A garden of sensory delights - Ben Koppelman, Alexandra Topaz

‘Pairi-daēza’ means ‘walled garden’ in Persian, and is the origin of the Hebrew word for orchard, ‘pardes’, and the English word for paradise. Pairi-daēza is also related to ‘parigauda’, meaning a screen, which is the root of the Hebrew, ‘pargod’ - a key concept in Jewish mysticism that describes our veiled relationship to immanence. This presentation discusses a proof of concept installation that tells a story of mystical transformation inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s uncanny Garden of Earthly Delights. 

Holography is a powerful medium to represent yearnings beyond material presence to experience something more immaterial. This installation explores holography as an augmented reality to allow people to be immersed in physical and virtual worlds simultaneously while feeling equally present in both. Using projections and Holotronica’s Hologauze to create visual holograms, it also explores the potential of audio holograms by combining headphone theatre and spatial sound to create even more immersive experiences.