2018年歌劇院台灣國際藝術節（NTT-TIFA）以「21世紀的多重連結」為策展主題，2019年初宣告的歌劇院四位駐館藝術家中：王連晟、莊志維兩位是新媒體藝術家，年底「歌劇院＃數位11月」從展覽、影展、工作坊到國際交流論壇，「掌握臺灣科技藝術發展的脈動、促成科技在跨領域藝術創作上的運用」已然成為歌劇院核心發展特色之一。

2020年NTT-TIFA的策展儘管有明顯的科技意涵，但不論是從數位技術發展出來的作品，或是以科技做為藝術表現的工具，都可以看到從文本出發的情感連結與人性，而不是受制於科技，這才是能深刻感動人的Live劇場作品。馮德艾的室內歌劇《消逝》與周東彥的《光年紀事：臺北—哥本哈根》傳遞母子或父子親情糾結：生在世間的親人與活在思念中逝去的親人，以投影技術模糊了現實與回憶、生與死的界線。北歐野獸舞團的《奪愛最終回》，雖是舊愛與新歡的「肢體對戰」，我們卻立刻能對應到科技（遊戲）以「第三者之姿」入侵，令我們「生活秩序大亂」的莞爾！

蘇文琪的《微輻_∞ 》與蘇威嘉的《看見你的自由步》令我們轉換了觀看的角度，透過科技裝置，觀眾在觀賞時成為作品的一部分。荷蘭視覺導演馮魏昆《影像協奏曲》與王連晟《無光風景》都是運用程式即時演算，前者讓影像跟著指揮洪毅全的演繹隨時調整速度，一反既定的聲音跟著影像走的印象；而後者以「眼盲」的舞者穿戴上感應互動裝置，企圖打破許多重覆或是日常某些既定事物。王嘉明《閒情・偶寄》透過莊志維的新媒裝置，任演員遊走於明末清初李漁的微觀世界中。

勒帕吉《在月球的彼端》、米勒《爆發年代》雖然運用的都是已然成熟的劇場技術，卻都不約而同探討二戰後到美蘇太空探索爭霸期間，各種社會議題與個人自我的發展。米勒曾長期與勒帕吉的機器神劇團共事，這次兩齣獨角戲都是一人分飾多角（前者一分二、後者以一當百），其中的精彩不言而喻！

在許多傳統的表演藝術中，觀眾一直是演出的一部分，或在演出當下回應台上議論，或直接表達對劇中人事物的針貶，然鏡框式舞台一定程度上疏遠了觀眾與演員的距離。現今科技介入藝術，又拉近了彼此的隔閡。也或許觀眾與劇場之間的距離從來都沒有改變，純粹是觀看的角度問題。期待科技的發展與便利，改變了我們觀看的方式與角度，也因而有了不同的新體驗。

Taking a glance at the recent history of the National Taichung Theater, we undoubtedly see that one of the Theater’s central missions is to showcase the pulsating rhythms of hi-tech art, and to champion its multidisciplinary application in creating new art. “Multiconnections in the 21st century” was, for example, the theme of the 2018 NTT-TIFA, and two of the four NTT-resident artists announced in early 2019, WANG Lien-cheng and CHUANG Chih-wei both work in new media. Moreover, late 2019 also saw the NTT #Digital November exhibition, film festival and workshop.

Although technology is prominently featured in the 2020 NTT-TIFA, we nevertheless see the deep feeling and sense of humanity that arise from these works whether inspired by digital technologies, or use them as means for artistic expression. Such a human touch is what makes live theater a moving experience. Michel van der Aa’s chamber opera Blank Out and CHOU Tung-yen’s Chronicle of Light Year: Taipei—Copenhagen convey the entangled connections between parent and child: some in the family still alive, while others only live in the memory. Projection technology blurs the lines between reality and virtual, life and death. In The Ultimate Battle, we see the physical battle between old and new loves, but a new yet familiar face comes to crash the party—it’s technology in the form of video games! What a mangled mess of madness!

SU Wen-chi’s WAVE_∞ and SU Wei-chia’s FreeSteps AR Yours shake up the perspective, as the audiences become part of the work itself—and hence, the performance itself. Symphonic Cinema, by the Dutch visual director Lucas van Woerkum, and WANG Lien-cheng’s The Scenery of Little Light both incorporate live coding: in Symphonic Cinema, this allows the image to adjust its speed on-the-fly in response to how Darrell Ang conducts, contrary to our expectation of the aural following the visual; while in The Scenery, the dancer is “blindfolded” with an interactive sensory device, disrupting the mundane monotony of daily life. In WANG Chia-ming’s Leisurely Pleasures．Casual Reflections, the actors traverse the microcosm of the mid-17 ^th century world of LI Yu through new media designs by CHUANG Chih-wei.

Both Robert Lepage’s The Far Side of the Moon and Rick Miller’s BOOM use well-established theatrical technologies, and center on social issues and individual growth during the post-War space race. Miller has been a long-term collaborator with Lepage’s performance company Ex Machina, and both works presented here also feature a single actor in multiple roles—two in The Far Side, and up to a hundred in BOOM.

The audience has always been part of the performance in many genres of conventional performing art, either responding to the events on stage, or directly and loudly challenging the performance. Yet however engaged the audience feels, the proscenium stage puts an indelible distance between the audience and the actors, which can now be diminished thanks to technology. Or, perhaps, what has changed is not the distance, but rather the perspective. We hope as new technologies change the ways and perspectives of how we see, they also bring new experiences to us.