voidspace dispatches, August 2024: paper stages, strange dreams and a summer spruce up
interactive arts
The sun may be shining and festival season may be coming, but there is no holiday for the voidspace. Since the dust settled on voidspace live 2024, we’ve been busy. We’ve given our site a long overdue spruce up, to make it much easier to find all the different parts of the voidspace: the zine, the press, the festival and of course these dispatches. Check it out here.
We’ve also taken a step towards keeping the community conversations, excitement and playfulness that characterised the festival going. The voidspace now has a discord! Join here to talk about all things interactive. Creators, participants and everyone in between welcome.
We know that playing together is a great way to get to know people, so we have started Strange Play: a fortnightly online forum for experimental games. Alternate Sunday nights at 8pm (UK time), all are welcome. See the discord for details, or drop us a line at voidspacezine@gmail.com
And finally, we have the most exciting announcement of all: voidspace live is returning to Theatre Deli in 2025, and this time for a whole weekend! Mark 7-8 June 2025 in your diaries now.
We have ambitious plans for the weekend festival (including an online offering), and as before will need your help (if we are to pay artists fairly and avoid practices used by other festivals - such as charging artists to exhibit - that we seek to avoid). We are applying for Arts Council funding over the summer, but need to show them that there is demand and support behind the project, and some matched funding. To this end we are starting pre-sales early, and offering some special benefits (such as priority registration) to those of you who can afford to pitch in a little more to help bring the void back into our lives. The voices in the walls will love you forever if you can help.
We can’t wait to show you what’s coming next. In the meantime, kick back with a long cool drink, some interviews and our favourite play at home festival - Paper Stages by Forest Fringe.
voidspace at home
interactive arts to experience at your own pace
voidspace in conversation:
We are thrilled to share two voidspace conversations this month, from creators of two very different shows:
The creative team behind Lovecraftian country house experience Key of Dreams talk to the voidspace about the unique challenges and joys of creating a 24-hour show.
We also welcome Amber Jarman-Crainey into the voidspace, to talk about BOUND, a new free roaming show exploring themes of grief and loss, over five floors at OXO Bargehouse, London.
Read previous voidspace conversations with other friends of the void, including Deadweight Theatre, Jury Games, Unwired Dance, Nick Murray, Leo Doulton and Chloe Mashiter.
voidspace 11
voidspace 11 is now live Read on to discover a dizzying range of interactive writing including a wikipedia speedrun, weird texts and poetry for robots
Play at home experience
Paper Stages 2020, by Forest Fringe
Paper Stages is a festival disguised as a book.
Created during lockdown in 2020, Paper Stages contains a series of performances initiated by Forest Fringe artists for you to complete in the comfort of your own home. The book is free to download. Its creators ask only that in return you give an hour of your time to help somebody else.
voidspace explores
interactive arts listings
August 2024
The Manikins: A Work in Progress - An hourlong performance by two actors for you, its single audience member and protagonist. Innovative and mind boggling, this is the voidspace’s favourite interactive show for some time. Read the voidspace’s conversation with Deadweight’s Jack Aldisert here and donate to Deadweight’s crowdfunder here
Kingswood Arts, London
5 - 18 August 2024
A. MAZE GLUM special party edition - On Friday August 2nd, the Berlin-based international games and playful media label A MAZE. will hold their first ever event in the UK. A one day event that will feature digital interactive exhibits, alternative controller and video games, HyperTalks, DJs and VJs, across a daytime and evening programme. Experience video games and play on another level, with a slice of Berlin games, playful media and club culture coming to Sheffield.
Sheffield
2 August 2024
[computer]: Harbinger Theatre - an interactive show that requires audience’s honesty about identity in order to accurately conclude and market to the one great unifier of humankind
Camden Fringe, London
5-7 August 2024
Where We Meet - Unwired Dance Theatre - Where We Meet is an interactive, audio-based dance installation where audiences can experience the inner thoughts of a dancer. This piece aims to open up the conversation about mental health and to break down taboos by facilitating an empathetic and intimate experience. Read our conversation with creators Clem Debaig and Livia Masparelli here
Camden Fringe, London
12 August 2024
Inside Odds On by Dante or Die - Dante or Die will create a unique free pop-up experience on your local high street. For two weeks only, the critically acclaimed theatre makers will be transforming an empty shop into a mesmerising, immersive underwater betting shop with Inside Odds On.
