ZU-UK Announce Autumn Season of Interactive and Binaural Work

Leading immersive and digital performance innovators ZU-UK have announced a season of developed works and prototype performances that use binaural sound and interactive performance to explore playful, unexpected and meaningful interactions between strangers in public spaces. The season will start with Binaural Dinner Date, which receives a full run in Theatre Royal Stratford East's restaurant, Gerry's Kitchen, following successful previews in July. In the same venue and also using binaural sound, the company will be previewing new work Small Data Mining that explores consumption behaviours in shopping malls, and uses the premise of a missing person to investigate the role of truth in our relationship with people in positions of power. In two innovative digital artworks using public phones, #RioFoneHack rings when someone walks past, and offers the passing public a new perspective on their surroundings, and How Mad Are You? uses an adaptation of the UK government's mental health assessment forms to engage audiences with their own mental health and the tools we rely on to diagnose it.

Part interactive performance, part dating agency, Binaural Dinner Date invites genuine applications from individuals looking for love, or existing couples who simply want a very different dating experience. Theatre Royal Stratford East's Gerry's Kitchen restaurant will be transformed into a lush romantic setting, complete with disco floor and mirror ball, to explore the failure of verbal language. Taking place at nine tables simultaneously, a voice in the ear of every participant guides them through a 'perfect' date. Two participants per table are hosted by a waiter/facilitator/DJ and interactively mixed binaural audio with suggestions and comments on dating 'rules', as well as games pushing social expectations and 'acceptable' table talk topics.

A public phone from Rio de Janeiro, as iconic in Brazil as red phone boxes are in London, will be hacked by ZU-UK and re-installed in Trinity Buoy Wharf, Canning Town. #RioFoneHack invites audiences of one person at a time to pick up the phone to explore their immediate surroundings, interacting with them via keypad and other sensors including pulse, motion and voice, driven by the open source computer kit Arduino. Each of the phones will also communicate with audiences before, during and after their interaction via their mobiles.

Using the same technology and platform, How Mad Are You? is a collaboration between ZU-UK and James Leadbitter (Vacuum Cleaner) based on James' previous performance The Assessment. With statistics showing that one in four people experience some form of mental ill heath, and some statistics put that number at closer to 1 in 2, the project asks how accurate these figures really are. Are psychiatrists over diagnosing? Or are changing attitudes making it easier to seek help? Using a public phone booth installed in a space accessible to all, audiences are made familiar with the assessments for common mental health conditions, whilst testing the current processes of diagnosis. The show is currently in development under the guidance of experts.

A public prototype performance, Small Data Mining uses binaural sound in an absorbing gaming experience. Played out against the backdrop of Gerry's Restaurant, participants are led around by audio cues which ask them to write and leave letters to strangers, decipher codes, and question the familiar environment in an exploration of politics of consumption. The performance art will also be tested in Montréal as part of International Festival Km3.

The four pieces are part of ZU-UK's new body of work, Decalogy of Loneliness. After ZU's award winning Hotel Medea (2009-2012) and the interactive technology exhibition Humble Market (2012-2014), the company has been developing ten artworks as part of the project. The company has been working with Canadian research institute TAG (Technoculture, Arts and Games) since 2015 using game-design to deepen ZU's work with immersive, participatory and interactive performance. Over the next three years, ZU will develop the remaining parts of the Decalogy, always focusing in the relationship between strangers in public and private spaces.

Formerly known as Zecora Ura and Para Active, ZU-UK is an established award winning independent theatre and digital arts company based in East London and Rio de Janeiro since 2001, and widely regarded as a pioneer of immersive theatre. Driven by an artistic partnership between Jorge Lopes Ramos and Persis Jadé Maravala, ZU-UK creates interactive experiences using games, performance and technology. They can happen anywhere including on your phone, in your house, on a stage, in a shopping mall or a field. As a British company that has successfully maintained a satellite base in Brazil for over a decade, ZU-UK has a strong track record of collaborating across cultures and artistic disciplines, delivering ambitious innovation with depth and integrity. Their previous events have explored new forms of collaboration between academics, activists and artists, 'Dramaturgy of Participation', discussing best practice for immersive events, 'What Makes the Perfect LAB?', sharing their first prototype version of a wearable tech and game design, and their 'Artistic Leadership Talk Series', which was part of their new Masters Programme run with University of East London. In 2015 the company also opened GAS Station in Stratford, a new space dedicated to projects, ideas and conversations that live somewhere in the intersection between Games, Live Performance and Technology.

For more information visit www.zu-uk.com.

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