Divided Attention is an umbrella for artists working on experiential and immersive theatrical performances. Starting from the belief that live performance is an opportunity to activate the embodied experience of the audience, our mission is to experiment and devise innovative storytelling through explorations in sonic landscapes, sound design, site specific venues, installation, theatrical texts, and scores.
The questions that are currently at the centre of our practice are how can theatre serve audiences who are seeking live experiences but are not drawn to the black box theatre? In an age where our attention is increasingly commodified through our phones and our digital presence, how do we cultivate an experience that activates embodied forms of attention in the spectator? Since 2020, during periods when we couldn’t assemble, theatre was an impossible art form. In the interim, online, audio-visual communication became an established mode in professional and personal settings, revealing how irreplaceable live events are.
Embarking on our inaugural project, our initial objective is to experiment with audience immersion through sound and how this supports the experiential unfolding of the story.
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Drift is an immersive performance that explores the vast sonic landscape of icebergs as metaphor for the epic force of the “natural world”. Through immersion into the magnitude of icebergs and their incredible soundscapes, this project seeks to dissolve the notion that nature is something outside of the human. A performance about listening to the world around us and our relationship to the countless biological systems that comprise life on earth.
Drift tells the story of a fictional island in the North Atlantic set in the midst of a polar current that drags icebergs past the island. Set in a growing commercial city and international harbour that overlooks the ocean, the events of the story begin with engineers aboard the Genesis, a fishing vessel that is out at sea, running maintenance tests on the engine when suddenly the engine cuts out and the boat begins to drift. Ruby, the daughter of one of the engineers on board wakes up that morning having had a powerful dream of being inside an iceberg. Over the course of the next few days, islanders start to notice a strange light emanating from an iceberg that has settled nearby. It gradually begins to attract the attention of tourists and soon a mystical fervour descends on the island city, with supplicants arriving on the beach to take in the energy from the iceberg, believing it to have healing properties. Meanwhile, the Genesis has gone missing, and Ruby’s dreams are increasingly present.
More information on the project here. An article about the rehearsal process in MODA Critical Review here.
e-mail: dividedattentionspace@gmail.com
Embarking on our inaugural project, our initial objective is to experiment with audience immersion through sound and how this supports the experiential unfolding of the story.
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Drift is an immersive performance that explores the vast sonic landscape of icebergs as metaphor for the epic force of the “natural world”. Through immersion into the magnitude of icebergs and their incredible soundscapes, this project seeks to dissolve the notion that nature is something outside of the human. A performance about listening to the world around us and our relationship to the countless biological systems that comprise life on earth.
Drift tells the story of a fictional island in the North Atlantic set in the midst of a polar current that drags icebergs past the island. Set in a growing commercial city and international harbour that overlooks the ocean, the events of the story begin with engineers aboard the Genesis, a fishing vessel that is out at sea, running maintenance tests on the engine when suddenly the engine cuts out and the boat begins to drift. Ruby, the daughter of one of the engineers on board wakes up that morning having had a powerful dream of being inside an iceberg. Over the course of the next few days, islanders start to notice a strange light emanating from an iceberg that has settled nearby. It gradually begins to attract the attention of tourists and soon a mystical fervour descends on the island city, with supplicants arriving on the beach to take in the energy from the iceberg, believing it to have healing properties. Meanwhile, the Genesis has gone missing, and Ruby’s dreams are increasingly present.
More information on the project here. An article about the rehearsal process in MODA Critical Review here.
e-mail: dividedattentionspace@gmail.com