CM 2024

Frame Doc Lab

The World Came Flooding In

Current Status &amp; Goals at CineMart We have a working prototype containing examples of the aesthetic and structure of our experience. The response to this prototype has been overwhelmingly positive and viewers have been deeply moved by the experience of walking around our liminal memory-scapes. We are ready to enter into production, pending confirmation of Australian funding. Much of our core team is now in place. We are still looking for additional partners: funding, co-production, distribution and sales. Also, we are interested in meeting installation designers and location- based partners for the distribution stage.&nbsp;Synopsis The World Came Flooding In&nbsp;is an immersive documentary installation that connects audiences to the personal experience of&nbsp; natural disaster through memories of lost objects and stories of escape, resilience and recovery. We are using a unique and compelling process to create this work. First we create detailed handcrafted miniature objects from cardboard, fabric and paper then we scan them using photogrammetry and transform them into life-scale virtual spaces inside a headset. The miniatures are made in close consultation with our subjects, people who have lost their houses to floods. We ask them to describe in detail an important room in their house that no longer exists. We record the audio of their memories, make detailed notes, then recreate these rooms in miniature as impressions of their memories. The audio is edited into a guided tour of the room, connecting the viewer to the real voice and story of the flood impacted person. As the viewer, your experience begins in a gallery space. Three inviting miniature sculptures on plinths lead you to a VR headset. Inside the immersive experience, you encounter a similar landscape of individual rooms, devoid of the surrounding house, in a sea of endless black. You are able to walk around inside the rooms in VR. Spoken memories and interactive elements bring the rooms to life, revealing a glimpse into the psychological aftermath of a flood. As you progress you increasingly perform actions preparing for an impending flood, culminating in a 360 video-experience of water swirling in under the door, submerging and destabilising the contents of the room. Throughout you are buoyed by the promise of recovery and the stories of rebuilding a life step by step. The visual design of the domestic spaces is enchantingly unique and dreamlike and the voices of people with lived experience ground the work in reality. The work is presented in two different modes, the installation and a standalone VR version. The standalone headset experience can be transported easily for direct community outreach and impact purposes.&nbsp;Director's BiographyWith a shared passion for stop-motion animation, storytelling and technology, Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine have a 20+ year career creating elaborate interactive artworks, moving short films and unique immersive installations. They have premiered work at Cannes, Venice, Sundance, IFFR and MIFF. They have won awards at Cannes, Ars Electronica, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, VR Days, Anifilm, Australian International Documentary Conference and many more. They are dedicated to pursuing new ways of engaging with ideas, stories and places through their unique blend of digital and hand-made universes.

Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine

The World Came Flooding In is an immersive documentary installation that transports viewers into liminal memory spaces to investigate the lived experience of the climate emergency through flooding.