The Future of Puppetry: AI, Robots & the Puppet’s Dream
Exploring World Puppetry Day 2025 with Our Friends at UNIMA
World Puppetry Day is a moment to celebrate the magic of puppetry, its traditions, and its future. In 2025, the theme set by UNIMA International takes us to the cutting edge—where artificial intelligence, robotics, and the essence of puppetry intertwine. What does it mean for a puppet to dream? Can AI puppets become puppeteers? As technology evolves, so does our understanding of creativity, storytelling, and the soul of the puppet itself.
Key Dates
📅 World Puppetry Day 2025: 21st March 2025
📍 Global Celebrations: Events, performances, and discussions worldwide
Puppetry, AI, and the Future
For centuries, puppets have been vessels of storytelling, imagination, and tradition. But today, as artificial intelligence and robotics redefine creativity, we ask: is a puppet just a preliminary step towards autonomous robots? Can machines dream, think, or feel? These questions resonate deeply with classic myths and literature—from the Golem to Frankenstein, from Pinocchio’s longing for humanity to Philip K. Dick’s androids dreaming of electric sheep.
This year’s theme delves into these profound questions:
🔹 The Puppet as Puppeteer – Can an AI-driven puppet control its own performance?
🔹 The Object Becoming the Subject – When does artifice stop being artificial?
🔹 The Nature of Consciousness – Can algorithms develop creativity, intuition, or even free will?
🔹 The Role of Puppetry in a Digital Age – How can puppeteers embrace new technologies while preserving tradition?
World Puppetry Day 2025 invites us to explore these ideas, engaging with the past, present, and future of our art form.
What is World Puppetry Day?
Launched in 2003 by UNIMA, World Puppetry Day (WPD) is a platform to promote puppetry arts while uniting puppeteers and enthusiasts worldwide. It celebrates both tradition and innovation, supporting puppetry as a tool for ethical and aesthetic education. Each year, events across the globe highlight the diversity of puppetry arts today.
Theme of 2025: Robots, AI and the Dream of the Puppet
UNIMA encourages participants to share their events on social media with the hashtags: #WPD2025 #UNIMA
And in multiple languages: #WorldPuppetryDay2025 #DiaMundialMarioneta2025 #JourneeMondialeMarionette2025
UNIMA will showcase a variety of these posts in video compilations and images throughout 2025.
📢 Social Media Frame 2025 – Coming Soon!
How to Celebrate World Puppetry Day?
This day is an opportunity to bring puppetry to life in various forms:
🎭 Festivals and shows
🎪 Puppet parades
🖼 Exhibitions and installations
🎨 Workshops for all ages
🎭 Behind-the-scenes tours, mini-performances, and readings of the WPD message
🌙 Night of the Puppet
World Puppetry Day is a collective effort! Connect with schools, cultural institutions, museums, and local governments to create a shared celebration of puppetry arts. Share your plans with UNIMA and on social media to be part of a global movement.
💡 Get involved! Keep an eye on our upcoming events and share your thoughts on AI, robots, and the puppet’s dream.
✉️ Follow BrUNIMA for more on World Puppetry Day 2025
🌍 More info on UNIMA’s global initiatives: UNIMA International
📣 Share your thoughts: #WPD2025
Here is a look back at WPD 2024