16th May 2023
In a self guided experience, free to the public, NOCTURN asked their audience to consider if always being online means missing out on their real lives?
Fusing a museum collection with contemporary dance, motion sensors, projection mapping and a custom made mobile phone app they could interact with three very different provocations.
John Darvell’s creative concepts and thought provoking choreography are brought to life by the technical wizardry of Greyworld. Coupled with Rogerio Silva’s magical cinematography, John Chambers haunting sound score and the joyful animations by Yeast Culture.
Co-commissioned by West Berkshire Council and West Berkshire Heritage and supported by Arts Council England and Corn Exchange, Newbury.
This bold project employed 29 South East based professional artists to create a unique museum experience, NOCTURN worked with over 400 young people, mentored and achieved 174 Arts Award Discovery Certificates; delivered over 90 workshops and worked with a talented group of adult participants to create a 20 minute performance piece.
Find out more about the making of this project:
It is very important that museums engage with the performing arts and vice versa. Performing artists look at these spaces – and their possibilities – through different eyes and do things we would never have thought of doing. Having NOCTURN at the West Berkshire Museum brought new and different people over the threshold and made them think about this unique historic building as something that is as important to the here and now as it is to our heritage.
Paul James, Culture Manager, West Berkshire Council
Performance credits:
Director & Choreographer | John Darvell
Producer | Tessa Howell
Danced & performed by
Deborah Ann Camp
Effie Mcguire Ward
Harriet Waghorn
Filmed & edited by Rogerio Silva
Composition by John Chambers
Technical partner | Greyworld
Animations | Yeast Culture
Photography | Savannah Photographic
Storyboard drawings by Ben Qureshi