Harlow: 12 - 24 August
Wolverhampton - September
Rochdale - October
Lincoln - October
Deathcell Magenta: an Origin Story - live-action scare-fest is a wild and thrilling experience, combining theatrical cinema, time-pressured puzzle solving and impossible decisions. Betrayal, deception and unprecedented choices lie ahead... are you ready to push play?
Hackney Wick, London
23 - 31 August 2024
BOUND - Immersive physical theatre work spread over five floors, exploring grief and loss. Read our conversation with director Amber Jarman-Crainey here.
OXO Bargehouse, London
25 August - 7 September 2024
Lennox Mutual by Candle House Collective - Welcome to Lennox Mutual: a Life En-surance company, here to help you make the most of the time you have. We offer policies – to get yours, all you have to do is make an appointment.
For more information, book a one-on-one phone session. Our live representatives are trained to make you feel, make you think, and of course, make you smile. You’ve never experienced service like ours. Read our conversation with Candlehouse Collective here.
Online
Until 8 September 2024
Watching the House by Coney - This is your first day on your new job as a Watcher at Marble Hill. As a guardian of the house, your role is to sit quietly. To observe. To remain invisible and protect the treasures of the past. But as you sit, you hear a voice. You hear many voices, asking you to take notice. Things are not always as they seem… Coney presents a new interactive smartphone adventure and a programme of live events exploring the colonial history of the site. Read our conversation with Coney’s Tassos Stevens here.
Marble Hill, London
Until 29 September 2024
Is this a poem? Adventures on the edge of an artform. Experimental poetry exhibition containing a wide selection of innovative interactive work
Museum of Literature Ireland, Dublin
Until 29 September 2024
XENON PALACE CHAMPIONSHIP! Interactive installation from Sarah Sadik that reflects on brotherhood and belonging, exploring the relationship between alienation, ambition, and securing your legacy.
FACT, Liverpool
Until 13 October 2024
Jury Games, live - play Jury Duty or The Inquest, sift through evidence and interview defendants to get to the truth. Read our conversation with creator Tom Black.
Theatre Deli, London
Until 23 December 2024
Bridge Command - Fly your own starship adventure, from the creative minds behind interactive theatre titans, Parabolic. Read our conversation with Bridge Command’s Owen Kingston, here.
London
Until 31 January 2025
Edinburgh Fringe: Interactive shows at this year’s fringe
ARCADE by Darkfield - The latest immersive audio experience from Darkfield. Using the nostalgic aesthetic of 1980s video games, ARCADE's interactive narrative explores the evolving relationship between players and avatars. Over 30 minutes in a completely dark shipping container, this choose-your-own-path experience will fully immerse the players using 360 degree binaural sound, sensory effects and a bespoke Darkfield Arcade machine for each player. Players will be asked existential questions about free will and consciousness in a world where some may win and some may lose...
31 July - 26 August 2024
Nation by YESYESNONO - 'Here we all are... sat together in one room. One room. One audience. One… beautiful nation'. From the creator of We Were Promised Honey! and Five Encounters on a Site Called Craigslist comes a new experiment in storytelling. It’s the story of a nation. It’s the story of a theatre. It’s the story of an audience. Outside there are people trying to get in. And in the middle of the room… apparently a show is taking place.
1 - 26 August 2024
Werewolf by Binge Culture - Surrender yourself to a comedy-thriller experience inspired by the classic game of deception. What feels like a game by daylight takes on new life when plunged into the night. Created by one of New Zealand's most innovative theatre companies, Werewolf features chilling sound design and a unique immersive style; you can be a fly on the wall or take charge of the situation. However you decide to play it, you will become part of a community coming together to make it through the night. But what is hiding in the darkness that is making everyone so nervous?
1 - 26 August 2024
The Court by Edinburgh Little Theatre - This courtroom drama centres around the question of assisted dying. Did Cathy murder her mother, or help end her suffering? Join the jury and question your thinking.
