RecPlay was initiated in 2001 by a group of students from the former Interfaculty Image and Sound department and the Royal Academy and Royal Conservatory in Den Haag. The goal was for students interested in live improvisation to come together and experiment with self-built or customized audio-visual instruments. Research topics addressed include multi-player interfaces, improvisation, noise art, feedback, real-time composition, and interaction with architecture. During the past fourteen years more than 70 members have been active in the lab, with the character of each performance dependent on the current members. Every session is archived, and soon the complete archive will be available online.

For transmediale 2016 RecPlay will present a non-verbal dialog with the architecture and the acoustic space of the Café Stage at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.