CCTA Plays Featured:

Earth Duet

By E.M. Lewis
Read by Ian Garrett & Vanesa Kelly

Show Links

• teamlab Phenomena Abu Dhabi https://www.teamlab.art/e/phenomena/
• NYU AD – https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/
• Ian’s Talk at NYU AD – https://vimeo.com/toasterlab/nyuad
• Climate Change Theatre Action – https://www.climatechangetheatreaction.com/

Gallery

Transcript

Ian (00:17):

Hello and welcome back to Podcast 13, episode 3. I’m Ian.

Vanesa (00:21):

And I’m Vanesa. Thank you for joining us again. Whether you’ve been following since episode one or just discovered us, we’re so glad you’re here.

Ian (00:28):

In our last episode, we shared highlights from World Stage Design 2025 in Sharjah in the UAE. It was an extraordinary week surrounded by artists and designers from around the world,

Vanesa (00:39):

But our time in the UAE didn’t end there. After the festival, Ian was invited to give a talk at NYU Abu Dhabi, and I joined him down the coast for the trip, which turned into one of the most unforgettable experiences where everything we’ve been talking about at WSD suddenly clicked into focus,

Ian (00:55):

Exactly the talk, the conversations at NYU and our visit to Team lab phenomena right after they all connected. So this week we’re reflecting on that journey from the research symposium in Sharjah to a digital landscape in Abu Dhabi and what it tells us about this kind of work we’re supporting through Venue 13 and Future 13. But before we get into that conversation, we’re going to go through this week’s CCTA play. This week. We’re going to be reading Earth Duet by EM Lewis. There’s a poem by Emily Dickinson that goes in this short life that only lasts an hour. How much? How little is within our power Earth? Duet is asking a similar question, but specifically about the natural world. It’s for two players and here it’s everything,

Vanesa (01:44):

Everything,

Ian (01:46):

Everything.

Vanesa (01:47):

Ripe bread, strawberries,

Ian (01:49):

Golden                

Vanesa (01:50):

Golden

Ian (01:51):

Peaches dripping,

Vanesa (01:53):

Sit up down your

Ian (01:54):

Chin. Blueberries. The blueberries,

Vanesa (01:57):

Things that are

Ian (01:59):

Fruit,

Vanesa (02:00):

Things that are

Ian (02:01):

Sweet. Also,

Vanesa (02:03):

Also

Ian (02:03):

Things that are

Vanesa (02:05):

Tall. Elephants and

Ian (02:07):

Trees,

Vanesa (02:08):

Fur, cherry oak,

Ian (02:10):

Things that are

Vanesa (02:12):

Tall,

Ian (02:13):

Fathers and

Vanesa (02:14):

Sunflowers,

Ian (02:15):

Skyscrapers,

Vanesa (02:17):

Mountains,

Ian (02:18):

Everything goes finite.

Vanesa (02:22):

We are

Ian (02:23):

Finite.

Vanesa (02:25):

All the people,

Ian (02:26):

All the things

Vanesa (02:27):

We can’t hold onto.

Ian (02:28):

We want to hold onto.

Vanesa (02:31):

We want so badly to hold onto

Ian (02:33):

Slippery

Vanesa (02:34):

Time. Tick, tick, tick time, tick, tick, tick. Slipping

Ian (02:42):

Through our fingers

Vanesa (02:44):

Makes it hard to think about endings.

Ian (02:46):

I have trouble thinking about endings.

Vanesa (02:49):

Endings are hard.

Ian (02:50):

We like beginnings better.

Vanesa (02:52):

Babies,

Ian (02:53):

Baby showers,

Vanesa (02:55):

Merry gold seeds,

Ian (02:56):

Chocolate chip, cookie dough,

Vanesa (02:58):

Sunrise, tick,

Ian (03:00):

Tick,

Vanesa (03:00):

Tick, sunset.

Ian (03:02):

We want so badly to hold on to

Vanesa (03:05):

Time

Ian (03:06):

Each other

Vanesa (03:07):

Memories,

Ian (03:08):

Things. We love

Vanesa (03:09):

World. We love

Ian (03:10):

Going.

Vanesa (03:11):

Things are always

Ian (03:12):

Going.

Vanesa (03:13):

Grieve there

Ian (03:14):

Going.

Vanesa (03:16):

What can we do?

Ian (03:17):

What can we do?

Vanesa (03:18):

What can we do?

