It’s been about 5 days since our sketch presentations, and I had presented idea number 3 as my idea for the lounge. Whilst the idea of people remixing sounds and having dancers create movement on the spot to these new sounds seems like a fun idea, it lacks an actual concept behind it; ie. no clear purpose and no clear audience.

So I took a step back, back to the beginning, and brainstormed a crazy looking mind map of all the things I could think of regarding the lounge, and this, combined with lounge brainstorming with Karen on the train, led to a new idea:

Underground Sounds

Underground Sounds (working title) is a sound-based interactive game for kids (most likely under the age of 10 or 12).

It works on the premise of a sound installation, where a lounge is centred in a darkened room where the lounge is spotlighted so that the kids will sit down on that spot. Once they are in place, the spotlight dims to darkness and the kids are aurally introduced to dripping, echo-y sounds of liquid falling in a cave, then the sound of bats flying around and above the lounge, which then settles to reveal a disembodied voice that introduces them to the new world that they’ve been transported to: the Labyrinth.

Kids must find their way out of the Labyrinth by answering a series of sound-based questions, which would be answered by either strategically placed mics, or motion sensor buttons in a particular area in the room/on the lounge.

An example of what children would encounter in Underground Sounds is a large and annoying house fly that has followed the children from the normality and safety of the start of their journey, and they must become active participants by getting up from the lounge and following the sound of this intrepid traveller around the room until it leads them on a zig-zagging tiring chase back to the lounge, where the fly stops buzzing, and the children must pick the correct seat/pattern on the lounge (ie. by saying their answer out loud) that will take them to the next portion of their journey.

Since this sound installation/game is called Underground Sounds, it would include all sorts of subterranean places and dwellings such as caves, underwater landscapes/soundscapes, what’s hidden beneath trap doors, sewer and tunnel systems, and perhaps even something like the London underground. These ideas, particularly that of the underwater lounge and the trap door idea, is influenced by pictures I found of underwater lounges and green rooms whilst researching the lounge (see my Diigo links for more).

I was hoping to incorporate Greek myths, folk tales and other mythologies into the sound game so that the children get to learn something new, run around for a bit, and most importantly, have fun.