I believe that when creating a world for audiences to explore, it's important to remember that each audience member is different, with different needs and perspectives. So opening our minds to the different elements of their sensory experience will allow us to avoid isolating as many of them as possible from the impact of the experience.
I should probably note that rather than investigate the traditional five senses (touch, taste, hearing, smell, and sight), this section shall have a broader interpretation of what a sensory experience can mean, and simply consider one or two interesting perspectives.
Regardless of whether each members' experience is different, it is important that each is considered. Ever-growing in popularity, the immersive dark room experiences gives audiences the opportunity to sit in total darkness, tasting foods and feeling different textures. And creative minds are thinking of so many different ways to engage different sensory experiences. So let's explore some small but interesting elements of our sensory experience in theatre. Starting with smell...
A notable example of smell is the way the theatre for 'Waitress' is filled with the scent of freshly baked pie. Smell seems to be growing in popularity, but even in the 1960s 'Scent of Mystery' was attempting to use 'smell-o-vision' in cinemas to engage audiences in the smell of the actions (unsuccessfully unfortunately). The difference is the attempt to engage an audience through an overall smell in the space, versus the attempt to release smell into the space on cue. Are we simply creating a world or are we telling a story with smell? One requires careful, tedious timing and the other requires one selected smell that the team has to be sure will communicate to the audience. I could go on for hours about using sound, but first I want to relate that to touch. An obvious route to go down is set and fabric textures, however I want to explore something a little different. The We The Curious exhibition at the Bristol science museum, has an installation that allows children to select music to play through a speaker under their feet. The experience of vibrations are commonly associated with work created to engage D/deaf audiences to impact their experiences. Vibrations are important to consider because they change the experience of sound. What surfaces are impacted by sound and how do we engage the audience in this? 'Sonic Warfare' by Steve Goodman explores sound in relation to the ecology of fear. One concept Goodman considers is the impact of vibration on physical discomfort; how military techniques and machinery are often associated with a vibrational discomfort. If exposing audiences to sudden thudding or gradual tingling we have to be aware of the associations they might have with these experiences. Vibrations are an incredibly interesting way to perceive and experience an environment; with no use of our other senses, we have the ability to feel vibrations. Unlikely scenario, however scientists use smalls pieces of information like this in order to reconstruct images and measurements of objects unable to be obtained. Scientists used a computational telescope in order to construct an image of a black hole based on radio waves. We can form an image of an entire space based off the limited information and sense provided for us. Whilst not widely considered a part of a sensory experience, temperature is surprisingly important in how we create a world. It's not just the mood and lighting of 'War Horse,' the chills I received when I sat in a cold theatre in Edinburgh at fourteen-years-old were influenced by the temperature as much as the atmosphere. And I do not feel this is a failure in storytelling. War Horse
Creating a temperature for an audience is highly affective in recreating a feeling, however it is risky; we have a duty of care to our audiences and playing with the temperature is just as delicate as monitoring the decibel count you expose them to or ensuring you are not spreading powdered peanuts into the air to create a smell. To jump in a completely different direction, I think it is worth discussing people's orientation and sense of time. If its confusion you are looking for, simply removing someone's ability to tell the time or their sense of direction creates all the fuss you need, providing you look after them. At the We are Curious exhibition, an audience can walk into a room that is entirely tilted and find their entire experience turned upside down, or slightly to the side at least. Blindfolding our audiences is in theory wonderful, but it also creates a vulnerability for audience members that depend on their sight. Yet, some audience members do not depend on their sight and so would experience this differently. Both are important to consider. Think about the variety of audiences that might come through the door and how their sensory experience might vary. Despite this research being a mere taster, its good to start thinking outside the box about what sensory experience we want to create, and immersive theatre is one of the greatest place start. There is so much out there to consider and its truly incredible what you can create with a few minor adjustments to how your audience experience the space you have created for them. You can create an entire world through senses before you begin building the set, and alongside that process too...
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