By now, we have pretty much committed to the idea of an immersive installation displaying the effects of climate change on our environment……..while still using Alice in Wonderland (AIW) as a point of reference for visual and experiential concepts.

We had another meeting with Andrew today, and by this point, here is what we are grappling with:

• using (borrowing) the narrative arc of AIW as a way to establish a trajectory for the attendees’ experiences
  • this would be a way to have some kind of firm structure (plot) to reference when shaping the experience of our attendees. An obvious first example could be referencing Alice’s descent down the rabbit hole when constructing the entrance to our installation.
• Anthropocene
  • Andrew brought up this concept during our meeting. It refers to the segment of history that began once humans began to have serious effects on the world’s climate. It is a way of distinguishing and making clear our role as humans in climate change. As a group, we want our installation to remind people / demonstrate to them the role they have in climate change, so this is definitely a concept worth looking into.
• decay vs chaos
  • this is a distinction I thought of at some point during our discussion. Do we want to demonstrate the environment decaying slowly into a bleak wasteland, or do we want to demonstrate the environment spinning into unlivable chaos? Perhaps we should let science inform the decision here (i.e. find out which scenario is a more accurate prediction).
• deciding on a space (e.g. West Court)
  • We should decide on a location for the installation soon, that way we can began making specific plans for the setup.
• what technology will be used?
  • Possible technology includes:
    • Video
      • projectors (mini and/or normal-sized)
    • Sound
      • Arduino-powered sensors, e.g. pressure, proximity
      • loudspeakers (Genelecs rented from ECA)
    • Other
      • iPad for touchscreen interaction
      • MIDI controllers for sound and/or video manipulation
• name for project
  • “Alice in Wasteland”
• performative aspect
  • We need to iron out how the attendees (or us) will perform as part of the installation. Part of this could be accomplished by live manipulation of the video and/or sound.
• sound design reference
  • Final scene from Annihilation (2018)
    • We could make a soundtrack with the one from this scene as a reference – the sounds are very otherworldly.
• flower reference
  • We think it would be useful to narrow-in on a specific consequence of climate change, e.g. what is going to happen to flowers and plants.
    • If we try to represent the effects of climate change more generally, then I believe the experiences of attendees will not be as poignant.

Meeting 6th February / dmsp-performance23 by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0