Ian (03:19):

What can we do?

Vanesa (03:22):

Change the way the world works.

Ian (03:24):

No

Vanesa (03:25):

Change the way the world works.

Ian (03:28):

No

Vanesa (03:29):

Change the way.

Ian (03:30):

Change the way.

Vanesa (03:32):

Change the way we work upon the world.

Ian (03:34):

Change from short-term thinking to

Vanesa (03:37):

Long-term thinking.

Ian (03:38):

We’ve been cutting off the branch we’re sitting on,

Vanesa (03:41):

We’ve been pretending all the resources,

Ian (03:43):

All the resources,

Vanesa (03:45):

All the beautiful useful resources

Ian (03:47):

Will last forever.

Vanesa (03:49):

So we’ve used them and

Ian (03:51):

Use them.

Vanesa (03:52):

Use them

Ian (03:53):

Finite.

Vanesa (03:54):

This world is

Ian (03:56):

Finite.

Vanesa (03:57):

Everything here is

Ian (03:58):

Finite.

Vanesa (04:00):

Things run out.

Ian (04:01):

There are a lot of people here,

Vanesa (04:03):

Here on this earth

Ian (04:04):

Using

Vanesa (04:06):

Wasting,

Ian (04:06):

Not thinking about tomorrow.

Vanesa (04:09):

Tick, tick, tick.

Ian (04:10):

Scary to think about

Vanesa (04:12):

Tomorrow.

Ian (04:13):

Endings

Vanesa (04:14):

Scary to think about.

Ian (04:15):

So we don’t.

Vanesa (04:16):

So we’ve acted like

Ian (04:18):

Everything and

Vanesa (04:19):

Everyone

Ian (04:20):

Will last

Vanesa (04:21):

Forever, but it

Ian (04:23):

Won’t, not the way we are going,

Vanesa (04:26):

The way we’re going. Is it possible for us to

Ian (04:32):

Change the narrative?

Vanesa (04:33):

Is it possible for us to

Ian (04:35):

Change the world?

Vanesa (04:37):

What is our power here?

Ian (04:39):

What do we want our power to be?

Vanesa (04:42):

Is it possible for us to change the way the

Ian (04:46):

World works,

Vanesa (04:47):

The way we work up the world?

Ian (04:50):

We can fix things we’ve broken.

Vanesa (04:53):

Do we want to?

Ian (04:54):

Do we think it’s important to

Vanesa (04:56):

Do? We think it’s our responsibility to

Ian (04:58):

Do we think it’s somebody else’s responsibility?

Vanesa (05:01):

Anyone else’s responsibility to

Ian (05:04):

Change the world or

Vanesa (05:05):

Do we think it’s ours?

Ian (05:07):

Do we think the time to change

Vanesa (05:10):

It’s some other time

Ian (05:11):

Or now,

Vanesa (05:13):

Do we care about the world we live in?

Ian (05:15):

Do we want to be around tomorrow

Vanesa (05:17):

And tomorrow

Ian (05:19):

And tomorrow after that,

Vanesa (05:21):

After we come and go,

Ian (05:22):

After our children come and go

Vanesa (05:24):

And their children come and go?

Ian (05:26):

If we even have children,

Vanesa (05:28):

It’s not about our children,

Ian (05:30):

It’s all about children

Vanesa (05:33):

Having a world tomorrow.

Ian (05:35):

We have the power to make that happen.

Vanesa (05:37):

How?

Ian (05:38):

Change the way we work upon the world.

Vanesa (05:41):

Let’s change the way we work upon the world.

Ian (05:44):

Let’s institute some

Vanesa (05:46):

Long-term thinking.

Ian (05:47):

Let’s take care of what we’ve got.

Vanesa (05:50):

Let’s be good stewards of the earth

Ian (05:52):

Of this beautiful earth

Vanesa (05:54):

Of the sweet blue planet earth

Ian (05:57):

Right now. It’s the

Vanesa (05:58):

Only one we have.

Ian (06:01):

End of play.

