Auto-Theatre

Sound Design | Immersive Storytelling | User Space Mapping

(Auto)theatre: (self), (same), (spontaneous) theatre.
A form where audience is simultaneously performer.

The following experiences were performed in semi-controlled environments. Users wore headphones and listened to synchronized recordings. Guiding users through interactive performative tasks, like dancing, or learning, or finding treasure.

The Bottom of the Sea

Guiding users through a journey at the bottom of the sea, discovering a chest, exploring beneath the sands, and wading through the darkness.

This experiment used light and movement to guide the user through a solo experience. I spliced in their name and pronouns minutes before their experience.
I was present but not visible for the performance trials of this piece, as I shifted their environment to reflect their interactions and audio cues.

The Tea Experience

An experimental museum experience where users participate in embodied, educational lessons surrounding the tea making process.

Users enter a dimly lit room wearing headphones synchronized with up to 4 other people. They participate in curated lectures/experiences, transposing their learning into immediate gesture. Guided by headphone audio as well as light and physical cues, users were guided through a 15 minute experience.

Museum

It's important to know where you are. So I told them, you're at a museum.

Map

It's important to know how to get around where you are. So I gave them a map.

Tea Chamber Interactive Experience

Guests entered this chamber donning these iPods and earbuds. I led them through a preparatory experience and we synced their audio tracks.

Tea Chamber

Touch the Tea

Its important to touch our food. So I told them it was okay to touch it.

These were actually shaped by museum patrons who often found themselves arranging and playing with the tea leaves.

Dance Dance IRL:

In this example, users were guided through a communal dance lesson but they weren't all receiving the same instructions.
How do we reconcile our unconfirmed realities?

I created a small space in a black box stage for 4 people. Each individual was given headphones and synchronized the start times of their audio tracks. This piece explored the space between our non-confirmed realities. One poor individual received an audio track that at times would put them just ever so slightly behind the beat of everyone else, or would omit key but discreet instructions. They were designed to look like a fool, off tempo, inattentive and at time seemingly incompetent.

The research of this project was in the space of, "How do they reconcile their realities?"

This piece also explored collaborative community building, as users weren't given enough detail at times and often began a "flock" mentality simply taking on the qualities of each other over trusting their headphones instructions. The main factor seemed to be how vocally the "doof" was about their feelings of inconsistency.