Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2019 - 33

Taiwan's "Island Invisible"
exhibit included a stone
temple sinking into the earth
to underscore the impact of
climate change. Photo by
David Armelino.

a curator role themselves rather than
that of creating artists.
Walking into this space was like
descending into a subterranean space.
The space was lit only by the stage fixtures brought in by the designers, and it
allowed your eyes time to adjust to the
darker environment. Inside, the space
was defined exclusively by the moving
lights and video content playing. The design expanded and contracted the space,
echoing rhythmic circadian cycles. The
changing images were hypnotic-alternately chasing, pulsing, and flowing
through the space, sometimes illuminating the entire vastness and at other times
narrowing to a series of pin spots. Visitors moved through the space, and in doing so changed the shape of the objects
(bodies) in the room, reflecting the light
in different ways. Even the movement of
visitors through the scaffolding structure

36Q: The Blue Hour. Photo by Christina Barrigan.

added an unpredictable element to the
soundscape.
Modelled after the hours in a day,
the installation ran on a 24-minute cycle.
Video content and moving light images
worked with the soundscape to take
participants through a journey from a
gentle dawn-like awakening of the space
through the complexity of a day into the
redness of sunset and into an isolated
series of spaces defined by darkness.
There were walls of scaffolding on either end of the hall; one was covered in
projected content moving between noise
patterns, clearly geometric patterns, and
other, more organic visions in harmony
with the lighting moving throughout the
space.
With such a dynamically changing
environment composed of digital and
technological sources, it was a relief and
lovely contrast to have analog items to

stimulate participants in a low-key and
contrasting manner. In the hall were
several circular spaces holding tactile
objects and experiences for viewers
to explore: bamboo with seashells attached to the ends, foliage intermingled
with found objects, pools of water with
mirrors, and circles with rocks in them.
Each circle offered opportunities for visitors to experience visually and physically
the contents of the spaces. There were
places to sit, places to step into, and
many things to manually explore while
the environment of light and sound continued to change all around.
Four of these circular areas were
filled with sand and had a dome covering them; these were four of the eight
VR experiences available in the hall. The
spaces were lit from above and served as
a constant in the ever-changing environment. People experiencing the virtual
reality world under these domes would
remove their shoes to stand barefoot in
the sand while they explored the virtual
space. A controller was mounted in a
circular lantern-like structure held by the
viewer.
Four more VR experiences were
tucked under the scaffolding at the ends
of the hall. These included two environmental VR experiences and two narratively based experiences. One was a
one-on-one interview with a character,
another was a version of Beckett's Play
where the viewer looked to the right or
left to see and activate each character's
lines to advance the story.
On the edges of this large immersive
environment were spaces for "dirty electronics" where visitors were encouraged
to play with the sound artists using all
manner of electronic objects to generate
sound. These were considered "glitched"

36Q: The Blue Hour. Photo by Christina Barrigan.

FALL 2019

THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

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Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2019