In some ways, the very act of staging a show is reciprocal insofar as it relies on a communion. Still, the distinction between stage and audience has always been a binary one: the former is active, putting on a show, while the former is static and observant. In the era of dizzying spikes in tech innovation, the binary’s relevance seems to be withering by the day, and several new formats have been trying to break the mold for a while. So we ask: what comes next? With the unprecedented hit the live event industry has had to face as a result of the pandemic, our ways of doing business — and, of course, our aims and objectives for each project we take on — have undergone an equally unprecedented pivot. The integration of new, cutting-edge technology into not just staging shows but rethinking the audience itself has naturally led us to a full refashioning of our methods, and to an enlightening discovery of the untapped potential that lies in every single audience we’ve ever assembled. If our years crafting immersive experiences in the industry has been all about exploring this potential, the past two years have instilled in us a desire to altogether transform its definition. All throughout the process of going from live to immersive, and from immersive to hybrid — whereby the public is immersed both physically and virtually–, one conclusion has emerged as undeniable: the role and power of the audience is changing. With the Esch2022 European Capital of Culture kick-off getting closer by the day, and its opening ceremony slated for February 26th, we take a closer look at the ways in which our dialogue with audiences has evolved over our ten years in the business — and we break down why. © Michael Adam Costey for Battle Royal Studios 1. Compelled bystanders: the power, role, and scope of the traditional audience Audiences have always been an integral part of any show — like reactive mirrors, they’ve helped each staged experience fulfill its promise by engaging them. Each live experience relies heavily on a set location, with a specific spatial design narrative underpinning the reasoning for its choice. Even when static, the audience is instrumental in fulfilling the spatial storytelling upon which each staged performance is built. Whether in a theater, an open-air arena, a concert hall or a stadium, coexistence is — or at least used to be — what makes the show. Enablers of spectacle by design, audiences generate the staged experience not by doing, but simply by being, listening, observing — however passively. With nearly a decade of experience staging opening ceremonies, festivals, cultural happenings, performances and other elaborate live acts, the audience has always formed an inextricable part of our fabric, from ideation to execution. As we grow and embolden our shift towards the hybrid mindset, and technology becomes an increasingly essential vector of our experience-crafting, is mere coexistence between the audience and performance starting to become obsolete? © Michael Adam Costey for Battle Royal Studios 2. We’ve gone hybrid — and so have our audiences As other vectors have progressively begun to enter the staged picture, a broader palette of technological innovations has become available, and experience-making has become about much more than event production in the traditional sense. Through the advent of the Metaverse, Augmented and Extended reality, virtual immersion, and, more generally, hybrid happenings, audiences morphed into disembodied, modular agents coming to life through mental and emotional stimulation as well as sensory activation. Our very understanding of what it means to ‘view’, ‘listen’, or ‘feel’ has been changed through the permeation of the digital, and the isolating, collective physical stagnation brought about by the pandemic. With the seemingly endless proliferation of new ways of retaining attention online, be it through social media or streaming services, maintaining interest IRL has become a more complex task than ever before — yet one we’ve made it our mission to deliver on. In the immersive hybrid culture we’ve fostered in the past few years, we’ve consistently championed the inevitable blurring of previously clear, physically determined boundaries separating stage from audience, and their impact on show production. What if, instead of simply acting as static viewers, audiences were empowered and trusted to help give shape to the experience itself? To us, this boils down to reassessing the very meaning of the audience, and beginning to see it as a metaphor for the collective. In shifting the focus from the static, contemplative “what is happening?” to a much more engaged “I can affect what’s happening!”, audiences begin to break new ground, re-negotiating a space previously determined for them, interrogating established norms, dogmas, power dynamics, aesthetics, and methods of production in ways they were previously precluded from. Through immersion rather than observation, the space of the spectacle is equalized, democratized, striving to embrace change wherever needed — dusting off and upcycling the potential of rusty cultural institutions, making them more inclusive; making each experience count. In reaching far more people, and transcending borders, audiences can, through hybrid culture, become as chameleonic as the experiences themselves. © Michael Adam Costey for Battle Royal Studios 3. The audience as co-creators: behind Esch2022 European Capital of Culture Our pandemic-propelled venture into the realm of the hybrid has laid the foundations of our approach to crafting each step of the Esch2022 lead-up phase, and the opening ceremony itself — all of which are in-depth expressions of the values, methods and philosophy hybrid culture is rooted in. Motivated by a desire to reveal the true potential of audiences to themselves, we’ve been intent on moving further and further away from static audiences through exploring new formats of engagement, and over the past 10 years, we’ve become proud agents of co-creation. To effectively galvanize community members into becoming active agents, thus co-crafting an experience ‘by Esch2022, for the region’, the challenge of the REMIX Festival has resided in building a community unified around creative expression, making each participant feel seen and safe in always building on associative familiarity, and letting the community grow organically from the inside out. In essence, we planted the seed; the people made it grow, turning it into the collective effort it progressively transformed into. “When it comes to co-creating with the audience, it’s all about trusting that the audience is smart, funny, capable of bold, abstract thinking,” explains our creative producer Gabriela Flores. “It’s essential to trust that the public has wild creative potential, and a willingness to go into the story with you. They want to be challenged and are willing to step out of their comfort zone, find the hidden messages, and read between the lines — if