Landscape Circle is a set design for an audio-only contemporary performance that largely occurs in complete darkness with a few moments of euphoric lighting.
The set is composed from a series of geometric elements varying in size and shape set atop a circular floor measuring 10 meters in diameter and having a thickness of 10cm. Together they establish an abstract topography - somewhere between landscape, sculpture and furniture, never quite settling on any particular one but rather roaming between them all - to be inhabited by the audience.
The set elements are fabricated from recycled foam which visually brings together a diverse family of forms and helps to establish a firm yet comfortable setting. The audience is free to move the elements around and inhabit the setting as they wish, inhabit the setting as they wish, essentially affording numerous micro-spatial situations for sitting, lounging and lying down.
A 24-channel dome of speakers surrounds this setting to create an immersive sonic environment where a story is told only through cinematic sound.
The overall composition aims to create a non-directional and non-hierarchical space where the audience can exist as a collective body immersed in an ambisonic experience - a generous space to collectively listen and imagine. This open environment invites plural associations to take hold as the sound, light (or lack thereof) and forms interact during the duration of the work.
Sensorially, all visual stimuli are removed outside from a few glimpses of the abstract topography brought about by a few punches of light. Instead it is sound that envelops the experience as it moves around the space, expands and contracts, shifting between intensities, volume and distance. This minimization of what the eyes can see and maximization of what the ears can hear, brings imagination to the forefront of the experience, stirring images in the mind and opening up for new meanings and associations.
Through listening, each audience member performs their own story, filling in the gaps left by the erasure of sight, hinting at the richness of possibilities that space can produce
