How can architecture shape an audience’s journey through an imagined inner world?
A Tale of Miners of Mind was a site-specific promenade performance that transformed the Seoul Theater Center into Dorothy’s symbolic “inner mine”.
The performance was structured as a journey through the building. Rooms, stairwells, courtyard and surrounding street became different territories within Dorothy, the protagonist’s inner world, while the characters encountered along the way embodied different aspects of her psyche.
The performance used the building's existing spatial sequence to organise the progression of the story. Audiences followed Dorothy from one space to another, experiencing changes in level, enclosure, distance and atmosphere as part of her psychological journey.
The performance began at the stairway on the top floor of the building and gradually expanded through the building towards the courtyard and surrounding street.
Each transition marked a shift in Dorothy’s journey. The corners of the building created intimate encounters with the miners, stairs connected different layers of the imagined world, and thresholds between interior and exterior marked moments of departure and transition.
The audience experienced these changes by physically travelling through them. Architecture therefore provided both the setting for individual encounters and the spatial sequence through which Dorothy’s psychological journey unfolded.
The existing sequence of floors, stairs, thresholds and exterior spaces provided a spatial framework for the story. Narrative progression could be organised through movement from one architectural condition to another.
The story was experienced through physical movement as well as observation. Changes in location, level, orientation and proximity affected how audiences encountered Dorothy and the other characters.
The performance temporarily overlaid an imagined psychological world onto the Seoul Theater Center. Familiar architectural elements could acquire different meanings through narrative, movement and performance.