Making Contact: Transmission
Interdisciplinary / playwriting / immersive theatre / sound art / drawing / installation art
José Ardivilla, Emily Jay, Cory Lawson, Garret Lee Milton, and Hillary Erin Russell
This project explores the cosmos in search of a different galactic perspective about life, language, and identity. What is human and what is alien? An extraterrestrial enthusiast hosts a radio and podcast program about all things alien and unknown, but has since become jaded and frustrated with the lack of evidence proving life may actually exist beyond this planet. However, everything changes when the host receives a mysterious transmission from beyond. Transmission is a short play combining elements of immersive theatre, sound art, drawing, and installation art. Audience members will be situated within, asked to be a part of, and surrounded by the performance and exhibit.
Themes include: interpersonal communication; mapping; interplanetary communication; perception versus reality; language and identity; religion and spirituality; iconography; communication technologies; evolution; extraterrestrial life; space sciences; and sound.
Mapping Matter Mattering is a collaborative video that playfully walks through the intended purpose for the exhibition. Mapping Your Universe was a prompt to get audience members to consider their perfect world. The audio is made up of conversations between myself and Emily Jay. Emily Jay co-wrote the play that was performed in the space along with collaborating on the exhibition as a whole.