(06:01):

EM Lewis is an award-winning playwright teacher and opera liberalist. Her work has been produced around the world and published by Samuel French. She received the Steinberg Award and the Primus Prize from the American Theater Critics Association, the Ted Schmitt Award from the LA drama critic circle, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University and a place in the Mellon Foundation’s National Playwright Residency program. She lives on her family’s farm in Oregon,

Vanesa (06:35):

So we left Sharjah in the middle of World Stage Sesign busting from all the ideas about sustainability and performance design. Then we both found ourselves heading to Abu Dhabi for your talk at NYUAD for the audience, NYU Abu Dhabi is the liberal arts campus located on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, bringing together students from more than 120 countries in a purpose-built environment blending innovation with tradition. Its art center houses, a collection of highly specialized theatres and studios like the 700 seater Red Theater, this black box, which is a flexible studio space and the blue hall, 150 seat recycle hall with pipe organ inspired acoustic designs and sprung wooden floor. Ian, what were your initial thoughts on the campus and its arts facilities? What struck you about the scale, the design and ambition on the stages? The red one, the blue hole, the black box

Ian (07:31):

It was so interesting to see these purpose-built spaces. They are each demonstrating where the priorities are. There’s a lot of wood involved and there’s not a lot of trees in the UAE, so somebody put some extra care into how these spaces are being configured down to the recital hall included. The chairs were also made out of a blonde wood as well, which is great for the acoustics, but it’s something that seems sort of luxurious in a lot of the spaces that I’ve been into as well. We saw more sort of standard chairs in there, but it really sort of stressed the importance of providing the best environment for performance to be developed here and for it to be displayed to those who are coming here and really spoke to the overall investment in the cultural infrastructure on Saadiyat Island across the entire region, the entire area. That part of Abu Dhabi is really seeing a growth in cultural facilities and museums and performance that I think is really demonstrating this shift in thinking around how do we bring in the world and how do we have a cultural conversation about how we interact in it as well.

(08:48):

Vanesa, as someone who is tagging along, what was your reaction to seeing all these bespoke spaces?

Vanesa (08:54):

For me, it was extremely useful to have the tour and to have the explanations as to, like you said, why they’ve built each theatre with wood in mind. And there was this blonde wood all over and the whole place fell like it was like you were inside of an organ and you could see the edges and the curvature of every single corner. You can see how the acoustic traveled there. For me, the blue hall felt like being inside of an origami wrapper, so as if you were making an origami crane with paper and then you undo it, you can see all these triangles in the paper and you felt like that was a representative on the walls and you can see how the sound would be bouncing off all of those jagged edges and bouncing around so that people who must have gone a much better surround system experience. And for what I could understand from the black box, it was a very modular, flexible studio that unlike a lot of other places, it allowed to customize things to the theatre company’s needs, such as changing the depth of the stage, even the flooring. So that was also fantastic to see and also really informative to learn.

(10:14):

Ian, how did you feel presenting your sonography work to students and faculty in Abu Dhabi in a different cultural and geographic context to your usual practice?

Ian (10:24):

It was a really meaningful experience, not just because in part, it was organized by Abby Diez who was our host at NYUAD because she had worked for me, the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts a decade ago before she had moved to the UAE and taken up this work with NYU. So in that way, it was the first time that we actually met in person, even though we had spent years working together and we’ve known each other for a while. It was the first time that we had shared physical space to each other, so it was special in that regard just to be able to put that together. But the talk itself, it was called Somewhere in Time: Mapping Art, Technology, and Ecology, and it was really about tracing how ideas move through the things that I work on across projects and across time. I used four coordinates as a way of thinking ghost people, sites and signals. It’s not a formula, more like a compass. Moving through things and being able to connect that work together was really something that was special for me, especially bringing it into a context that I’d never been before.

Vanesa (11:29):

I love that framing. It felt like such a poetic way to describe the creative process, the ghost being what we inherit. People being the collaborators, the sites being the spaces that holds the work and if I’m correct, the signals being the invisible systems that connect everything. Was there anything you changed or adapted for the audience? Did the structure influence how you presented your ideas about the or sustainability or hybridity?

Ian (11:55):

Well, the structure, let me talk about projects like Parkway Forest and Groundworks and Vox Lumen, not as separate experiments but sort of as one living map, sort of a cycle of energy collaboration and care. What came up in conversation was how much these things resonated in the Gulf right now there’s this glowing interest in how technology and sustainability intersect culturally, not just technically. So the way that the talk ended up getting structured was really informative of being able to demonstrate how these lines of thinking and how these different guide points are actually connected to each other and we create more of a through line through the work.

Vanesa (12:33):

I could feel people connecting with the idea that design isn’t just about building something new, but about listening to the systems that are already there. So whether they’re ecological or social or digital. And did you sense any particular curiosity or questions from the students about how perhaps theatre design connects with sustainability or with your work in Scotland?