the story is strong enough to entice them.” Through community-activating initiatives such as the Future Frequencies workshop, Esch2022moves, or the Space Program, we’ve gone past simply wanting to immerse audiences into visually or sonically catchy content. In doing so, we’ve sought to challenge them in unexpected ways, unleashing the explosive strength of their participative powers. One thing is beyond doubt: the audience has come a long way. While aware of its roots, and honoring each and every step it’s needed to emancipate itself into a fluid, dynamic, and powerful collective organism, we’re intent on exploring new formats of engagement, always striving for new ways of surprising our audiences. In creating the concept and action plan for the Esch2022 European Capital of Culture festivities, we’ve tailored our understanding of the local audience in a bespoke way — as firm disbelievers in the ‘one size fits all’ approach. And to each member of our current and future audiences, we say: the power is yours. Contributors:Irina Baconsky, Editor for Digital ContentGabriela Flores, Creative ProducerAndy Machals, Creative ProducerBrendan Shelper, Co-CEO and Executive Creative DirectorThao Tran, Strategy & Communications Manager Want to get the latest updates? Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. For more information on our work, visit our website. © Michael Adam Costey for Battle Royal Studios https://battleroyalstudios.medium.com/takeaways-from-the-esch2022-european-capital-of-culture-lead-up-phase-b2419d4b6f3d
The new demands on office architecture
What Battle Royal Studios now does differently - Interview with design studio UNDPLUS by Battle Royal Studios18. May 2022 (c) Caroline Scharff for UNDPLUS and Battle Royal Studios The Battle Royal Studios office is now a hybrid space. This stands for the combination and fusion of digital and physical spaces. It means in terms of office architecture that employees share workstations or the room is used like in a coworking space. Our old office was very large, everyone had their own workstation. The new office is much smaller. The core team sits at a long table with six seats that are sometimes shared. In addition, there is a freelancer area and three separate phone boxes so that no one is disturbed during or by conversations. A closed meeting room and an open kitchen with a large table complete the office concept. Our office design was developed and implemented by the Kreuzberg design studio UNDPLUS. In an interview, the managing directors Jan Baumann, Arun Markus, and Greta Scarzo described the current trends and needs in office architecture and how this affected the design of the new Battle Royal Studios office. (c) Caroline Scharff for UNDPLUS and Battle Royal Studios BRS: How has the corporate architecture changed since the beginning of the pandemic? Markus: We have experienced a time when most teams had to work at the home office. In many companies and among many people, this experience has led to a new mindset: on the one hand, the strength of coming together has become clear, on the other hand, the desire for home office has remained. Many companies now want to meet this new need with a mix of on-site and home office also through new working environments. The drastic pandemic, as well as the current return of teams to their offices, is a great opportunity to fundamentally rethink and adapt offices to the needs of their employees. A "business as usual" is no longer the way. New structures of collaboration and architectural solutions for flexible and hybrid working environments are developed. Technological infrastructure and its spatial integration have also become increasingly important over the past two years. Companies are now reacting to this. Spaces for hybrid meetings are becoming a must in many of our office design projects. In addition, we are challenged to find new solutions to attract the team back to the office and enable creative meetings. One of the most important aspects is communication and exchange, making communal areas and flexible, multifunctional workspaces crucial in the design of new office spaces. (c) Caroline Scharff for UNDPLUS and Battle Royal Studios Did this change also have an influence on the conception and implementation of the office architecture of Battle Royal Studios? Scarzo: Clearly, and Battle Royal Studios is a shining example. Some of the aspects we observed in our design processes over the last two years were the basis for the planning and realisation of the office space for Battle Royal Studios. For example, fewer fixed workstations and the realisation of a flexible workspace with movable and agile furniture for diverse collaboration situations. To what extent do hybrid spaces affect internal employee communication? Baumann: Hybrid spaces offer the possibility to freely choose the working environment and, depending on what is at hand, change the location - even within the office. The office becomes a home base with the possibility to connect and flexibly integrate external people and teams. The hybrid space makes the work process more efficient and communication more diverse. (c) Caroline Scharff for UNDPLUS and Battle Royal Studios The BRS office is designed as an open space. Why did you choose such a concept? Scarzo: There are two main reasons for the open space: Due to the cut of the office and its size, the open space concept lent itself particularly well to creating different options for the room. The second reason lies in the basic structure of the collaboration. Coming together in small and large teams is central. Thus a long working table with space for six to ten people was central to the concept. Since the pandemic at the latest, we know that the office is above all about social exchange. Is that why open spaces have become more important for your architectural concepts? Markus: Even more important than open spaces are aspects around the community and break-out areas – both are often combined. Teams want something in the office that they don't have at home. Thus, high-quality and flexible spaces for exchanging ideas are gaining central importance. New working environments should combine social contacts, work, and quality time. Are places of casual socialising such as the kitchen and group rooms becoming more important? Baumann: Absolutely. Personal exchange is what we have all been missing. In our concepts, we consider the need for different spaces for different types of interaction to make the workflow flexible and fluid. (c) Caroline Scharff for UNDPLUS and Battle Royal Studios How have you implemented such spaces in the BRS Office? Scarzo: We have planned a kitchen area that is almost as big as the entire work area. This is perfect for breaks but also for informal meetings. The meeting boxes provide the ideal environment for hybrid meetings, and the creative space offers high flexibility thanks to the movable furniture. https://br-studios.com/news/the-new-demands-on-office-architecture/