The Sound of the Playhouse, 2007
The Sound of the Playhouse is a direct response to the Playhouse Theatre and a recent showing of the mystery thriller I Have been Here Before by J.B. Priestley. The play was based on the Russian philosopher P.D. Ouspensky’s theory about individuals repeating their life cycles unless they can seize opportunities to free themselves from repeating past errors. This theory informs the audio walk when changes in time, space and the narrative occur, distorting the listeners reality and physical surroundings with suggestions about the past.
Visitors follow the artist’s directions through the Playhouse Theatre, and become involved in the stories embedded in the recorded instructions and suggestions. An everyday walk can be transformed into an absorbing psychological and physical experience where the distinction between sensation and imagination continuously collapses. Shifting between past and present, memory and reality, Stevens’ stories become a manipulation of the "real" environment.
The audio walk uses binaural technology - a means of recording that achieves incredibly precise three-dimensional sound to create an experience of physical immediacy and complexity.
