Monolith

About

Monolith is a crowd-reactive audio-visual installation created by Jack Dartford and produced by Immersive Experience Company Chaos Inc, featuring new audio work by sound designer Halina Rice. It explores anxiety and its associated symptoms and will play for free across the immense screens at Outernet London from May 15th to May 21st.

The piece will be available to view at Outernet’s flagship space The Now Building, featuring the most advanced immersive screen and audio technology in the world - 23,000 square feet of wrap-around, floor-to-ceiling 16K screens. accompanied by a custom sound design that uses more than 70 loudspeakers The spectacular screens and movement tracking technology deliver a cutting-edge immersive sound and vision experience which pushes the technical capabilities of the venue to new heights.

As the crowd grows and more people enter the building, the screens react in real-time and Monolith begins to panic. Millions of digital particles on the screens make up a "Monolith" shape in the first instance but as the room gets fuller the particles move in an increasingly frantic fashion. The colours of the piece rapidly change and the speed accelerates as the crowd grows bigger - simulating complete sensory overload.

The soundtrack reflects the visual narrative - moving from calming soundscapes through to frenetic sound design underscored by pulsating basslines. Combining organic and inorganic sounds Halina Rice seeks to create a constantly evolving, otherworldly piece - underlining the unsettling theme of the overall installation. In a first for Outernet the soundtrack will make full use of their L-ISA spatial sound system by L-Acoustics with each individual sound carving its own path across the space, again in real-time.

The artist Jack Dartford aims to encourage a profound moment of empathy by creating an environment where all who enter experience a representation of overstimulation common to those suffering from anxiety induced panic attacks.

If you’re struggling with anxious thoughts and want to talk to someone, CALM's helpline and livechat are open from 5pm to midnight every day 365 days a year. Alternatively, you can head to CALM’s guide pages for practical tips and advice https://www.thecalmzone.net/guide-list