Explore · Experiment · Imagine

In the Room

A space for ideas before they become finished work.

In the Room is an ongoing Wavelengths project for experimentation, exchange and work at an early stage.

It creates a space where artists can test an idea, take a risk, change direction or try something without the expectation of producing a finished work.

Prompts & Provocations

As part of In the Room, we are inviting artists from different disciplines to contribute simple prompts and provocations for other artists to explore.

A provocation might be a question, a task, an instruction, a rule, a sound, an image, a physical problem or just a sentence.

It does not need to describe what should be made.

The starting point might come from a choreographer, composer, visual artist, performer, writer, filmmaker or someone working outside these definitions. Another artist — or group of artists — then takes that idea into the room and decides what to do with it.

There is no correct response.

The interest is in what happens when an idea passes from one person to another: how it is interpreted, changed, expanded, reduced, resisted or taken somewhere completely unexpected.

The artist who contributes the provocation does not need to direct or oversee the response. They simply provide the starting point.

Crystal Pite has generously contributed a number of choreographic prompts to begin this process. We are now inviting other artists to add their own provocations, gradually building a collection of starting points that can be explored through In the Room.

Some may lead to new work. Some may lead nowhere. Some may be returned to months or years later.

The outcome is not the point. The process is.

In the Room will take place during Wavelengths and continue between festivals, creating an ongoing space for artists to experiment, exchange ideas and see what happens when they enter the room without knowing exactly where they will end up.