The Story of Lightning & Thunder
Drawing on the imagination, stories have always been an immersive experience. All cultures have their stories of origin; how humans came to be, why the fish live in the sea, why the stars shine in the sky. We have an innate human need to explain and navigate the world around us and to pass that information on to the next generation. These stories create a unique time capsule and are gems of collective wisdom. The only difference between then and now is how we tell these stories.
This project is an adaptation of a Nigerian children’s story explored through two different types of immersive experiences rooted in time. For a child in the pre-digital age, a pop-up book created a multi-dimensional world that was literally within the child’s hands and in their control. How that is experience today is much different. In our screen-based world, that little girl today, delights in picking up a screen to experience a wide number of stories. Stories that are able to create another layer of excitement to reading and listening to books. This work is a responsive journey observing how the adventure of children’s books has been and continues to enriched and engaged the listener or reader on an interactive and immersive level.