Immersive Role‑Play of Wind Power Controversies in Lower Austria

Dramatic Mediation is the participatory and experiential culmination of the InSituEx research agenda. Within the framework of Multispective Experience Design (MiXeD), the project focuses on the performative mediation of sociotechnical controversies.

Building on Polyphonic Personas, the Dramatic Mediation project encourages stakeholders involved in recent wind power debates in Lower Austria to adopt different human and nonhuman perspectives. Its eco‑ and sociodramatic approaches enable participants to engage in structured role‑play and role reversal, performing not only their own positions but also those of other actors within the controversy.

These ecodrama workshops are complemented by mixed‑reality applications, which extend the dramatic experience through immersive digital technologies. Mixed‑reality mediations allow participants to explore perspectives that are difficult or impossible to experience directly, particularly those of nonhuman actors.

Dramatic Mediation does not aim for consensus, compromise, or conflict resolution. Instead, it cultivates mutual understanding, ethical perspective‑taking, and informed collective reflection. The project demonstrates how the MiXeD framework moves from analysis, mapping, and representation to embodied, participatory mediation.