A two person playable story
Are you ready to raise The Multitude? What would you do if you had been chosen to save humanity from the clutches of an evil demon? Now is your chance! Grab a partner and enjoy the adventure in this visually stunning, large-scale installation.
Over the past year, we’ve been working with artist Jamie Gledhill as part of an R&D project to devise a new work: The Multitude, a playable interactive artwork, presented in an immersive environment where two socially distanced ‘players’ work together to ‘save the world’.
The Multitude is a 20-minute playable story for two humans that features interactive projections of their own bodies. No previous experience is necessary, or even possible. The brave heroes must do the bidding of the four elemental spirits of nature to gain their help. However, not all the elementals are impressed with humankind’s recent behaviour and may need some persuasion to help. The quest is yours should you care to accept it: can you raise the Multitude and save us all?
We tested the project during shows at Cambridge Junction, Norwich Arts Centre and Sook. Sook Cambridge is a modified shopping centre space that’s equipped with high-tech screen, sound and lighting technology. It’s bookable by the hour by anyone who wants to use it. Sook is currently rolling out their model to other empty shop space across the UK, presenting a potentially interesting opportunity for the arts. Could spaces such as these be used to show art work and facilitate UK tours? We want to find out.
The next step will be to tour the work to other venues and spaces. Watch the trailer for the project.
The Multitude came about a a result of an award to Collusion by Cambridge Junction as part of their Vision Mixers producer development scheme. Additionally the project received support from Arts Council England via their Project Grants programme.
Further Resources
See useful resources for outdoor projection in our Padlet with inspiration, examples and types of hardware and software to use. Also check out our Padlet on virtual production.
Artists
Jamie Gledhill // Lead artist
Jamie Gledhill is an East Anglia based artist working at the intersection of storytelling, audio-visual experimentation and interaction design. He holds an MA in Moving Image and Sound from Norwich University of the Arts and a BA in Arts Management from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. His practice often features non-contact interaction using devices such as the Kinect, Leap and standard webcam. Fascinated by the power of play to transcend norms of behaviour, his work invites participants to momentarily abandon the mundane world and enter a ‘magic circle’ of creative experience. He has previously exhibited at venues including FACT, Firstsite, Metal, the Gibberd Gallery Harlow, Ipswich Town Hall and the Forum Norwich. Commissions include Peterborough Presents, converting an outdoor sculpture into an interactive audio installation, an Augmented Reality project ‘The Talking Trees of Chalkwell Park’ in Southend for Metal, and ENAS resulting in an interactive text installation featuring collected stories of journeys to and from Harwich. He is also a lecturer at Norwich University of the Arts.
Anna Brownsted // R&D Collaborator
Anna works across a wide range of media including sound, installation, performance and participation. She holds an MA in Performance Practice as Research from Central School of Speech and Drama, and her process is often collaborative, involving interdisciplinary exchanges that directly inform the development of her work. Anna’s work has been shown in museums, galleries, theatres and public spaces including the British Museum, Kettle’s Yard, the Roundhouse, UCL, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, Battersea Art Centre, Home Manchester and Cambridge Junction, where she is currently an Associate Artist.