Ian (12:56):

Yeah, there was one exchange in particular, which was with a student who was looking at projection mapping. They were both looking to create sort of a ceramic piece and then projector map onto it when it was done. And so thinking about the way that you have the influence over the physical elements and then the phenomena, the projections, the digital technology, and it’s something that doesn’t necessarily have a tangible form and how the things come together. I think that there’s a lot of hunger for that as it was being explained to us by Abby as we were walking around doing our tour, she was describing that this is of great interest to a lot of the students right now, and in talking to some of the faculty members as we were on that tour, a lot of their work is as well. It is an interesting environment to be doing this on.

(13:46):

We saw this in world stage design too. We didn’t have an opportunity to go experience it, but there was a sound installation farther out into the desert. And so I think that there’s otherwise seemingly foreign landscape for a lot of people who are coming in from outside or it is just less represented in popular culture of the dunes. A very shifting landscape too combined to then how do you bring in highlights of phenomena? How do you coordinate these things together? How do you create and experience across both the physical environment and the technology environment? I think that was one of the main things I think it came across in the talk, but like I said, with this projection mapping conversation with a student coming in of they’re dealing with earth, they’re dealing with clay and then looking at bringing the technology on top of that and the conversation that we’re having was about as much as you can plan for it, getting your hands into it, getting into it, creating the thing and projecting onto it, seeing how it takes light, seeing how that would have that reciprocal relationship.

(14:56):

It goes very indicative of a lot of the conversations that we’re having. There’s a true back and forth, and I think that it’s true also when we’re going to be in Scotland though it’s a very different landscape for that as we’ve been developing A.I. Campfire now Return to A.I. Campfire that the way that this hosted in the venue is very much about how these things intersect in these landscapes. What are the points of engagement between where we are and how we want to express other ideas about what those signals are for it. So for me, the question was how can we make those systems visible or even those are the performance in a way. That’s what sort of led us straight to Teamlab and phenomena, which we were both excited to see. It’s sort of a living example of what means to design with ghost people’s sites and signals all at once sort of arising out of the desert, right?

Vanesa (15:48):

Yeah, absolutely, and I absolutely get what you say, and I really enjoyed the exchange with that student. I feel like she got quite a lot of points out of that to take forward into the practice and into the project that she was going to do. You gave her some really clear things to start working on, which was really, really good interaction to see.

(16:06):

So Ian, do you think it’s time that we tell people about our experience visiting TeamLab? So TeamLab Phenomena, Abu Dhabi was this massive 17,000 square meter immersive art playground where exhibits mix the light, the water movement and everything responds to you as you walk about and you can touch everything. You can touch the walls and there’s a reaction. You can step into something and if something happens and you’re surrounded by moving light at all times and then there’s also a water area, which is really exciting. This really sparked the big ideas about future performance and design for Venue 13. For listeners who haven’t seen it yet, how would you describe Team Lab phenomena Abu Dhabi?

Ian (16:50):

Well, it’s interesting because it’s a purpose built home for TeamLab evolving installations. They’re based in Tokyo. They have a number of different installs throughout the world, but this is the first in which they’ve actually created the building to house things. So I think it’s operating at a scale. You’ve got these massive projection spaces, environmental soundscapes, shifting air currents, it lives up to the phenomenon name. There’s sort of every natural phenomenon causing different sort of interactions there. So you’re not just observing the art, you’re participating in it too, whether or not that’s because it’s interactive in a way that you might expect through a digital environment. You see the environment reacting to you projections of wind currents or insects floating or animals crawling around that have been generated through some other user experience. Then they can go splat or they change directions or they start moving around you. So there’s those elements and then there’s the actual physical phenomena too. You had mentioned walking through water. There are parts of it where you are going through, you have to take off your shoes and roll up your trousers so that you’re not getting wet so you can walk through these environments where things are floating around, et cetera. It’s just sort of one of those rare places where you truly feel that the art, that technology and the ecology are all in dialogue together.

Vanesa (18:09):

Walking in, I remember thinking this is the kind of skill where, I dunno, the invisible becomes visible. It’s like anything you can think happened. It’s like your brain is working extra hard to comprehend it, but it’s all very kind of quite impossible to comprehend, so they make light become sort of matter and then you have sound which enhance the space and the voids type of thing. It makes you feel a bit hollow and your own body sort of becomes part of the story. I mean, I was a bit nauseous in a couple of the exhibits because you just feel larger than life. What exhibits caught your attention, Ian?

