Everything Immersive > No Proscenium > Trailheads (9/7/22)
Trailheads (9/7/22)
by Chris Wollman
A weekly feature pointing you towards the current experiences that have people talking.
For people who keep a dream journal by their bed, and maybe someday they'll actually write something in it...
Limbo [BERLIN]
Dream World, a Berlin-based arts collective on a mission to facilitate playful, soul-searching experiences with an eye towards ethical sustainability invites you down the rabbit hole— or in this case interdimensional introspection portal— for a deep dive into you. Arrestingly surreal sets and costumes homespun from found materials coalesce into an otherworldly living collage that evokes the very best of garbage-chic tactile modern art. Allow yourself to be led by the cheekily vaudevillian, techno-burlesque spirits and sprites, monsters and oracles, all bidding you to examine, reflect, and open yourself up to the different facets of your own existence as they dance with you, sing for you, and most importantly, listen to you; confronting your hopes, fears, and your most intangible, suppressed dreams towards a cathartic connection with the version of yourself who’s always waiting for you, just around the corner of your mind. A wholly unique experience awaits those who enter Limbo with an open heart and a willingness to play your guides' games by their rules, with the experience progressively tailored to each individual dreamer depending on just how much they are willing to share, and how deep they allow themselves to go.
Why we think you'll love it: Dream World has produced nearly a dozen shows in the past three years alone, their prolific output all maintaining a startlingly consistent visual palate and spiritual ethos, always aiming to provide their visitors with an empathetic, transformational odyssey that gives each dreamer a safe space to engage with their own feelings in a mode that charms as it disarms.
For people who can’t even untangle a string of Christmas lights once a year without help…
The Eureka Room [AUSTIN]
Mike Stefanik, actual/theoretical experience artist and enthusiastic blogger and local events promoter, has given up a room in his very normal house to offer curious visitors a space to do something very weird. Over 10,000 LEDs line the walls surrounding you and your fellow houseguests as The Eureka Room lights your way through escalating levels of audio-visual interactivity. What begins as a feast for the eyes transforms into a shining beacon of irreverence as you’re prompted to engage in increasingly silly group-based activities. Whether you try your luck in a mixed group of strangers or book a private visit with a party of familiar playmates, those who embrace the vibe and follow the room's instructions are sure to be transported and tickled by what the creator describes as his “boutique immersive experience."
Why we think you’ll love it: The Eureka Room both by ethos and practical design cannot function with wallflowers. The creator, in a progressively tongue-in-cheek set of warnings on the experience’s website, urges only those prepared for an hour of unselfconscious fun to pass through his doors.
For people who instinctively shout “And you may ask yourself, ‘Well, how did I get here?’” when they rely too much on Apple Maps...
Theater of the Mind [DENVER]
Alternative rock elder statesman, latter day pop philosopher, and silver haired human alien David Byrne sets up shop in Colorado to apply his patented brand of folksy rumination to no less than how your brain shapes your perception of the world around you. Co-created by writer Mala Gaonkar and directed by Andrew Scoville, this linear, surprisingly narrative-based experience features interactive experiments pulled from consulting neuroscience labs designed to explore what inspires our most basic human intuitions and how those in turn inform what our minds define as objective reality. A guiding actor leads an intimate group of sixteen through the story from room to room; some realistically detailed sets, some psychedelic lightscapes, some in complete darkness. At times challenging, disorienting, but always deeply thought-provoking, this experience strives to amuse all five senses through a sly combination of immersive magic and scientific perceptual phenomena, inspiring you to reflect on all the ways you perceive the world and further begs the question… are they reliable?
Why we think you’ll love it: Whether in music, theatre, or just musing extemporaneously about the world around us, any project David Byrne applies his singularly off-beat brand to is sure to be infused with the kind of open-minded curiosity, modest sincerity, and gentle eccentricity that you can’t help but allow to affect your own perceptions.
**Have an upcoming/ongoing immersive experience that has you buzzing? Point it out to us through pitches@noproscenium.com with the subject line "I Found A Trailhead" and we might include it in the next issue!