Experiments in Intimacy and Immersion

Lander, Richard

Abstract

In 2010 I was struck by the real-life drama of Julian Assange and the leaking of secret documents by WikiLeaks. This was a story that broke across multiple sources – newspapers, radio, TV, government briefings, and WikiLeaks counter briefings. Then there was the whole thing about his sexual relationships, which may or may not have been connected to his status as hero of free speech or villain, traitor, and rapist. A later twist was his taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy. At the time I was drawn several times into wide-ranging debates with friends about Assange as person and political figure. On one side of the table he was a political hero with bad social skills, on the other he was a politically naïve narcissistic sexist. Now, having read Andrew O’Hagen’s account of working with the man (O’Hagen 2014), I feel I know who he is, but when the story broke, my view of him was constructed from fact, assumption, political perspective, and gut instinct. In TMD, as writer and director, I am attempting to tell a story that “breaks” from multiple sources. Each player’s view of the protagonist, Eve Rust, is constructed from some combination of contentious facts and personal feelings.

TMD was created as an experimental platform for audience research, which meant that, whilst it had to be a satisfactory experience for the paying audience, the techniques we used to tell the story had to be free to fail. How would audiences respond to the use of an app, use of actor encounters, use of installations, use of music, etc.? If some of the audience members were left confused or unimmersed, then our observation of their experience would allow us to really understand how people respond to the practice and methodologies of pervasive drama.

Drawing on our experiences and audience feedback from the four stagings of TMD, I will examine the strengths and weaknesses of the multiple methods used to communicate plot and character in this drama. I will also consider what “immersion” in a pervasive drama encompasses and whether awareness of the mechanisms of the production affects it.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 1, 2015
• Online Publication Date: May 1, 2015
• Publication Date: May 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: May 13, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Sonic Studies
• Publisher: Leiden University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Issue: 9
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7381795
• Publisher URL: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/558896/558930