As an audience member you take a seat in the cinema auditorium, on your own, within a row of empty seats. You put on a pair of headphones and listen to a binaural recording: Chatting amongst themselves, a group of children, who are seemingly filling the rows of seats surrounding you, start discussing a cinema of the past (where films spin on wheels) and the future (where immersiveness ‘makes you feel like you’re there’). Experienced in near-total darkness, you follow the childrens’ speculations. Their voices slowly shift into a seemingly virtual underwater world, until we end up back in the actual auditorium with a film projection lighting up the space and dispelling the children’s illusionary presence.
Fundamentally solitary (everyone with their own pair of headphones), but supposedly collective (a soundtrack that evokes the presence of many others), the piece playfully reflects on the very illusion of this binaural technology. Set within a familiar cinema auditorium, the children’s conversations allude to our increasingly complex relationship with the ‘real’ and the ‘virtual’ in the light of a growing desire for total immersion through audio-visual technologies – a world that these children seem to instinctively embrace.
CONCEPT | DIRECTION | FILM: Britt Hatzius
STARRING: Brandon, Allanah, Rohan, Millian, Grace (Curledge Street Academy primary school, Paignton)
SOUND RECORDING | DESIGN: Jay Auburn (dBs Music)
POSTPRODUCTION: Tugkan Mutlu
IN ORDER NOT TO BE THERE premiered at Paignton Picture House, Devon, UK, a disused derelict Cinema currently in the process of being restored. The piece was originally commissioned by producers Situations, as part of The Tale, a site-specific project for Torbay, Devon, UK, where 10 artists were asked to make new work for sites across three coastal towns. The Tale took place in September 2017.
IN ORDER NOT TO BE THERE
Performance-Installation