Ian (18:48):

Well, there’s Morphing Continuum… in that one. There’s hundreds of floating silver balloons or they sort of exist as shapes. It’s relatively dim, they swirl around you. They’re connecting the air currents and having those so that they turn into these vortexes of these silver balloons. And so you have these tornado patterns as light and wind interact, you sort of become immersed inside the movement. There’s also, and there’s another space in which they are going through a series of laser light shows that they have hundreds of lasers intersecting into a space. They create different sort of shapes in sort of an atmospheric haze and I feel like I could have stated there for a very long time. It’s also one of those things that while they encourage you to take photographs, take videos, share things about it, so many of these things as phenomena are really hard to document in a way that you can communicate outside of experiencing it as well.

(19:49):

And between all of these, I know one of the things that I took away from it, as someone who when I’m in environments like this, I want to know how it’s done and when I go into most performance environments, I’m usually able to decipher how things are accomplished and I like that sort of puzzle to it. And I’m always delighted when something takes me by surprise, where I am lost in the moment of the experience where I don’t, at least for a moment understand what the technical systems for it is. And between all of these, even when I did understand it, the lasers, it’s very obvious how it was done, but through combining various key elements to it in such a clever and ultimately really simple way, it became really engaging for me where I was able to separate myself from the technology. What were some of those that caught your eye?

Vanesa (20:42):

I remember one of the lasers and it was a circular room and there were millions, millions of lasers pointing to the center. And from an untrained eye, the best way I can explain it is that it’s a low room. You’re lying down on beanbags, you’re looking upwards. There’s this circular round of lasers pointing to the center and where they meet, somehow they create the shapes and at one point to me it was like it felt like you could in heaven or you could see Aurora Borealis just because of the combinations and how the lasers met each other in the middle. So you could see the suspended aurora borealis. It was pretty amazing. But also don’t forget the bio cosmos, which is like you walk in on a net and it’s stretched about this vast space and you don’t really get a sense of how big the place is.

(21:32):

It feels infinite and you’re in this net and there’s clearly nothing under the net. So you’re suspended and there are projections all around you and they’re moving in a diagonal circular way. There are flowers and birds and cosmic imagery and it feels like you’re stepping into another dimension. But because everything is turning in this sort of planetary way, I guess that’s the best thing I can say about it. This is one of the ones that made me feel a little bit nauseous. It’s like I had to sit down on the net and breathe because you could be standing, but everything feels like it’s moving around you. But when we walked into Team Lab, the first thing that hit me was how the space itself felt alive. Every single room felt like it had its whole movement and that one of the pieces that really stayed with me was the levitation void.

(22:24):

I’d like to go back actually because I don’t think I experienced as fully as I should have, but it’s this massive black sphere that it feels like it’s suspended by itself by magic, and it was such a darkest shade of black that you couldn’t really understand or your brain couldn’t really make sense of the shape of the spear. It just felt like a hole of void, a completely 2D hole of void in your 3D life. And it is really interesting to how your brain tries to rationalize that. How does the immersive of all the nature of Team Lab, their installations, the art, the response to the environment audience, how do you think that connects with your own interest in performance ?

Ian (23:13):

Well, this is something that’s always been what’s drawn me into this. One of my favorite artists is also Olafur Eliason, who’s similarly worked with phenomena as well, maybe less projection. They can be a little bit more simple too. But I know what you’re saying about levitation Void, another one where it’s just such a simple idea that there’s the minimal instances of technology. It’s not meant to be an overwhelming sense that this is a techno space for it. In that one there is essentially it’s a giant balloon and they’ve got these wind currents moving through that cause it to levitate, but at the same time your brain’s trying to make sense of the shape of it as well. And so it’s like these simple exchanges between the physical environment and the technology that allows it to disappear. I mean there’s plenty of the spaces where the projection mapping is like, isn’t this cool?

(24:11):

There’s very much a isn’t this cool? But a lot of the success of these and what changes them over from this is a cool exhibits or something that you might see in a museum. It’s like educational that with really well done technical mastery around projection mapping. Is that where it sort of crossed over into feeling natural? It felt like it was like an ecology. It felt like it was part of the physical world much as being imposed on it. And in that way it sort of allows these phenomena to be the performers, right? It’s an experience that reminds you that performance can exist without performers, that the audience, the technology and the environment can co-create these instances of meaning together.

