You might’ve seen shipping containers walking past either Summerhall or the Pleasance Dome on your stroll through the busy streets of Edinburgh and wonder what may lay in wait inside of them. DARKFIELD, the creators of these shipping containers, specialise in 360-degree immersive experiences that incorporate technology, sensory effects and performance to create shocking and marvellous worlds. The narratives are entirely audience driven but can vary in how many different choices or endings you may face as a participant.
In the case of ARCADE, after a lengthy health and safety warning and the instructions, you’re guided into a shipping container and greeted by two rows of old-fashioned arcade machines labeled ‘IAMMILK’ in that classic video game block font. The carpeted floors and mirrored ceilings only add to the retro vibe of the interior. You take your position in front of one of the machines, place your headphones on your head and situate the controls before you are plunged into complete darkness.
It’s hard to describe what happens next but you awaken as the main video character, Milk, and proceed on a journey through a war torn, nondescript land. I found it hard to follow, but that’s potentially down to my own difficulties hearing. The experience is disorientating, and I found the narrative difficult to fully follow, despite it being my own choices that would guide me from one point to another. Somehow, I ended up ending in the exact same scene and the choices I had made previously were reversed by the game itself, destroying the narrative-led hook that the marketing promised.
Their sibling shipping container, outside the Pleasance Dome, entitled FLIGHT promises to be just as thrilling as ARCADE, and I’m probably lean towards the former. Partly because in FLIGHT, only two options are available to the audiences due to their choices, either land safely and live, or crash and die. I can only assume that this simplifies some of the knots I found in ARCADE but keeps the allure and danger of pitch darkness
Enter the ARCADE at The Terrace at Summerhall until the 26 August.
Buy tickets here
Images by Katie Edwards provided to The Student by Summerhall Press
