Immersion Nation Podcast

The word ‘soundscape’ seems to get lobbed around haphazardly, kind of like a half deflated football picked up out of a sense of obligation around the Thanksgiving season. However, the idea of a ‘soundscape’ seems to have a bit more vigor when applied more literally to an immersive experience. Especially when the lens -or maybe more appropriately, the voicing- of an immersive experience, the original impetus, comes from a musician.

Someone who’s first artistic language is not visual. Andrew Hoepfner, the prolific and determinately resourceful creator of House World, Bottom of the Ocean, Waves, and co-creator of Whisperloge, approaches immersive experience design in exactly this way.

Sound and music are not just another layer in Andrew’s experience composition, but rather are the core, the engine that overtly drives much of what he creates. Right now, Andrew Hoepfner is hard at work in his Brooklyn creative space, Gymnopedie and preparing for the next iteration of the show, Bottom of the Ocean in December. More immediately, he joins us to discuss his path into and through the world of immersion.

Selected Links:

Waves
Gymnopedie
Houseworld
-Instagram
-Facebook
-Twitter

Whisperlodge

Show Notes:

Fictional world Andrew wants to live in [2:53]
Emotional dynamic range [4:33]
Creating the opportunity for peak experiences [6:09]
House World, Whisperlodge, BOTO, and Waves [7:49]
Curious origins of immersive interaction [10:33]
The path from Michigan to NYC [13:55]
When life gives you a 25 room mansion... [15:49]
Melinda Lauw, and new things for Whisperlodge [20:01]

This is a season of the surreal.
On some certain,  inexplicable terms we find ourselves drawn to the ethereal, the supernatural, the unknown, and the misunderstood. At the intersection of all these things lies The Cutting Room Floor.

The Cutting Room Floor is not a traditional haunt, no. This show lends a seasonally appropriate levity and exaggeration to the topics of regret and possession. There are ghosts, there are aliens, there is the Aurora Fox theater, but most importantly, there is Patrick Mueller, the artistic director of Control Group Productions with us right here, right now, to talk about this spooky season experience in Denver. 

Selected Links:

Cutting Room Floor
Aggregate Immateriality

Control Group Productions
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter

Joseph Campbell: Art and religion (interview)
Denver Center for the Performing Arts
Third Rail Projects
Sweet and lucky
Tension experiences

Show Notes:

• Fictional or fantasy world [2:58]
• What is the Cutting Room Floor? [5:57]
• What is real world scary [8:00]
• The key concept is possession [9:21]
• So, What about regret? [11:36]
• Deadly serious [14:17]
• Unexpected audience interaction [18:01]
• A misunderstanding of immersion [22:28]
• Prepare your non-immersive savvy friends [27:29]
• Patricks’ experiences with immersion [28:45]
• Working with Third Rail Projects [31:06]
• Colorado Style immersive [32:41]
• Make it immersive [39:14]
• Playing with physics [40:29]
• Control Group’s Creative workflow [43:48]
• Considering tactics and wind tunnels [44:21]
• Changing from Sweet and lucky [48:43]
• Being handed the keys to the jeep of immersion [53:08]
• Immersive bus tour and other upcoming work [54:35]

On the date of this recording, 170 years ago, Edgar Allan Poe died. It is disputed exactly how Poe died, and why. But there is a theory...

Now, if you were to find yourself in manhattan 50 years ago, you might also find a group of young adults, gathered in a basement with Poe’s words eager on their lips, and a singular determination to uncover the story behind the poets death. Would you join them? 

Today, Aaron Salazar of the Poseidon Theatre Company has made it possible for one to ask themselves this question. He joins the immersion nation podcast to discuss this immersive experience: Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? The Cooping Theory, 1969.  

Selected Links:

Who killed Edgar Allan Poe, The Cooping Theory 1969
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter

Poseidon Theatre company
DDM Productions
RPM underground

Aaron Salazar 

The Turn Of The Screw
The Others
Blackout

Show Notes:

Recorded on the 170th anniversary of Poe’s Death [3:01]

What fictional world would you live in? [3:23]

What is ‘Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? The Cooping Theory 1969’ [4:49]

The cooping theory- electoral fraud and Poe’s death [10:46]

Setting a societal scene, the context for tragedy [14:22]

What you walk away with [16:39]
Unexpected reactions: all the first timers [19:52]

Herding fish [22:45]

Make it immersive [23:52]

Creating with classic works [35:47]

Moving into immersive [37:40]

“Critics don’t really know how to review this stuff” [39:03]

The form necessitated adaptation [41:43]

Those who do, and those who’d rather not [44:55]

‘Submit to the extremity of the experience’ [46:37]

Non-linear narrative- no experience is a straight line [48:51]

The paranormal swamp [52:10]

Your satisfaction level is dependent on your participation [52:35]

Relentless [54:42]

Aaron on Blackout [55:07]

Where can people find all of these things? [1:00:10]

A door has opened with the rise of immersive experience. Immersive experience can be fun, and wondrous, mind bending, but it can also aid incredible empathy in a way that very few other things can. 