Vanesa (24:58):

That’s absolutely right. Yeah, you said it, that’s what it was. Do you think that this visit influenced or will influence how you think about immersive performance and audience interaction on scenography in any upcoming projects?

Ian (25:12):

Well, I think that it’ll actually come into Venue 13 quite a bit. One of the things that’s really appealing about the space that we have available to us and why we’re interested in this sort of open space and not carving it up or not trying to create really small conventional spaces that thinking about what can be done through these simple interventions that through floatable, a little bit of air, maybe a little bit of technology that you can create really meaningful experiences that hold magic in those spaces. And I hope that influences a lot of the projects that I’m doing, but I really do hope that it’s something that when we’re bringing people in and they’re engaging with us and working with us to bring something at the venue 13, that open space, that blink canvas in three dimensions becomes something that engages all those senses in the same way.

(26:08):

What about you, Vanesa, having absorbed all these international perspectives, how will you bring some of that back to Edinburgh and Venue 13?

Vanesa (26:18):

That is still to be seen, but absolutely with the research for Return to the AI Campfire, which is going to be the second installation from the campfire series, we had a conversation with some collaborators potentially to inject more technology and more immersive interactions between the visitors and the project. And in a way, although we do have it is a show and it is a production because it’s a digital production essentially. It is a little bit like performance can be done without performers. So we do want to find a way of finding that the audience can interact with the piece and take something away from that. Something that is like you said, magic a little bit more, something that wakes up within them that says, oh yeah, that was actually quite neat and I’ll remember that and I’ll tell people about it because that has changed me in a way, maybe changed the way I view things in a certain way.

Ian (27:20):

Yeah, it is one thing to note also for our audience that we’re both big fans of magic. We’ve seen a couple of magic shows when we were working on the festival together and I used to work with a lot of magicians as well. Maybe this is fodder for a future episode where we talk specifically around magic, but there’s something about in working with them, I know how a lot of illusions are accomplished for it, similar to what I was saying with the team lab space, and I know technically how a lot of this is accomplished, but being still brought into that sense of wonder or being still brought into this idea where at least for a time don’t know how something is accomplished or might know how it’s accomplished and it’s done so skillfully that I can’t see the system of how it’s working even though I know how it must have happened.

(28:07):

Those are the things that bring me great delight and that’s sort of what I’m trying to accomplish within the themes of the talk. The ghosts in the inherent technologies and data systems, they’re reanimating the people as the visitors and moving through the work, the site in the desert, there’s climate shapes, the building itself and the signals are everywhere. The code, the sensors, the flow flight, it’s all a total performance ecology coming together to sort of create these illusions or a suspension of the concreteness of everything around us that there’s still mystery in the way that we’re observing things

Vanesa (28:46):

And that connects so strongly with how we are thinking about Venue 13 as a kind of living system. It might be smaller in scale, but it’s still about the presence and adapting and the modularity that it has and the relationship that it’s going to have between the audience and the performance.

Ian (29:05):

I think we’re building a venue that listens to its artists, to its audience and its environment and we don’t want to talk about work like this. We want to make space for it like Team Lab interested in art that doesn’t just happen once and disappear but evolves, responds, and regenerates performances and installations that can grow over time.

Vanesa (29:22):

I think what impressed me most was that Team Lab, for example, if we’re going to take them as an example, is that they’re not hiding the technology. They are showing how the systems are working. It’s all there to be seen. I think their advantage is that they have space and for us at Venue 13, because we have a smaller amount space, we have to think a little bit more about how to fit as much of the illusion of space because one of the things that was very jawdropping is how you go into Team Lab and it feels like some of the rooms are endless and they go on forever and it is all smoke and mirrors, don’t get me wrong,

Ian (29:57):

Literally, literally stuck mirrors.

Vanesa (30:00):

But the thing is how do you make those installations more modular? How can you actually create that for say one hour in one evening and then how do you pack it up and then all of a sudden it’s a dance performance. It’s a completely different set. It’s a completely different stage. And I believe that that’s an advantage of any 13 of its simplicity that it can actually transform in various types of stages and nothing is fixed. And we are very, as directors, we’re very open-minded to say, how can we quickly, quickly turn this in from one thing into another? So essentially I think that we are the magicians here, but with Team Land, they are making sure that all the systems work, everything is beautiful. And it reminds me about a bit of what you said in the talk that sustainability isn’t just a technical challenge, but it’s also an ethical challenge because how is that building supporting sustainable site? But I feel like I could see also, as I said, they’re not hiding anything. I could see how they work it into their exhibit.

