Upwell

Upwell is a mixed reality performance that explores boundaries on multiple dimensions and seeks to dissolve our traditional notions of self and environment. In Upwell, a participant with a VR headset finds themselves immersed in an underwater environment filled with floating particles that glow like bioluminescent plankton. As soon as the participant moves with our wearable controllers, the space is awake and responds to the participant. By naturally interacting with the environment the person shares their experience with audience members via projection and is simultaneously isolated and connected with the outside world. When a state of flow is achieved the surrounding space is felt to be the participant’s own body allowing for an experience of oneness.

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Upwell was included in The Blue Hour, an experimental, interactive environment that fills the entire space of the Industrial Palace Sports Arena will welcome visitors on 8 June and remain open until the end of PQ 2019. The project, based on intensive team work that brings together experienced artists with emerging designers to collaboratively create, will be led by renowned French visual new media artist Romain Tardy.  The curatorial team seeks to experiment with the shifting boundaries between the “non-material” or “virtual” and the “real” world, to explore the capacity of performance design to enlist technology in cultural production.