Top to bottom; Actor Libby and Eeleanor mirroring each other. Actor Jennifer with a candle, Actor Jennifer holding a conch shell to her ear, Ceiling ocean projection, Actor Eleanor imitating the sound sequence for the performance.

Initial Realization:

Top row: Extreme right Valley by Karolina Haletek Bottom row: Left to right; 1st image - Wastescape Gayle Chong Kwan , 2nd image Drift Pavillion by Snarkitecture.

The idea ( Illustrated in the top two images) was to create an alternate reality illuminated by projection of the beach or ocean, without any actual sound of the ocean being played.

Almost like you have entered an alternate reality where the only way to hear the ocean is through sea shells and the ocean no longer exists only on screen and it's sound only through a shell, an object of decay -a fossil with it's implications as an structure after the living in it is lost.

Being only the initial idea our ideas branched out developing further. Having been questioned by Joslin and Yaron about the practicality of the design and the intention of certain elements; with feedback we were able to narrow things down, which also meant to compromise of certain elements that were not as essential to the performance so we could focus on the highlights.

This scenario helped hone our problem solving skills trying to brain-storm solutions.

We had a lot of discussions and wanted a design led performance with the end goal of what would be a really 'immersive performance'.

We were however not able to realize this goal as the idea of an immersive performance is subjective to each spectator. But upon inspection on audience thoughts about the performance I realized that the question was never about the performance being bad or good, but instead what they had to say about it or how they read through it being the embodied spectator. In hope of achieving an immersive performance, our performance accidentally realized 'Audience immersion'. It is only after reading the below quote that the idea of what immersion really means made sense to me.

"It is more useful to consider 'audience immersion' rather than 'Immersive performance', as this places emphasis on an active multisensory and imaginative negotiation between the body and the performance environment." (David Shearing , 2015).

A Personal reflection that I will continue to carry in my work is that - it is not the end of the world if a certain element of the performance; a prop or a detail is not realized, the challenge of coming with replacements or design solutions is all a part of the journey.

Fixed with the idea of bringing in boats as a part of the seating for example; I thought it would only be more interesting to have audience sat on canoes or any sort of boat; with the symbolic implications of a boats and rescue; along with the climate change theme of the performance. We were fixated on getting in boats. Coordinating with The University Outdoor activities facilitated collaboration outside our discipline, they also had kayaks that we could use. We had to however forego this idea because of the technicalities of  the space but bought in just one kayak on the day of the performance to set the background, that required 3 people to carry 1 kayak that funnily enough I doubt anyone noticed. The show still went on with audiences seated on White wooden blocks and chairs.

Immersion: Relational aesthetics and  Immersion, 'Bourriad articulates an evolution of artistic practice that no longer wishes to form 'Imaginary and Utopian realities' but to be 'actual ways of living and models of action within the existing real' (2002).

This quote makes me reflect on my interest in the want to manifest such realities in performance, particular of themes in Speculative design and Modal Realities. Shearing's exploration of how the Mind, body and space work in events neither a participatory or interactive interests me.

"The term 'immersive' has the danger of presenting the idea of a homogenous medium in which a body is saturated or engrossed; however, it would be better to consider immersion as a heterogeneous concept." ( Ingold,2014 in Shearing,2015)

Currently working part-time for a Immersive theatre based  firm; I get to see successful daily operation and the multi-disciplinary potential of Immersive theatre, the award winning company in context ( unnamed for privacy) does so with immersive walk through sets, surround experience and audience participation. The technicality with which they implement the show is also a point of learning to me, but what I realized unlike shows that has the boundary of stage- here with the audience amidst the performers, there is a possibility of the unexpected to happen and that is not set formula.

How the audience take the experience varies to degrees of manifestations of their lifestyle, history, habits and collective identities.

not set formula. How the audience take the experience varies to degrees of manifestations of their lifestyle, history, habits and collective identities

Ways of Working : Miniature Set, AI generated image.

Ways of working:

Working as a multi-cultural group Sketches, Model making and storyboards and AI image generators came in handy to communicate with each other and the technicians about our ideas. Although Pamela Howard in her book talks only about how models are basically useless except for when they act as show piece; Having worked with making miniatures before, I would like to disagree about their inefficiency. As we built the miniature model together, although it was the initial development, we started naturally asking questions ' What will hold the ceiling structure suspended?', 'If we need structure then what material would work best?' and even if only initially, it still helped us illustrate to our technicians what we were thinking and no one quite minds it existing on our technician Matt's desk.

The beauty of the design journey lies not only in the final product but also in the creative process, the collaboration, and the constant evolution of ideas.

(Smith, 2019)

Experimentation:

Experimenting creating Visuals in relation to sounds of Bubble wrap left and right a plastic bag.

Experimentation by myself, Video : adobe stock