WANDERING AROUND THE INCONCEIVABLE
[ The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin ]
Student: Anna Antoni
Through exploration of a specific ambiguity three worlds unfold. The Dream Making , the Dream and the After Dream and from that a stage . A translation between worlds tying back the axis Mundi. A synchronisation resonating between the constant reflection of the physical and the virtual, the cycle and its axis, the world and the invariable spectres inhabiting them. There is a precise and immediate way of understanding light and shadow, and in that, matter and void.
Mapping systems weave their mechanics into the narrative, mirroring the central methodology Ursula K. Le Guin uses in the Lathe of Heaven (later adapted by Edward Einhorn), interrogating ethics of power, intention and the fragile fabric of reality.
George Orr is condemned to the condition of a reverse archaeologist, introducing ideas and obstacles into the world that resurface from the ground of the eternal given. Disembodied from himself, he turns to a dream therapist whose intervention deepens his estrangement from reality.
Twelve dreams, entangled in ruptures of time, attune the project to a cosmic order. The inconceivable dwells within worlds, calling for wandering.
To bridge the ethereal and the grounded, clay-modelled archetypes were formed, 3D-scanned, and inscribed within the virtual worlds. As meaning shifts with every surfacing and disappearance, its fundamentals endure, anchoring the cyclical, zodiacal constellations that sustain each world.
The stage design follows a shared typology through which the play unfolds. In digital worlds, presence as beauty emerges through the interplay of light and shadow within materiality; in the physical world, it is apprehended through their reflection on primary forms. Both light and shadow guide understanding through wandering.
Though the three rotating worlds meet at their thresholds, they remain otherworldly to one another, each longing for the beyond. The twelve dreams distributed across them function as distinct stages within an invariable cycle through which physical and remote participants move collectively.
In the Dream-Making World, spectators shape clay in temporal intervals. These models are gathered by actors, scanned, and translated into the digital worlds by remote participants. Passage between worlds occurs through tunnels of transition.
In the Dream World, dreams unfold through live soundscapes and atmospheres. Remote participants appear as shadows upon projected curtains, while spectators wander between their world and an In-Between VR space that binds all realms.
The After Dream World manifests the transformed reality, where clay forms reappear as both physical objects and projected presences.
The earth-covered ground records all movement, confronting the spectators with the presence and absence of their passage.
