Antigone: Using Particle Generation Methods To Create Aural Scenographies

Australians are being increasingly exposed to three-dimensional sound technologies through screen media with the introduction of technologies such as Dolby Atmos, which offer more immersive sonic experiences. As the tools for creating these experiences become increasingly available and affordable, new opportunities arise to apply these technologies in a theatrical sound design context.

This research project, undertaken as part of Merlyn Tong’s new work Antigone, produced by Queensland Theatre, investigates the use of three-dimensional soundscape technologies to create new aural scenographies. It investigates the application of film software Sound Particles to a theatrical context, using three-dimensional sound to augment live set pieces to increase audience immersion in a newly-constructed and only semi-familiar fictional world.

The use of more than 30 speakers in the space allowed for sound to seem as though it were coming from specific points in the performance space, regardless of whether there was a speaker in that exact location. The findings from this project open up new possibilities for immersive sound in theatre, and the research undertaken as part of the design of Antigone is explicitly modern in both its technological underpinnings and its approach to aural scenographies.