THE WAYFINDERS is a location triggered audio experience which theatricalises built and natural landscapes using the voices and imaginations of children. Developed through Artplay’s New Ideas Lab the experience for 4 - 7 year olds invites children to self navigate and tune in to the character of trees, rocks , rubbish bins and pathways.

Wearing headphones and a custom made pack, children jump in and out of invisible sound zones to trigger voices specific to the ‘things’ they see. Empowered as the experts, they draw the characters they hear in a special notepad, which they use to explain to the place to their adults (who cannot hear the voices). Each accompanying adult draws a simple portrait of their child which the child hides in a place that they would choose to live in this new world.

The voiced characters are developed across a one week period with the voices of ten x 8 - 12 year old participants local to each site. Each with their own high quality recording device and away from the gaze of adults (including the artists) they respond to prompts via a phone call, creating rich uninhibited material. The children are at once storytellers and protagonists as they voice their vulnerability in open spaces with myth-like imaginings.

This project responds to the urgent need for new ways of understanding landscapes which have been deeply modified by colonial and adult-logical thinking. Drawing on children’s innately empathetic perceptions, it considers environments as living places rather than resources. Simultaneously, it empowers children as active citizens whose experiential ‘maps’ can provide insightful new reading of places we think are ‘known’.

The Wayfinders received a Creative Victoria grant to enable us to create the physical architecture around the activated zone. It involve five beautiful doorways for each adult and child pair enabling participation with physical distancing.

THE WAYFINDERS was created through City of Melbourne’s ARTPLAY New Ideas Lab and has also received support from Creative Victoria. It was remounted with a new location based software system at the Abbotsford Convent in Feburary 2023.

• PRODUCED AND DIRECTED by JESSICA WILSON

• SOUND DESIGN: Justin Marshall

• APP DESIGN: Dan St Clair

• ARCHITECTURE DESIGN: Ben Paul