2 - 25 August 2024
Temping by Dutch Kills Theatre Company - In a basement office in Illinois, there's a job waiting for you. Sarah Jane is on vacation, and you've been hired to fill in. In this interactive show for one, you'll explore her cubicle, answer her phone, and receive her faxes as the story of Sarah Jane unfolds. Sit down, send an email, and experience a meditation on life and death between the cells of an Excel spreadsheet.
3 - 25 August 2024
I Am, Other - immersive family drama, about an older relative’s act of aggression towards a biracial child, actively investigates white privilege, judgement, identity and bias. I Am, Other invites the audience, through interactive engagement, to explore why it is not okay to be different. Spectators become participants in shaping the lens through which they see the world.
12 - 25 August 2024
Consequences by Platform YP - Consequences follows a group of teenagers on a school trip in 1996. The audience will vote on which way the story goes, with four very different outcomes. Nostalgic and light-hearted. Set in a time before teenagers owned mobile phones, when you were either Blur or Oasis.
12 - 17 August 2024
Lie with Me by Glossy Pain - In their daring debut at the Edinburgh Fringe, Glossy Pain take the audience to bed. How can we be vulnerable with each other, when the world around us demands us to be hard? Creating a space of intimacy, this is a provocative exploration of sexual desires and the lies that shape them. Teasing and tormenting both herself and the audience, Riah Knight questions the authenticity of performance, seeking answers from religious and mythical figures with humour and introspection.
12 - 24 August 2024
Worm Teeth by SMaK Productions - Worm is quite happy being just that: a worm. However, there is one thing missing – this worm wants teeth. And you, yes you, are going to help it get them! As you move through the forest, you will meet Worm's friends (and enemies), play games, sing songs, and talk through both your own and Worm's anxieties, doubts, and feelings. In the end, it is up to you – will you help Worm get the teeth it wants? Or will you take things a step further and help it achieve self-acceptance?
19-25 August 2024
So OCD! by Maia Kinney-Petrucha and Susannah Holub - What if almost everything you did felt like it could bring about the end of the world? Fear experts Maia and Susannah take you on a tour of their darkest secrets (and yours) in this one-act comedy all about living with OCD and anxiety. So OCD! explores the irony, horror and pure ridiculousness of growing up in a constant state of fight-or-flight through an interactive, multimedia play.
19-20 August 2024
Fortune Bistro - Fortune Bistro offers a tantalising exploration of human/AI relationships and cultural dichotomies within the intimate ambiance of a blind-dating event. Two souls, one guided by Chinese divination, the other by AI, embark on a journey of chance and connection.
20-24 August 2024
September 2024
The Key of Dreams - highly immersive and interactive luxury 24 hour Lovecraftian experience set in a 17th century manor house, on the border of dream and waking.
Treowen House, Wales
September, October and December 2024
October 2024
Fight Night - Ontoerend Goed - Five contenders. Five rounds. Your vote. Only one will survive. The stakes: your attention, your love, your approval, your laughter, your compassion, your weak spot, your guilty pleasure, your heart, your support, your choice. We help you to decide through random checks, voting signposts, coalitions, campaigns, debates, consultants, exit polls, spin doctors, opinion gauges, list pushers, referendums. We’ll do anything to make the best not win. Award winning interactive theatre from legendary Belgian experimental theatre collective
Watford, Hertfordshire
24-26 October 2024
Ongoing exhibits:
Digital Art Murals Unwired Studio / Bedford Creative Arts - series of AR murals inviting players to launch airships, fly planes and break into a bank vault and learn more about local Bedford history.
Bedford High Street (scan QR codes to play)
The Ministry of Time Travel, by Coney - a series of adventures created at The National Archives for young people & families. Audiences are welcomed to the world of The Ministry of Time Travel (MOTT), a secret organisation based at the heart of The National Archives, to use the evidence from the past available there, to safeguard time itself
Online or at The National Archives
TIME QUEST: Step into Battersea Arts Centre and experience a time-bending, mind-wobbling journey! Hidden around the building are portals to possible futures, and it’s up to you to uncover their secrets. Embark on an adventure to explore, listen, and discover three voices from another time hidden around the building.
Battersea Arts Centre, London