Telerobotic Theater of the Oppressed in Israel and Palestine: Becoming Digital Jokers

Abstract

The theatrical and political expression methods of “Theater of the Oppressed” by Augusto Boal were adopted by HCI researchers to facilitate participatory design. However, the potential of technology to expand and enrich these methods, particularly in intergroup settings, is still underexplored. We introduce a novel combination of participatory design, technological education, and theater: a telerobotic theater of the oppressed. We invited activists from Israel and Palestine to learn telerobotic technology and create puppet shows to run simultaneously on both sides of the border. During a weekend workshop, we created and tested the performance in two rooms, simulating Israel and Palestine. We collected, coded, and analyzed qualitative data consisting of semi-structured interviews, videos, photos, and notes. The findings demonstrate how the solution promotes intergroup contact, directly through creative collaboration and indirectly through remote performances. The analysis serves as a guide for adapting Boal’s facilitation method, the joker system, to digital technology.