Read the TimeOut article here.
A plane crash in complete darkness? My experience at DARKFIELD was both terrifying and enlightening.
DARKFIELD is back with SÉANCE and FLIGHT – and they've brought two new experiences with them.
I'm not quite sure what to expect, as I wander down Little Bourke Street towards an abandoned carpark filled with four white shipping containers. The steel boxes are labelled with four names: COMA, FLIGHT, SÉANCE and EULOGY.
They're part of DARKFIELD – an immersive sound-driven experience in total darkness, each of which evokes a different part of your innermost anxieties. Fancy experiencing a plane crash in surround sound? Or perhaps a spirit-filled seance, or a mind-trapping coma? All in pitch black? Well, I, for one, said yes.
As I entered the shipping container marked 'FLIGHT', I was met with a disturbingly accurate portrayal of a real plane cabin – the space kitted out with reportedly real seats, cabin windows and overhead bins sourced from an actual plane. (Hopefully still intact...) A set of drop-down screens feature a flight attendant, who welcomes mw with a kind of manic energy that sets the tone for what's to come.
This is a spoiler-free space, so I won't go into the specifics of the 27-minute experience so as not to ruin the surprise – but I will say it's a pretty terrifying ride through time and space, with an ear-splitting soundscape that mimics the experience of screaming through the void as you hurtle toward the Earth... or do you?
And that's the thing about DARKFIELD; the company likes to play with your mind. If you thought this was straight-up terror porn about a plane crash, you'd be wrong – instead, it dances the lines between reality and fantasy to leave you pondering the space that your body inhabits, and its connection to what could be possible across the vast expanse of the universe.
So yeah, it was terrifying in its own way – and not recommended if you plan on jumping on a plane in the next 24 hours or so – but what it leaves you with afterwards is much more fascinating.
Interactive audio performance? Art installation? Hellish and unnecessary terror-fuelled experience simply for the sake of it? I'll leave that up to you – as long as you promise to try it for yourself.
Choose your adventure from the four DARKFIELD experiences in Melbourne, below.
Get tickets to DARKFIELD here.
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