4.6.2 Leveled Performances — Space as score: Corporate Unconscious and the video walk format

SPACE AS A SCORE:
CORPORATE UNCONSCIOUS AND THE VIDEOWALK FORMAT

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

4.6.2 Leveled performances

There are two participatory performances that can be described as "leveled." This means that one participates in the performance more than once, but from different positions or levels. To make this happen, it was important to have participants entering the room exactly every two minutes. During these performances, the iPad screen remains off, and it is only possible to listen to the narrator through headphones. The rooms are prepared with stage design, similar to what is seen in Simul's original "found footage" videos, as if they were contemporary recreations of the experiments.

In the case of the room ELA1, the performance There Must be a Frame-Rate involves entering the room and standing in front of one of the performers. The audio invites you to synchronize your breathing with the performer.

After two minutes have passed, the performance begins again. The participant who was in front of the performer is invited to take a seat in the corner of the room, in front of a questionnaire. Then, the next participant enters the room and stands in front of the performer, continuing the cycle. The participant who is now at Level 2 (sitting in the corner) already has greater knowledge and a hierarchy over the other participant. This dynamic is intensified by having a questionnaire in front, where they must evaluate the other participant's performance.

The idea at this point is to generate a hierarchical feeling in the participant, as well as to intensify the notion that they are and will be observed without their consent throughout the work, suggesting that there is a correct way to do the tour. The increasingly personal questions from the narrator make the journey of the work shift from the documentary/informative level to a more personal and introspective plane.

In the MFS room, the last experiment of the work, called The Final Experiment takes place. There is a three-level process. At Level 1, participants first sit at a table (also with a TV, a plastic palm tree, a water dispenser, and a bowl of sweets) and watch a video. There, a Simul Worker is seen inside a hallway. It is evident that the image of the Simul Worker is rendered in 3D, while the background seems to be a real video of a corridor (previously known in the work).

At level 2, the participant must approach a U-shaped video wall, with a video towards the inside, like a large hallway. The participant is invited to stand in front of the opening of the U. From there, they can see a 3D video of exactly the same hallway they saw before. Inside the hallway, there are live performers dressed as Simul Workers, performing actions similar to those seen in the level 1 video. At the opening of the hallway, another Simul Worker is seen holding a VHS camera.

Participants do not have the option to return to level 1, so they are not clear if perhaps what they saw in level 1 was actually a video being broadcast in real-time from level 2. This perceptual game tries to create doubts about the veracity of Simul's story and also exposes the process of producing the work itself. The participants are left to wonder whether Simul ever existed or if everything is entirely fictional.

At Level 3, participants enter a small technical room filled with monitors and screens, a stark contrast to the previous environments. Here, detailed plans of the HfMT display the exact positions of all the simultaneous participants of the work, along with security camera feeds showing people wandering with iPads. The narrator invites participants to sit at a computer and engage with Corporate Unconscious: The Game, a video game set in a building identical to the HfMT. Participants navigate the hallways in third-person view, controlling a Simul Worker, thus flipping the perspective from being guided to being in control.

This final level hands total control over the experience back to the participant, marking a significant shift from being moved through space by an external entity to navigating it independently. After almost an hour of guided exploration, participants gain control over their journey, challenging their perceptions of autonomy and scripted reality.

Here is an example of the text that the participant hears in There Must be a Frame-Rate:

"Look directly into the employee's mask. This encounter has been specially designed for you. You don't have to do anything else. Embrace this moment of stillness as if nothing would really happen. Focus on your breath and synchronize it with the employee in front of you. In, out, in, out. Do you feel a connection?"
Excerpt of questionnaire:

1) The Participant seems comfortable in the situation

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2) The Participant seems to understand the given instructions.

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3) The Participant has no problem to hold eye contact with the employee

o o o o o o o o o o
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4) The Participant shows signs of discomfort like looking away or crossing
their arms

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5) The Participant seems engaged in the situation.

o o o o o o o o o o
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L evel 1 of "The Final Experiment". A participant watches the almost-still video of a 3d character, with a real video of a hallway as background.
© Öncü Gültekin

Level 2 of "The Final Experiment". A participant stands in front of the video wall. A 3D-generated image of a hallway makes the backdrop for real-life performers and mannequins.
© Öncü Gültekin