Hacking Creativity: Theatre, AI and Human Imagination

Field of study	Humanities, Arts and Social Science
Duration	10 days
Dates	June 22 – July 3
Number of credits	2 ECTS
Contact person	Name: Arnis Aleinikovas Email: Arnis.Aleinikovas@vdu.lt Name: Raimonda Zinkevičienė Email: Raimonda.Zinkeviciene@vdu.lt
Course-organising units	Education Academy VMU Theatre VMU Professional Competence Development Center
Lecturers	Arnis Aleinikovas, also known by the pseudonym SINUO, is a lecturer and artist actively working in contemporary performance, alternative theatre, electronic music, and writing. In 2018, he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Film Acting at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, and in 2022 he earned his Master’s degree from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (AMU). Since 2020, he has been collaborating with several international theatres and interdisciplinary art organizations. His works have been presented at theatre and new media festivals in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Portugal, Poland, Georgia, Romania, Slovenia, and France. In 2020, Arnis Aleinikovas was granted the status of Art Creator by the Republic of Lithuania, and since 2022 is a member of Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artist’s Association. Dr. Aistė Ragauskaitė is a social sciences researcher, technology enthusiast, and creativity‑development facilitator. She is a lecturer at the VMU Faculty of Economics and Management and the Head of the VMU Professional Competence Development Center. Aistė believes that technology and creativity go hand in hand, and that the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence enable not only greater efficiency but also the creation of advanced, innovative, and creative solutions. In 2025, she received two awards for innovation in the learning process and for developing innovative solutions in higher education. Dr. Raimonda Zinkevičienė is a Doctor of Engineering Sciences, lecturer, and hackathon organizer. She combines technology and creativity through interactive tasks for students and adults, emphasizing that working with digital tools requires not only creativity but also critical thinking. She is a training coordinator at the VMU Professional Competence Development Center.
Number of students	Minimum: 20 Maximum: 25
Target group	Humanities, arts and social science students
Entry requirements	English language knowledge at B2 level (CEFR), desire to participate in a practical course (during the course, participants will engage in physical movement and work on stage, but no prior stage experience is required).
Short description	Hacking Creativity: Theatre, AI and Human Imagination camp organizers invite participants to a two‑week experiential journey where we will explore cutting‑edge technologies, unlock human creativity and improvisation skills, and test a variety of techniques that blend technology with creative development. Technology and the human element. Exploring different communication techniques through various technological tools. Digital tools enable pushing the boundaries of creativity, visualizing creative impulses and intentions. The training is designed to foster creativity, authenticity, and expressive skills through practical work in improvisation, minimal movement, public speaking, and acting. During the sessions, participants will develop verbal and non-verbal communication skills, while strengthening their intuition and empathy. These practice-based trainings, grounded in active work on stage, are structured around six thematic modules: Emotional Release. Free Movement and Impulse. The Emotional Release module aims to create a safe environment in which participants can freely explore their bodies and the emotions held within them, and to release those emotions. Through somatic movement and automatic writing practices, participants will, via meditative and minimal movement, become acquainted with core emotions and learn how to express, transform, and consciously direct them. Communication: Body and Voice. This module develops non-verbal communication, with a strong focus on the body and the signals it conveys. Participants explore the impact of text, the speaker’s intention, subtext, multiple perspectives, and textual logic. The training also includes psychophysical work, breathing techniques, and exercises for voice release and development. Communication: Self and Others. This module focuses on attention and concentration, individuality and authenticity, and the management of challenging situations. Participants develop skills in creating and sustaining dialogue, building positive relationships, and understanding status as a tool of communication. Creative Release and the Importance of Play. This module combines group and individual work. Through improvisational exercises, participants are encouraged to develop individuality, authenticity, and the ability to translate imagination into reality. Participants will learn to recognize their subjective reality, enhance spontaneity, and activate their creative potential. Creativity Through Media explores how the human body, theatrical thinking, and audiovisual media can function together as instruments for creative expression and communication. The course invites participants to experiment with physical movement, performative techniques, and video creation to discover new ways of generating ideas, telling stories, and reflecting on personal and collective experiences.
Course uniqueness	The distinctive feature of the “Hacking Creativity: Theatre, AI and Human Imagination” training program is its vitality, spontaneity, and the integration of technology with human creativity. Participants are invited to learn openly and honestly, to embrace mistakes, to explore their creative potential, and to grow both personally and academically. The program combines theatre methods, improvisation, body and voice practices, and artificial intelligence tools that help expand the boundaries of creative thinking and discover new forms of expression. Technology functions here as a creative partner – it enables the visualization of ideas, experimentation with different forms of communication, exploration of various creativityenhancing techniques, and examination of how AI can strengthen human imagination, intuition, and the ability to generate original insights. Participants will work with digital tools that support not only creation but also reflection, analysis, and the transformation of creative impulses. AI assisted creative generation and performative interpretation – a module exploring how artificial intelligence can support text, image, and idea generation, and how these outputs can be transformed into embodied, performative material. Participants experiment with AIgenerated prompts, visual concepts, and narrative fragments, learning to critically assess technological input and translate it into voice, movement, character work, and stage presence. The program is designed for students seeking to develop their creative, communicative, personal, and social competences. Practical sessions in improvisation, minimal movement, public speaking, and acting are combined with technological experiments that help cultivate intuition, empathy, spontaneity, and confidence to express ideas freely. Participants learn to reduce the fear of making mistakes, to take risks in decisionmaking, to propose unconventional ideas, and to liberate their imagination. The expected outcome is greater flexibility in creative processes, increased courage in facing challenges, and the ability to generate more original and innovative solutions.
Aim	Using contemporary theatre methods, acting techniques, media elements, and artificial intelligence tools, the aim is to reveal participants’ unique creative abilities, enhance their imagination and analytical thinking, and ensure the effective application of these competencies in professional practice.
Learning outcomes	Develop a higher-quality relationship with themselves and those around them. Become familiar with the basic emotions (sadness, joy, fear, anger, disgust) and learn how to recognize, express, and transform it. Gain greater courage and confidence in decision-making. Strengthen both nonverbal and verbal communication skills. Acquire tools and knowledge to effectively manage stress and anxiety. Build trust in their own intuition. Learn to reduce preconceived notions and foster positive self-evaluation. Enhance both professional and personal confidence. Learn how to use fear and stress creatively. Through practice, develop spontaneity, individuality, and authenticity. Increase self-awareness, cultivate a personal style, and learn to take joy in it. Understand how artificial intelligence can be used to generate, analyse, and transform creative ideas. Learn to apply AI tools for visualization, storytelling, and the expansion of creative processes. Develop skills to critically evaluate AI‑generated content and make creative decisions based on both technological and human insights. Strengthen the ability to collaborate with technology as a creative partner rather than merely a tool. Discover new forms of expression emerging from the interplay between performativity, media, and AI capabilities.
Programme structure	Creativity, AI tools, and critical thinking Applying AI in creative processes Communication: body and voice. Emotional release. Communication: self and others. Unlocking creativity and the importance of playfulness. Creativity through media. Creativity: free movement and impulses.
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