Blocked Under Ground

Abstract

You see: nothing. The sounds of the sonar give you the information you need to navigate your submersible in the collapsed tunnel system. At times you have radio contact with the surface, then the control center provides updated information on the rescue operation. The dangerous undertaking is an extreme spatial experience. The lives of the people trapped underground depend on your skill, perception of acoustic events, handling time pressure and energy reserves.
This audio game is one of three narrative perspectives of the cross-media project Blocked Under Ground. Together with a 3D audio game and audiowalk, it forms the fictional story of a disaster in the flooded subway system of a major city. While four trapped people fight for their survival in the tunnel (radio play), rescue operations are underway on the surface (audiowalk) and a submersible penetrates the underground (audiogame).
Changes in media technology have endowed radio production with new forms of reception and 3D formats. Extended spatial concepts and genre-spanning forms of staging bring about immersion in location and action. This opens the way for the walk-in radio play of the future. Blocked Under Ground is part of Regine Elbers' artistic research at the Bauhaus University Weimar. She investigates the ways in which technical innovations influence narrative modes and apply common notions of space, time and place.

Outcome Summary

follows with the completion of the project