Sven Ortel

Since 2000, Sven Ortel has been exploring and furthering the use of imagery and projection in the live arts. His primary interest lies in how digital and emerging technologies can help us to create engaging narrative experiences. He is drawn to complex scenic and production design challenges that put a live audience at the center of the experience and where he can collaborate with other experts and creatives. 

In 2012 he was nominated for a TONY award for his work on Disney’s Newsies and in 2014 for a Drama League award for his designs on Julie Taymor’s Midsummer Night's Dream at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn.

Notable recent projects include NHKS4220 at Artechouse, Thoughts Of A Colored Man (Drama Desk nomination) , Parade (Outer Critics Circle nomination), and Once Upon A One More Time, all three on Broadway. He is always looking to explore novel ways to tell stories using media and create cohesive visual environments to engage live audiences fully.

To demystify the role of the projection designer, he created an online resource (www.projctn.com). He led the MFA in Integrated Media at the University of Texas at Austin since 2013. He developed it as one of the top programs for aspiring media designers nationwide.

In the last few years, Ortel has focused on how a collaborative design and creative process can help to design narrative experiences that help engage audiences in complex issues that challenge us as a society. Recent examples are an escape room prototype informed by the science surrounding climate change, specifically the rapid intensification of hurricanes, as well as a mixed reality concept that highlighted the danger posed by space debris and how traditional ecological knowledge can help us live more sustainably)

The overriding question has been how the creative processes found in the performing arts can be successfully adapted and developed to be a potent toolset for all design challenges and live experiences.

Beyond the profession, Ortel is a landscaper focusing on restoration and stewardship of the land who loves camping, running, hiking, and landscaping.