A virtual reality performance, searching for balance between head and heart.
“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 eliminate all ambient noise, what would our inner world sound like? Ascension is based on the concept of a 'floating tank': a saltwater pool in which you experience no sensory stimuli and your mind can come to rest. Gravity drops, you feel yourself rising from the bottom of the tank and you wander off into your own thoughts... This VR experience explores that same sensation and is the starting point of a search for balance between our rational and emotional selves, between head and heart. How do these two versions of ourself interact? How do we achieve that kind of harmony? In Ascension, we create a space to address these questions, a world where we may briefly let go of the desires of our physical body and the outside world.
Ascension is a VR performance by Paul Boereboom and Leon Rogissart, both 2021 graduates of the Academy for Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam, which pushes the boundaries of opera and our perspective on reality. Combining both images and opera music (performed by soprano Marie van Luijk and countertenor Arturo den Hartog), the audience is released from concepts such as time and space.
Ascension won the award for best VR at the KABOOM Animation festival in April 2021.
Leon Rogissart and Paul Boereboom are currently working on a new project: Conversations with the Inner, a participatory ritual in which we let the spectator discover himself through the encounter with the other. This project again explores the fusion between Extended Reality and music theatre, pushing boundaries and opening up new dimensions of experience. Conversations with the Inner is supported by Muziektheater Transparant.
“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
Credits
- Concept • Leon Rogissart / Paul Boereboom
- Soprano • Marie van Luijk
- Countertenor • Arturo den Hartog
- Technique • Dries Himpe
Location | Dates | Hour | |
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Musiktheatertage Wien (Wenen) www.mttw.at Show on map | 28/9/2024 28/9/2024 | 18:00 20:30 | |
ROMAEUROPA FESTIVAL (Rome) +39 6 455 530 50 www.romaeuropa.net Show on map | 11/10/2024 11/10/2024 12/10/2024 12/10/2024 12/10/2024 13/10/2024 13/10/2024 13/10/2024 | 17:30 20:00 15:00 17:30 20:00 15:00 18:00 21:00 | |
CC Diest (Diest) +32 13 46 06 40 www.ccdiest.be Show on map | 8/12/2024 8/12/2024 | 16:30 20:00 | |
CC Ter Dilft Bornem (Bornem) +32 3 890 69 30 https://www.terdilft.be Show on map | 13/3/2025 13/3/2025 | 19:00 21:00 | |
CC Het Gasthuis Aarschot (Aarschot) +32 16 56 48 24 www.hetgasthuis.be Show on map | 27/4/2025 27/4/2025 | 17:00 19:00 |