The privilege of escape is an escape room and an experience that uses this fact to address the real world problems of privilege and social inequity. Risa Puno, is a new york based artist that, in collaboration with creative time, has pioneered a new front, a new world of potential, for what immersive experiences can be. 

References & Selected Links:

The Privilege of Escape

Risa Puno
@risapuno
On twitter
On Vimeo

Creative time
-Sugar Sphinx
-Pigeon lights performance

The Onassis foundation
The olympic tower building
On Post Game Frothing

Show Notes:

Fictional world for adventures [2:43]
•PSA: We don’t wrap back around to that- the rest of the conversation was just too good! [5:53]
•Creative Time and What is the Privilege of Escape? [6:04]
•Why an escape room? [8:43]
•Nuance in name and idea [11:52]
•Communicating privilege through adrenaline and context [13:57]
•What is the experience like? [16:37]
•The setting- now with spaceship hvac! [19:35]
•The depth of the space [22:44]
•Post game debrief [24:22]
•Games that show who we are  [26:11]
•The actors in the art [29:45]
•You are the message [33:11]
•Risa undercover- getting shut down [35:13]
•Being right doesn’t matter Power dynamics feeling only 99% sure [36:10]
•Awareness of one’s privilege [41:05]
•Acknowledging one’s privilege [42:27]
•Using the frothiness [43:24]

Why is play important? What is the value of play? 

Well, today’s episode of the immersion Nation Podcast is a little bit different. This is the first in a series of mini episodes that we’re going to be releasing periodically in place of our normal interviews. 

We’ve been asking guests of the Immersion Nation podcast why play matters.

There are certain concepts that are intrinsic, not just to the immersive wave, but to how we understand and interface with the world as a whole. But often the importance of play fades in our mind as we get older…

We want to know what you think!
What do we lose when we forget how to play?
Or
Why do you think play is important?

-We will share your thoughts on the next episode about about play

•Email Nathaniel Sky, the podcast host directly with this link: https://www.immersionnation.com/contact/
•DM us on instagram: @immersionnation
•Or message us on facebook with this link: http://m.me/immersionnation

Selected Links:

Genevieve Gearhart on the podcast
The Speakeasy Society
Christoff Visscher on the podcast
Tales By candlelight
Pete Billington on the podcast
Wolves in the Walls
Fable Studio

Show Notes:

Intrinsic to how we understand the world [1:20]
Genevieve Gearhart on play [1:54]
Is play escapism? [2:53]
Christoff Visscher on play [3:59]
Playing in reality [5:13]
Pete Billington of Fable Studio [5:51]
Forgetting how to play [6:38]
What do you think? [7:58]
What do you think? [7:58]

On May 18th, 2019, Ikantkoan Games founder Jessica Creane took the TED stage, under unusual circumstances, to give a talk about chaos theory. She explained that as a game designer, she takes complex systems and turns them into “playful interactive experiences”  Today, Jessica joins the show to talk about leaning into chaos in daily life, learning how to harness it, and of course how one turns a haiku into a full contact sport. 


Selected Links:

-TED talk- Gamifying Chaos: Embracing Uncertainty Through Play
-IKANTKOAN Games
-Instagram
-Twitter
-Facebook

-Chaos Theory
-Tickets

-Know Thyself
-Immanuel Kant
-Koan: To provoke the ‘Great doubt’

Show Notes:

• Fictional world for exploration [2:42]
• How does a Haiku become a full contact sport? [4:35]
• How to start designing games [7:23]
• What is the show, ‘Chaos Theory’? [9:18]
• What is the concept, chaos theory? [11:09]
• Finding systems in things that appear to be systemless [12:31]
• Why do you feel like people are drawn to chaos? [13:46]
• What is Know Thyself? (philosophy as a game?) [15:20]
• Making philosophy practical [17:53]
• Make it immersive [19:44]
• ‘You mean I have to think??’ [24:32]
• Well what did you think this experience was about? [26:53]
• Fear of the unknown vs. attraction to chaos [28:49]
• How to build a little chaos into your life [30:50]
• What is devised theater? [34:22]
• Why the name ‘IKantKoan’? [35:49]
• The inception of ‘IKantKoan games’ [38:12]
• What’s next for Jessica and IKantKoan? [39:53]
• Stories from Jessica’s guests [41:50]
• Jessica on the TED stage [45:21]
• A major change on stage [48:22]
• Where can folks find Jessica’s work? [51:54]

On a humid August night in williamsburg brooklyn, Melinda Lauw, cofounder of the genre creating asmr experience, Whisperlodge, took the stage at new york immersive night. Melinda explained that she thought of immersive experience as a kind of wellness practice. At that moment I was sitting in the back of the room, utterly fascinated.

