The Golden Reed Installation

For the 2nd project in the class “Out of Order Storytelling”, I worked with Rui Sheng to tell the story of Icarus and Daedalus. We decided to tell the story through performers moving through spacial and environmental design. As a visitor, one would move through the four rooms of the exhibition space to experience the retelling of this legend. Each room was designed to portray the emotional quality of that portion of the story.

See full slide deck here.

Press play to watch our presentation of The Golden Reed Installation.

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Room 1

Father working on the necklace and the son working on the farm

Emotion: both father and son are satisfied with their work

Light: soft, hazy, comfortable

Environment: labyrinth structure made of golden reed, 3-4 feet high

Sound: reeds sound, birds

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Room 2

Father and son begin their doomed adventure on the lake 

Emotion: Hope, enthusiasm, tinged with trepidation 

Light: Extremely bright, energetic

Environment: Bright 12:00noon sun (strong shadow), polished concrete

Sound: fierce birds, waves

Performance:  audience enter on one side, look around at the performers on the spiral stairs then leave through another door
, performer enthusiastically going up, blindly finding their destination, absurd,

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Room 3

Son dies 

Emotion: Extreme sorrow and regret

Environment: Stormy, dark cloud, flashing light, anxiety sounds

Sound: harsh wind, shepard tone, ghost ice frozen, moving-around sound

Architecture: decline floor

Performance: performer kneel down and knock the crack, rotating the mirror, with sorrow and painful face. Audiences are encourage to explore the mirror and ground-crack.

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Room 4

Father returns home 

Emotion: Peace, resigned to go back to his life, (everything he struggled for in his life did not come to pass), deep sorrow (must accept that he can do nothing about what happened), (he must have courage to carry on), (he had nothing to lose and yet he lost it), (a moment when he could give up for good, but he does not, he goes back home), partially-visible hope

Environment: Fog with light coming through, blue light

Sound: bird sorrowful, peaceful, still

Architecture: low and long stairs, go outside, the light coming through fog,

Performance: laid down for a couple of minutes, and then walk to next stair, slow and clam, mournful, audience passed by.