With July 2019 the CRC started its second funding period and therfore initialized a shift and development in its research focus. The last four years this project concentrated on slightly different topics.

From a perspective of theater studies, this project examines forms of immersive theater, considering them to be socially effective artistic model situations for the design and experience of affective dynamics. It researches the strategies, possibilities and limits of affection in performance contexts as well as the situational experience of community during such performances. Methods of analysis in use within theater studies will be developed further in terms of methodology and epistemology by integrating sociological and ethnographical approaches. The project will thereby contribute substantially to the theorization of affective relationality.