Story of Siren goes like this…

Hello lovely people, it’s Joyce here!

The meeting in Bristol was a really exciting one and I have learnt a lot talking to advisers and other creative individuals. Thank you

Jez has been look for sounds he finds particularly gripping. This his favourite, check this out:

(warning: this video contains loud sound of siren!)

ACA Allertronic AL-4000 Amorillo Tx

As you can imagine it’s gonna be quite noisy working with Jez…

This is what we need!

Just joking… These ear defenders can actually be used in the maze.

In the Greek Mythology, Odysseus put beeswax in the ears of the oarsmen, so that they would not hear the luring song of the Sirens and go astray. Due to health and safety reasons we unfortunately are not able to do the same to our modern day Sonic Maze players. (There would also be a slight problem if they cannot hear any sound…) We feel that the modern day equivalent of beeswax will be ear defenders. If we put headphones in the ear defenders, it mutes the noise from outside and players can be drawn into the sonic world. Players would also need to communicate by using their bodies. For the on-lookers (another group of audience or passer-bys), the image of the players are compared to oarsmen on Odysseus’s ship: both undistracted by noises outside and listen to the inner voice, finding their way out.

Yesterday, Mind the Gap team had a very valuable meeting with Baba and Barney in Contact Theatre.

Jez: “We have been trying to push our idea forward and talking about different technology that may be used for this Sonic Maze. We also talked about what kind of sound should be included, like sound electronic sirens and mosquito technology. The meeting with Baba and Barney was good. It’s was good to bash it out and grind it down a bit, so we get the best bits at the end.

We do not want to force a system on the players. We are breaking down the idea of a labyrinth type maze, and make it more like a maze maze!”

I have been working with the Acting Company in Mind the Gap to find out more about Odysseus’ story. The more we look at it, the sadder this story appears to be. We worked out possible psychological states of Odysseus in different stages of his voyage. His character comes to life. However the most interesting discovery was the story of the Sirens. They are beautiful dangerous creatures. They live to kill. If they fail to kill, they die. Having such a pre-programmed life, what would the Sirens feel? Would they ever want to love properly? Would they be guilty killing all the men who were attracted to them? Is it possible to give them a voice as well…?

We have set up a game development/testing session in early August with creative people from Contact Theatre.
Jez,”It will be so exciting seeing the game in action, seeing how it goes and experiement with it!”

Can’t wait!