Chris Ziegler is a Digital Artist on Stage with an education in Architecture and New Media Art.

 After his last teaching assignment, teaching „Interactive Media“ at Arizona State University (USA), he returned to Europe in May 2021 to continue working on new stage productions with robotics, AR/VR, and AI. 2021 – 2023 he was member of DOCKdigital Motion Lab Berlin, conducting digital workshops for theater professionals. His creative and artistic career began in 1994 at the Center for Art and New Media ZKM Karlsruhe with the research and development of choreographic software for dancers for the Ballet Frankfurt. After the release of the CD-ROM, “Bill Forsythe: Improvisation Technologies” it became part of the curriculum of many dance schools in Europe. Around 2000 he founded the digital theater company movingimages and began working on stage productions and installation, mainly in the field of dance and music theater. movingimages develops custom technologies for immersive stages and explores VR, AR, robotics and AI to create interactive theater experiences. Chris Ziegler collaborates also with renowned theater directors and choreographers at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Wuppertal Opera House, the Karlsruhe State Theater, the Konzert Theater Bern and the Neue Oper Vienna.
 
As a member of many European Theater Research Initiatives, he worked on several movement research projects and digital theater productions:
 In D.A.N.C.E “Dance Apprentices Across Europe” he developed curricula for interdisciplinary postgraduate training for dancers founded by Europe‘s leading choreographers Frédéric Flamand, William Forsythe, Wayne McGregor and Angelin Preljocaj.
He developed installations and multimedia works for “InsideMovementKnowledge” at ICKAmsterdam (Choreographic Center of Amsterdam), Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (AHK), Utrecht University.
He also was a Production designer for digital theater productions for European TheatreLab’s “Drama goes Digital” at Théâtre de la Manufacture Nancy, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Kote Marjanishvili State Drama Theatre Tbilisi and Det Norske Teatret Oslo and at ARS ELECTRONICA Festival 2018.
At present, he is a member of the European MODINA research residency network on “Movement, Digital Intelligence and Interactive Audience”, which supported the production of his latest VR dance production YUGEN, presented at Jan 2024 at the Tanzhaus NRW “Temps d” Image” Festival in Düsseldorf.
 
He received the Award „Young Art and New Media“ in Munich and the „Art Prize of the State of Baden-Württemberg“. He was nominated for the digital „Monaco Dance Forum Award“ and won several design awards such as the New York „I.D. Magazine“ Bronze and Silver Award and the „New Voices New Visions“ Award, New York.Teaching and research assignments have taken him to the Arizona State University’s School for Art and Media, University of Maryland Baltimore County UMBC Baltimore, Art University HfG Karlsruhe at the Center for Art and Media ZKM Karlsruhe, the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), Zurich University of the Arts ZHDK, to “Interface Cultures” of Art University Linz, Concordia University Montreal, the “Studio for interactive Arts and Technologies” SIAT Vancouver, LASALLE University in Singapore and to the „School of Creative Media“ at City University, Hong Kong.