Ian (31:01):

Sustainability is about relationships between energy and labor, between infrastructure and imagination. My Project Vox Lumen, which came up in the talk, taught me about that with the way that it required certain negotiations among labour to allow it to happen in the way that it was engineered to be able to use renewable energy to power dance performance. Team Lab reinforces that on a much grander scale, it’s not just about efficiency but also awareness. Every movement, every line of code becomes part of that performance.

Vanesa (31:33):

That awareness is what we’re trying to bring into our own projects, whether that’s like a touring performance or a market installation or a new production in Edinburgh. And we are going to have quite a lot of research to do because we want to make sure that every show that we do is actually has that element of both sustainability but also of awe, I guess. And wonder,

Ian (31:56):

I mean speaking of projects that really sort of embody that kind of awareness, do you remember Dream State at the Adelaide Fringe? We caught that earlier this year while we were doing our recon trip to see what sort of work was happening in Australia. It felt like another great example because it’s also touring and temporary of what we’re talking about.

Vanesa (32:14):

Oh, absolutely. Dream State was kind of living dream space. It was like a meditative experience because it used light and the sound and movement in a way that it felt very personal but also quite collective because you were there with everyone else. You could wander through the rooms like space through space and feel a very immersed, some of the actual room sections were a little bit disturbing, so it was like noise and kind of through lighting a little bit, but you were inside someone’s imagination. It felt like a dream, but certain rooms were a little bit like a nightmare.

Ian (32:47):

It reminded me that audiences are craving experiences that evolve around them, not just linear stories, but worlds that they can explore. So that’s sort of mystery. I can see how that influences someone to think about something not like a haunted house, they just came past Halloween and it’s not too different from that, but that sort of exploration interactions, something that you feel like you have agency within the environment. This is type of energy we want to nurture at the venue with work that blurs between installation and performance involves discovery and can grow a shift over time. For me, seeing Team Lab after giving that talk at NYUAD felt like coming a bit around full circle. Everything I’d been describing in theory about mapping relationships across art technology and ecology was just happening there right in front of us.

Vanesa (33:40):

And it also gave us a glimpse on what’s possible when those systems are supported. And we had countless talks with people about grants and funding and it made me think about how Value 13 could become a kind of incubator for the same way of working where artists can, they can prototype, they can test, they can evolve work that blurs the lines between the live, digital and even environmental performance, their digital storytelling projects for example, or a sensory installation or performance which could be powered by renewable systems. And it was great speaking to so many artists because we were like, well, talk to us about Venue 13. Don’t be scared of the fringe because we are demystifying the fringe, we’re making it simple. We are a medium small to medium sized venue and we are willing to meet you halfway. It’s like, tell us your dreams. What do you want to create? Because that’s the part that excites us. So Venue 13 and Future 13 are about building that infrastructure at a human scale. The visit to Team lab reminded me that the future of performance isn’t just about the technology, but about grabbing the attention of the people.

Ian (34:52):

Yeah, attention. I love that because that’s what ultimately connects all of it. From my talk to team lab to the work we’re supporting, it’s all about learning to pay attention differently to energy, to each other and to place.

(35:06):

And I suppose we should thank everybody listening for their attention right now because that’s going to bring us to the end of this episode from Sharjah to Abu Dhabi. It’s been an incredible journey connecting the threads between research, design and imagination.

Vanesa (35:20):

It really has the visit to team lab phenomena for walking into a world practices. We’ve been preaching in the art, that technology, the sustainability, everything can coexist in harmony.

Ian (35:31):

And it’s inspiring to think about how these same ideas can thrive in smaller spaces like Venue 13, where we’re building a community creative sustainability.

Vanesa (35:39):

So whether you’re listening from Edinburgh or Abu Dhabi or anywhere else, thank you for being part of this evolving story.

Ian (35:46):

And until next time, keep exploring, keep impacting and keep imagining what performance can become.

Vanesa (35:55):

Thanks again for tunning into Podcast 13. We’ll be back with another climate change theatre action play, and more reflections on sustainability and performance.

Ian (36:04):

Take care and see you soon.

