Ascension

A virtual reality performance, searching for balance between head and heart.

“I push myself through the peel, the mass. The void. Sometimes gently, sometimes with noise and acceleration, but always fluid. Floating, forever floating. A safe haven for the inner mantra to resonate.”

If we eliminate all ambient noise, what would our inner world sound like? Ascension is based on the concept of a 'floating tank': a saltwater pool in which you experience no sensory stimuli and your mind can come to rest. Gravity drops, you feel yourself rising from the bottom of the tank and you wander off into your own thoughts... This VR experience explores that same sensation and is the starting point of a search for balance between our rational and emotional selves, between head and heart. How do these two versions of ourself interact? How do we achieve that kind of harmony? In Ascension, we create a space to address these questions, a world where we may briefly let go of the desires of our physical body and the outside world. 

Ascension is a VR performance by Paul Boereboom and Leon Rogissart, both 2021 graduates of the Academy for Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam, which pushes the boundaries of opera and our perspective on reality. Combining both images and opera music (performed by soprano Marie van Luijk and countertenor Arturo den Hartog), the audience is released from concepts such as time and space. 
Ascension won the award for best VR at the KABOOM Animation festival in April 2021.

Leon Rogissart is currently working on a new project: Conversations with the Inner, a participatory ritual in which we let the spectator discover himself through the encounter with the other. This project again explores the fusion between Extended Reality and music theatre, pushing boundaries and opening up new dimensions of experience. Conversations with the Inner is supported by Muziektheater Transparant.

Credits

• Concept • Leon Rogissart / Paul Boereboom
• Soprano • Marie van Luijk
• Countertenor • Arturo den Hartog
• Technique • Dries Himpe