Multiscapes is a journey of human connection revealed through an interactive installation that blends dance, technology, design and sound. The project centers on a male duet, and explores uncertainty and intimacy through visually and sonically active environments. With no seats provided, audience members move around the space throughout the performance, including negotiating an “effort corridor”—a sensorial playground of balloons and puzzles—to unlock the unexpected.

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Multiscapes was experienced by sold-out audiences at the CU Boulder Roser ATLAS Center in the B2 Center for Media, Arts & Performance March 4 – 6 (YES, even the invited Dress Rehearsal was sold-out!!!!). Wilkins, who led a team of collaborators with Ellen Do, a professor and director of partnership and innovation at the ATLAS Institute on the campus of CU Boulder, found it unfitting to call the project a performance. Wilkins says that the design of Multiscapes is like going on a field trip – one where all audiences are invited to be active participants. The project emerges from an integration of dance and technology. From costumes that control lighting to amplified structures that enable the creation of soundscapes in real time, the project asks everyone to participate in constructing spaces. Even interactions between audiences and objects became opportunities for engaging in filling/creating space.

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Sometimes jokingly referred to as the ever-delayed project, it was an amazing experience to see Multiscapes come alive in exciting ways. The B2 Center was out of commission for more than a year due to a flood which caused an extraordinary amount of damage. Multiscapes was among the first to be presented since its re-opening. 

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COLLABORATION TEAM

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Concept & Direction Helanius J. Wilkins, in collaboration with ATLAS ACME Lab’s Ellen Yi Luen Do

Choreography Helanius J. Wilkins, in collaboration with Avery Ryder Turner

Performance Production Gary McCrumb

Technology (touch sensors, digital interfaces) Peter Gyory, Clement Zheng

Set Design Kellie Masterson

Production Consulting & Lighting Design Iain Court

Sound Structures & Technology Jason Sanford

Video Content Design Keith Haynes

Costumes Ted Stark, with technological components by Peter Gyory & Clement Zheng