WILDLANDS: An Immersive Experience
As part of the Mutate Collective, Owen was the Lighting Designer and Project Manager for Wildlands at Ugly Duck, London Bridge in June 2023.
Wildlands was an immersive, promenade performance set in a speculative post-human dystopia, imagining what might remain after humanity has disappeared. The piece invited audiences to journey through a fragmented landscape shaped by the remnants of human civilisation—provoking questions around legacy, memory, and ecological collapse.
Rooted in a scenographically centred practice, Wildlands approached the climate crisis through a distinctive aesthetic lens, offering an alternative to traditional activist narratives. Rather than presenting solutions, the performance created space for reflection, challenging spectators to consider their place within a larger planetary timeline.
As a contributing artist, Owen Else focused specifically on audience agency and appropriation—investigating how viewers navigate, interpret, and internalise meaning within immersive environments. Drawing on Jacques Rancière’s concept of the emancipated spectator, Owen’s contribution explored how individuals move beyond passive reception to actively shape their own understanding of the world presented to them.
Photography by:
Flo Crowson, Laura Saich, Xingyi Chen, Soyeon Jeon
