SXSWORLD

SXSW.COM | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 | SXS W O R L D 3 1 them a seamless, interactive expe- rience in navigating it. According to Garner, they focus on the "acces- sible unknown," using initially familiar settings, such as a house, as a bridge to strange and mag- ical locations. Creating a nonlinear narrative involves tinkering with how to signal important details in a subtle way — leaving a binder of information out with bookmarks to important passages, or adding light so that particular clues are vis- ible. "We think about it in terms of signposts, trailheads, and payoffs," Garner s says. A trailhead estab- lishes a narrative thread; signposts suggest how to follow it; and the payoffs offer the reward. This might sound similar to escape rooms, which also focus on envi- ronmental storytelling (albeit in a puzzle-solving context). But Garner, who was initially trained as a play- wright at the University of Texas at Austin, notes that Meow Wolf's presentation is closer in some ways to immersive theater. This makes sense because inter- active and site-specific theatrical events have a long history of attempting to bring the audience inside the narrative. Sleep No More, an interpretation of Macbeth by the company Punchdrunk that opened in New York City in 2011, is a famous recent example. The audi- ence can interact directly with the performers, not only piecing the story together but actually joining it. That live theatrical component is an artistic direction that Garner is interested in pursuing: "You get that amazing thing that happens when you're in a space, and you're seen by the space and by the performer, and you're in this beautiful communal co-creation." Sound is also a major factor in cre- ating an immersive experience, says Meow Wolf sound designer Meason Wiley. You don't want the sound- scape to be tied to speakers, or feature obvious loops. "A lot of times we're using a lot of very unique spaces not necessarily designed for sound," Wiley said. He says that his team has been working to incorporate autonomous audio systems that gather data about the space and modify them- selves through machine-learning to create unique and organic sound- scapes. They also use robotics to create physical noises, such as mas- sive armatures that clang together to create industrial sounds. Wiley says that since the same computer systems control the lights, physical motors, and simulated sounds, the space can react holistically to the data it takes in. These sorts of integrations of visual and sound are becoming fertile testing grounds for all kinds of artistic installations, from the commercial — Disney World's new Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge park, which tries to fully immerse visitors in a distant galaxy — to immersive museum exhibits, such as in New York City's Tenement Museum — to the more broadly experimental. All of these different approaches ultimately seek the same thing — to drop visitors into a world of the art- ist's choosing, as surely as if they'd fallen through a real portal at "The House of Eternal Return." "As world-builders we have a respon- sibility to imagine a world we want to live in," Garner emphasizes. "Because we're living in an age when things feel bleak, there's a tendency for world-building in video games or large epic franchises to tend toward a really dystopian view, or a strong look at good versus evil, or pure escapism ... I'm interested in how we create immersive experiences that encourage people to step inside and participate in the world versus passively watching it ... The ultimate reason for being alive is to create and manifest." Learn more at SXSW 2020 in the Experiential Storytelling Track, and check out the immersive installations in the SXSW Art Program. See schedule.sxsw.com for more information. "When you mix a mind-blowing visual experience with immersive and nonlinear storytelling, you get something really special."

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