Soulsound has revealed its plans for an intriguing new show feature at PLASA London 2016 that will allow companies to demo products and share expertise from within an interactive maze.

Darryn de la Soul, founder of Soulsound and the brains behind ‘The Exploratorium’, is hoping to present the new creation at the London event next month, but needs more sponsors and participants to take part.

“The idea was born from visiting various trade shows and being a little bit bored; I felt like there needed to be something to do at these events,” she said.

“I thought it would be a great idea to create something visually interactive that gets people talking, as well as a good opportunity for companies to show off their products in action without too much of a sales feel and for institutions to show off their students’ work."

The spaces found within the maze will contain simple, interactive, entertaining and educational “experiments,” also acting as mini-stands where companies and institutions can show off products in an unusual and entertaining way, while generating discussion and providing learning experiences.

Soulsound envisages a sideshow-type theme for the maze with Victorian-style sideshow signage. Two performers will engage people walking past with a simple experiment, encouraging them to come inside and entertaining those around them. Visitors will then navigate their way through the various exhibits within the structure.

Emma Adamou of d&b audiotechnik, currently working alongside Soulsound on the project, said: “Acoustic experiments have proved to be a very effective and inspirational way of educating the industry and The Exploratorium is the ideal platform to demonstrate it, whilst providing a varied and cultural experience for show visitors.”

Ann Andrews at Funktion One, which is also sponsoring one of the experiments within the Exploratorium, added: "Engaging people at a practical level interactively so that they can make their own minds up about what it is that is being experimented brings some originality to the exhibition with some fun thrown in. Really good idea.”

An experiment is also being taken by the University of Derby, while ZerodB are sponsoring the building of the structure itself.

At the end of the maze will be a space given over to artist and founder of Limbic Productions Iris Musel, who will offer a smaller, more condensed version of a wider art installation that explores how auditory and visual perception changes with dementia. This part of the project is supported by tvOne and Sound Directions.

“Something like this teaches us a lot about how we perceive sound and vision in the first place,” said Musel. “So I hope how people experience the art installation(s) also carries personal interpretations to their perceptions of their surroundings.”

The installation will use technology to emulate some of the symptoms that those with the disorder experience, such as confused senses and audio and visual hallucinations, the idea being to raise awareness and understanding of how the senses are affected.

“PLASA is an interesting platform for this as it facilitates building interesting relationships with really great organisations that can support the more media based components we are creating for the installation,” Musel continued.

“And this is not just specific to PLASA; I think there is a whole movement towards presenting things in a more engaging and experiential way.”

While many companies have expressed their positivity about the Exploratorium, Soulsound is relying on the support of more participating companies. For information on how to get involved, contact darryn@soulsound.co.uk.

https://www.soulsound.co.uk/

http://www.plasashow.com/