CORPORATE UNCONSCIOUS AND THE VIDEOWALK FORMAT
1.1 Background and Context
1.2 Research Question
1.3 Objectives and Scope
1.4 Structure of the Thesis
2. Corporate Unconscious 2.1 Credits
2.2 Description
2.3 Video Documentation
2.4 Synopsis
2.5 Full Text
3. Theoretical framework 3.1 Videowalk: Exploring the Format
3.1.1. Walking as a type of art.3.1.2 Audiowalks
3.1.3 The emergence of Videowalk
3.1.4 Choosing the format3.2 Site-Specific Art and Spatial Narratives
3.3 Engaging Audiences in a Constructed Reality
3.3.1 Illusion and Engagement: The Rubber Hand Effect in Theater
3.3.2 We should invent reality before filming it
3.3.3 Simul Entertainment GmbH3.4 Meta-Score
4. Creative process 4.1 Concept Development
4.1.1 Synchronicity and simultaneity.
4.1.2 Corporate Language as a Narrative Tool4.2 Space research
4.3 Development of visual, auditory and performative identity
4.3.1 Corporate Identity
4.3.2 Art Direction and Stage Design
4.3.3 Performativity
4.3.4 Costumes
4.3.5 Music composition
4.3.6 Cinematography4.4 Dramaturgy and Script Development
4.4.1 Narrative Layers
4.4.2 Storytelling
4.4.3 Dramaturgical arc
4.4.4 Space Score and Timing4.5 Videowalk Production phases
4.5.1 Creation of Fake Historical Footage
4.5.2 Videowalk Filming
4.5.3 3D Modeling and Scanning of the Space
4.5.4 VFX Development and 3D Animated Scenes
4.5.5 Documentary Development4.6 Performance and Participation4.6.1 Installations & self-reflective moments
4.6.2 Leveled performances
4.6.3 Fake participants and recursive participation
4.6.4 Easter eggs4.7 Multimedia Techniques
4.7.1 LiDAR Scanning and As-build modeling
4.7.2 On-site shading and texturing
4.7.3 Character and animations
4.7.4 Camera tracking and VFX compositing
4.7.5 Virtual production and "inverse virtual production"
4.7.6 Video Game development
4.7.7 Spatial audio
4.7.8 AI text models
4.7.9 iOS playback app
5. Conclusion
6. Acknowledgments
7. References
1.1 Background and Context
During my studies, my focus slowly shifted from instrumental composition to music theater and performance. As I was concluding my composition bachelor at the Universidad Católica de Chile, I joined an independent music theater workshop led by Angelo Solari and Anselmo Ugarte, both trained composers as well as theater makers. Quickly, the scholarly context transformed into a circle of friends who would gather weekly, late into the night, to share tobacco, review scores, listen to weird music, and brainstorm impossible pieces. We also drafted scores for body, space, light, text, and others, introducing me to the concept of "Composed Theatre", coined by Matthias Rebstock with which I still identify. In 2018, I founded my company "Oído Medio" with friends from my university who came from various artistic disciplines. With absolutely no resources of any kind, we risked creating site-specific pieces without much understanding of what that actually meant. It felt as if the absence of festivals, funds, and other forms of financing forced us to use space as the only tool we had to construct art. This notion of extracting the inherent content of a space deeply influenced my artistic work.
While I am a composer, I rarely write music. The musical instrument I most enjoy is light, and I have been learning to compose for it, as well as for bodies, words, and spaces. I value being part of a community of artists who seek a more fluid definition of composition, perhaps as a particular way of organizing materialities in time, or a way of perceiving timelines as music. I have also tried to avoid a strict definition of my artistic practice, which has presented difficulties in accessing certain circles, as well as writing my email signature.
I enrolled in the Master's in Multimedia Composition, whose unusual program offered the space to build on this idea. While I intended to learn technological tools, my main goal was to learn to construct works with substance -pieces layered behind concepts that connect with the audience. I believe that people should exit the theater -or site- with something; they should leave with questions; a lack of such engagement signifies a profound failure in our mission. This concern remains largely unaddressed within contemporary music, making me feel closer to the communities drawn by theater and performance art. Thus, my research for newer formats has become such an important goal in my artistic practice: It is not about pushing the boundaries of composition but about reimagining the forms in which art is experienced.
Before Corporate Unconscious, I created three works during my master's: CROP2, Mind Palace, and Construction Site. Two of these have a strong site-specific component. CROP2 was more of a research piece during the COVID crisis, where I explored movements through space and the synchronization of lights with performers walking through the vast building of Kraftwerk Bille in Hamburg. Mind Palace was my first videowalk, in the Alster-Bille-Elbe PARKS, Hamburg. This work explored how to develop narrative within the format: it showed images of a woman appear as codified memories saved by an anonymous person, questioning the idea of appropriation of former non-places as an act of common re-signification and the notion of a certain site as stacked -and highly individual- constructions of reality. Construction Site is a music theater piece where five performers, who also function as technicians, create individual scenes that reflect everyday situations. These scenes are interlinked, forming a choreography accompanied by music that is implied rather than directly heard. The staging involves continuous rearrangement, presenting brief snapshots of virtual spaces that intersect with each other through actions such as lighting adjustments, rigging, and cabling. The intent is to explore how space is perceived and constructed on a daily basis.
At the end of my master's, I decided to take not one but two semesters to work on my Abchslusskonzert. Instead of hosting a concert in the Forum, I ventured on creating an immersive experience where the audience would play a fundamental role within the work. I teamed up with the composer and theater maker Robin Plenio, to develop the piece. Luckily we got the WEPRODUCE fund from Lichthof Theater, which paid a symbolic amount to everyone involved and allowed us to focus on the research that eventually led to Corporate Unconscious.
As a process where a lot of people were involved, many of the decisions were taken not by me, but by the incredible team of people who committed to the project. Therefore, I will refer to "We", when discussing the piece itself and "I", when presenting theoretical perspectives that I personally address.