A virtual-reality performance based on a search for balance between the head and the heart.

Paul Boereboom and Leon Rogissart graduated from the Academy for Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam in 2021. Their virtual-reality performance Ascension is based on a search for balance between the head and the heart. Is it possible to achieve this state? And what kind of interaction does this produce?

"I push myself through the peel, the mass. The void. Sometimes gently, sometimes with noise and acceleration, but always fluid. Floating, forever floating. A safe haven for the inner mantra to resonate."  

If we think away all ambient noise, what would our human mantra sound like? How do I facilitate space for a dialogue between the head and the heart? Ascension aims to create space to explore these questions and offers a canvas on which visitors may reflect and associate for themselves. A place where we may let go of what our physical body and the outside world demands of us for a while and just be. 

Ascension won the award for best VR at the KABOOM Animation festival in April 2021.

“The exceptional thing about this performance is that it is purely about a spatial experience that links the sound landscapes of two singing voices, soprano Marie Van Luijk and counter-tenor Arturo den Hartog, with a 360° virtual space that you can view from all sides from a swivel chair. You are constantly propelled slowly forward in this virtual reality, which allows you to fully immerse yourself in the visual beauty of the image.”

theaterkrant.nl

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