Now in its second year, Storyscapes, created in collaboration with Bombay Sapphire and TFF, is our exciting program that celebrates 5 unique transmedia projects by artists and content creators from around the world. Audiences will get to experience these innovative forms of storytelling on multiple sensory levels at Bombay Sapphire’s House of Imagination during the second week of this year’s Festival. Did we mention it’s absolutely free? It’s free!

Attending Storyscapes is easy. The Bombay Sapphire House of Imagination (121 Varick Street, 7th & 8th Floor, entrance on Dominick St between Hudson and Varick) will be open April 23-26 from the hours of 4:00PM to 11:00PM on Wednesday-Friday and 1:00PM to 7:00PM on Saturday. You must be 21 or older with an ID to attend the installation. While walk-ins are welcome, we encourage you to register online now so you won’t have to wait an extra minute to experience our amazing Storyscapes installations upon arrival.

Before you register, you should also take note of our live programming schedule. That’s right! In addition to the general exhibit, there will be special events associated with the 5 transmedia projects at which the creators themselves will make presentations and provide eye-opening tours.

Click here to see the full schedule or events and start planning your trip to the Bombay Sapphire House of Imagination. It should be noted that registering for these events will also insure admission to the general exhibit. Walk-ins are welcome to our special programming, but priority will be given to those who pre-register.

With so much to do and see at our Storyscapes exhibition, we suggest you download the official Bombay Sapphire House of Imagination app. New this year (!), the app acts as a mini-tour guide to help you explore the space, find exhibits, view the Imagination Series films, and more. Using iBeacon technology, the app can pinpoint your location within the space and share information about the exhibit you’re approaching or even the featured cocktail at the Bombay Sapphire bar just steps away.

So scroll down and learn more about these 5 amazing Storyscapes projects. All are competing for the BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® Storyscapes Award for Transmedia but only one will win.

Choose Your Own Documentary
Project Creators: Nathan Penlington, Fernando R. Gutierrez De Jesus, Nick Watson, and Sam Smail

Inspired by the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books of the 1980s, Choose Your Own Documentary tells the story of Nathan Penlington’s discovery of a diary tucked away in one of these books and his attempts to unravel its many mysteries. Part comedy stand-up, part documentary, this is a unique live interactive experience in which the audience plays a vital role. With over 1,566 possible versions, and multiple endings, every performance is different and the audience votes on the path the documentary takes. Where will the story lead? How will the story end? You decide.

Circa 1948
Project Creator: Stan Douglas with the NFB Digital Studio

Circa 1948 is a new project from internationally renowned artist Stan Douglas. Together with NFB Interactive, he has recreated areas from Vancouver’s history that no longer exist. The locations have been meticulously researched and are recreated in historically accurate 3D detail, where they become the site of the disembodied voices of the people who once inhabited them. Eavesdrop on the past and explore a seminal turning point in the history of Vancouver through the voices of homeless veterans, gamblers, prostitutes, and police officers. Hearing—but not seeing—the inhabitants, you can navigate the different environments and be immersed in a plot peopled with characters from a disappeared world.

CLOUDS
Project Creators: Jonathan Minard, James George

A new generation of artists and hackers are emerging and creating tools for poetic and socially engaged experiments in art, storytelling, and technology. 3D-scanned conversations from this community form a network of ideas explored in a non-linear documentary that is assembled from code, bringing form and content together in a truly exciting way. Clouds will be presented as an interactive installation that you can navigate yourself.

On a Human Scale
Project Creator: Matthew Matthew

On a Human Scale reimagines the people of New York City as a fully playable and immersive video instrument controlled by a piano. Each key triggers a different video of a different person, from a different walk of life, singing a different note. When played together they fuse into a joyful choir that is totally under the control of whoever is at the keyboard. Playing the piano brings to life an audiovisual installation that fuses music, film, people, and technology into a living, singing tapestry of humanity.

Use of Force
Project Creator: Nonny de la Peña

Use of Force is a fully immersive documentary experience that puts you on scene when migrant Anastasio Hernandez Rojas was killed by border patrol on the U.S.–Mexico border in 2010. Using custom built virtual reality goggles and full body tracking, participants stand alongside witnesses who were trying to stop the events unfolding, offering a profound and visceral experience. Nonny de la Peña is a pioneer of immersive journalism and this is an experience that really puts you in someone else’s shoes.

So come play with us! Registration for the Bombay Sapphire House of Imagination is now open.