(36:07):

On today’s episode, you heard Ian Garrett and Vanesa Kelly, co-directors of Venue 13. The topic was on our visit to team lab phenomena in Abu Dhabi and a guest talk from Ian at NYU Abu Dhabi, which will include a section of highlights for it sort of tagged onto the end of this episode. If you’re interested, our music for this episode and all episodes is from Dusty Decks, which we license via Epidemic sound. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. You can reach us at podcast@venue13.com or follow @venue13fringe on all socials for full transcripts and to check out our past episodes. You can see those on our website at venue13.com

(37:12):

…but that sort of creates the parameters on which you’re collaborating with folks. This happens with site as well. So Groundworks, we export how signals travel through stories lay the media tracing networks already existed with the way that those stories are stored in the way that actual physical infrastructure throughout that region erases or makes visible, those sort of things. Sometimes the next extent of practice though is the map, not just a map that system, but also build one and to construct the infrastructure that allows the performance to exist differently. So this is sort of where Vox Lumen, this project Vox Lumen was with Zata Omm dance company started. This is an early rendering of this performance. There was a question here that William Yong, who’s the choreographer director of the company, started with when we were talking about it, which was, and this came directly out of the Coachella project, conceptually could a full length dance performance be powered entirely off grid?

(38:13):

You had a performance say within a theatre and it’s like, can we do it without using any of the electoral infrastructure mainly to see if it can be done and then what’s the scenography of what that space looks like? Ultimately, the piece was sort of imagined as a world where sunlight has vanished and survival depends on cooperation and renewable energy. The production itself lit by those rules, all the light that was on stage and actually all the tech that was on stage was powered by energy that we had to gather during the day. So before they got to the choreography, we began with systems design, re-engineering, some solar charging kiosk and module batteries, testing various types of low energy devices, newer LED devices, mapping the energy load of each of our lighting cues as well, which is something you don’t normally need to do. And then, so this informs the aesthetic that becomes inseparable from the technical architecture.

(39:07):

So in that way, Vox Lumen and Groundworks are related because they’re both about this energy and relation. But here, this is a novel metaphorical, it’s literally about electricity and that’s sort of like the essence of moving from concept to execution, right? The artistic question that defines the system and then the system ends up sort of defining four that goes along with the work. So once we have this question of performance live entirely off grid, except wasn’t design of the original sense, we need stage designer figuring out where everything goes. But it was a multi-year research project to figure out where is this energy would come from. We had tried pizeoelectrics, we had pressure sensitive floors that they were dancing on for a little while. There were wearable circuits woven into fabrics and all of these failed. We didn’t use any of those.

(39:58):

I think a couple of them show up in props there just to keep them working, like putting stuff on the dancers and they couldn’t accomplish what they wanted to accomplish with the movement for it. So that was out, it was artistically driven in that. So we ended up going with solar. We were going to go with trying to get the audience on the bike so we couldn’t find it to be tenable. This was te, you can imagine in southern Ontario because known for being cold, it’s actually fun fact Southern Ontario, they test building materials there. So it has the most dependable extreme with their swings from negative 40 to positive 40 for theatre, which is uncomfortable. And this was in the end of February, the performance of the March 1st and second. And you can see the spam on the ground at for, so we also don’t get a of daylight right now.

(40:49):

The sun’s down by three. Three doesn’t come up until near 9:00 AM so every road will be short day, but we still won’t say we can still do as a source. There’s a bit of redundancy built into it as well. And we are charging these batteries. And so having to go through the engineering process that brought us to the previous image that you saw that they have to last the entire performance and how does that influence the way that we design both the lights, video where we brought into it sound and also set itself. One of the interesting parts about this, again, and this seems to be little things that I enjoy or seeing, it might seem like they enjoy too, like Groundworks. So these batteries are outside to get into, again, they have to go through the lobby. Those are three different labor you use that govern the people that work in each of those spaces.

(41:39):

So as much as we had to design the system and we had to design the actual show itself, we then had to have labour negotiations to actually be able to make it work because they wouldn’t let us run a cable through an open door to the other side was against fire code. So because of that, we had to come to this agreement between how this pass off and chain of control of the batteries were going to work or there was no show available at all. So it becomes its own sort of other layer of choreography that reflects the type of work that you’re doing in negotiation with length care and assess between the technicians, artists, administrators, et cetera, just to get the show to open in the first place.