Today melinda discusses this concept, the transformation economy, and the kind of things that are so pervasively common, they fade into the background and become invisible.

Selected Links:

•  Whisperlodge
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Co-founder Andrew Hoepfner
• Houseworld
• Museum of Ice cream 
  • Maryellis Bunn
  • IRL vs. URL
• Tech balance

Show Notes:  

• Fictional world: [2:35]
• Textiles, gradmas, the exotic [3:21]
• Fluffy guerilla art, the inversion of expectations [5:23]
• The transformation economy- one step further [6:23] 
• Growing the audience for art  [10:01]
• Immersive experience as a wellness practice [12:15]
• Craving Immersion [14:29]
• Make it immersive: A world without plastic [18:44]
• “I thought you brought the props!” [22:17]
• What is Whisperlodge [25:09]
• The Origin of Whisperlodge [26:17]
• Change in experimental outlet [29:28]
• Current work and Ice Cream [30:50]
• What I do didn’t exist [32:26]
• IRL vs. URL: A balancing act. [33:30]
• Environment and holistic experience [37:09]
• Working with the Museum of Ice Cream [41:48]
• New horizons in the immersive world: new combinations [43:52]

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, sitting just off the bank of the mississippi river is The 13th Gate. A repeatedly nationally acclaimed haunted house and escape room. The founder and owner -an understated multi-medium master- Dwayne Sanburn joins the podcast to discuss the experience that has repeatedly set the bar for each of his respective categories.

Opening on September 27th this year, The 13 Gate is a haunted immersive experience spanning 40,000 square feet. 13 highly detailed themed areas and approximately 160 actors to enable spooky season adventure. In addition to the expansive haunt, The 13th Gate holds 7 escape rooms and a 4 player virtual reality zombie game, all of which are open year round. 

Selected Links:

• 13th gate
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
• 13th gate escape
  • Facebook 
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
• Haunt tickets
• Escape tickets
• The incredibly long list of The 13th Gate’s reviews and press coverage

Show Notes:

• Favorite fictional world [2:24]
• What drew you to the haunted and horror genre ? [3:36]
• What are people missing in the haunted and horror genre? [6:09]
• here to fix your phobia [7:46]
• Real fear vs. fake fear [8:54]
• The nursing connection [9:43]
• What are people looking for? [11:41]
• Specifically in The 13th Gate [12:25]
• What is The 13th Gate [15:04]
• 13th Gate Escape [15:28]
• Make it immersive: Unleashing the story [19:10]
• How many times through the warp bubble? [22:07]
• From haunted house to escape room [25:39]
• What is the value of play? [28:36]
• The search for shared experience [30:39]
• It’s supposed to be special [31:42]
• Explaining immersion [34:43]
• The takeaway [36:10]
• On the immersive horizon [38:22]

Stories are trust. They create understanding and shared meaning. Stories are the fabric of culture so it is befitting that Billy Angel has carved his path through the world with his stories.  From the Netherlands, to the UK, to the co-founding of Story Works in the United States. 

In this conversation Billy tells the stories of... 

• How he came to create an immersive tour across 60 schools by necessity and accident. 
• How teaching mime opened the door for an exploration of the intersection of sound and movement. 
• The circumstances of producing an all ages television series, jacob's ladder

The thread of self expression and the drive to enable the expression of others’ stories has given him a depth of multifaceted, and multicultural perspective. Before the modern era of immersive theater this perspective guided Billy and others on the same path to sew the seeds of the immersive revolution. 

Links and full show notes can be found 

Identity is a complex topic under the best of circumstances. We are often defined by the invisible scripts we learned so long ago we forget we’re even reciting lines. The Severance Theory casts you in the role of someone contending with DID. Dissociative Identity Disorder, commonly known as multiple personality disorder. 

DID is tricky to portray through narrative. Especially so in the context of immersive theater. The creative minds behind the show, Lyndsie Scoggin & Danielle Levesque of CoAct Productions have created an experience that inspires appreciation for complexity, and insites curiosity about the mysteries of identity.

In this episode, we discuss the why and how behind the creation of an immersive experience, where the single guest is uncovering both parts of their past and parts of themselves. 

--
Chapter markers, links from the show, and more on CoAct's work:  https://www.immersionnation.com/coactproductions-podcast/