top of page

The Boy Who Climbed the Stars – Songs of a Fragile World

1. Why this Project Matters

Climate change is the defining challenge of our time, but facts and data alone rarely move people to act. The arts — especially immersive, multi-sensory experiences — have a unique power to reach hearts as well as minds, creating the empathy, wonder, and urgency needed to inspire change.

The Boy Who Climbed the Stars harnesses this power. Through a fusion of dance, cinematic visuals, spatial sound, and interactive media, the project will invite audiences into a deeply felt journey — one that makes the climate crisis tangible, relatable, and impossible to ignore.

This is more than a performance. It is a creative laboratory for experimenting with how immersive arts can communicate complex environmental realities in ways that spark understanding and action. Our research and development process will be openly exploratory, trialling multiple creative approaches, testing audience engagement methods, and responding dynamically to what we learn.

By blending artistic innovation with urgent environmental storytelling, the project aims to leave a lasting imprint on audiences — and contribute to the growing role of the arts in shaping a more sustainable future.

2. Project Summary

The Boy Who Climbed the Stars is an immersive allegorical performance combining contemporary dance, motion capture, cinematic visuals, and spatial sound. Through the multi-sensory journey of its central character, Ravi, audiences are taken through seven visions of environmental crisis and resilience — a story that illustrates our planet’s fragility and the urgent need for care and activism.

Building on this vision, the ecological New York based choreographer Jody Sperling will show how choreography can embody environmental change and deepen understanding of climate impacts. As the founder of Time Lapse Dance, she will mentor our project, creating sequences exploring water’s vital role and the effects of its disruption. Drawing inspiration from her Ice Cycle work, she uses costumes and materials as a visual metaphor for different states of water, for example evoking the cycles of polar ice-melt. Through her own practice of Ecokinetics the project will heighten sensory awareness of climate change, help audiences process climate grief, and strengthen community resilience. XR21 implements Jody's methodology here.

3. Activity Plan (R&D)

Creative disciplines: Contemporary dance, motion capture, cinematic visuals, spatial sound, interactive media

R&D Activities:

  • Dome-based rehearsals at Real Ideas Market Hall

  • Motion capture performance testing

  • Unreal Engine animation development and refinement

  • Sound recording of authentic ecological environments

  • QR code-linked audience engagement tools

  • Accessibility testing for inclusive performance

The R&D process will prioritise experimentation — testing alternative visual styles, sound spatialisation techniques, and interactive storytelling formats. The approach is iterative, with findings feeding directly into the final performance design.​

4. Collaboration & Partnerships

Our cross-disciplinary team — artists, scientists, and City College Plymouth students — will work side by side to animate characters, capture authentic soundscapes, create interactive audience trails, and perform in the Dome.

This collaboration will also produce a publicly accessible web resource with:

  • A full recording of the Dome performance

  • Project documentation and process archive

  • Educational resources for students, artists, and educators

5. Testing, Learning & Impact

Testing:

  • Storyboarding and choreography integration

  • Dome-based rehearsals to trial sound, visuals, and choreography in situ

  • Motion capture trials to refine movement translation into animation

  • Unreal Engine animation tests for clarity and style consistency

  • QR code functionality tests for interactive audience engagement

  • Field recording trials for spatial audio

  • Accessibility checks for inclusive performance

Learning:

  • Development of cross-disciplinary skills in immersive arts, animation, and sound design

  • Translating climate science into accessible, emotionally engaging narratives

  • Collaboration between artists, technologists, and scientists to embed authentic environmental content

  • Student participants gain professional-level production experience

Impact:

  • Live immersive performance in the Real Ideas Market Hall Dome

  • Publicly accessible web resource hosting:

    • Full Dome performance recording

    • Comprehensive project documentation and process notes

    • An educational resource with lesson plans, interactive media, and discussion prompts for schools, colleges, and community groups

  • Digital legacy with 360° excerpts, behind-the-scenes content, and sound libraries

  • Skills development for students and early-career artists

  • Extended reach through educational outreach and online engagement

6. Legacy & Public Engagement

Beyond the premiere, the project will live on through its online resource hub, providing access to the performance, behind-the-scenes content and practical tools for other artists and educators to adapt and build on the work. This ensures long-term impact, fostering climate literacy through experimental immersive arts.
 

Current Resources


Climate Change & the Arts

  • Weintraub, L. (2012). To Life! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

  • Ghosh, A. (2016). The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

  • Fowkes, M., & Fowkes, R. (2022). Art and Climate Change. London: Thames & Hudson. (World of Art series, paperback, 7 April 2022)

  • British Council. (2021). Mapping Trends and Best Practice in Climate Action and Sustainability in the Arts. London: British Council.

​

Immersive Arts & Performance

  • Frieze, J. (Ed.). (2016). Reframing Immersive Theatre: The Politics and Pragmatics of Participatory Performance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Alston, A. (2016). Beyond Immersive Theatre: Aesthetics, Politics and Productive Participation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Biggin, R. (2017). Immersive Theatre and Audience Experience: Space, Game and Story in the Work of Punchdrunk. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Webb, T. (2022). Sensory Theatre: How to Make Interactive, Inclusive, Immersive Theatre for Diverse Audiences. London: Nick Hern Books.

 

Dance, Choreography & Spatial Performance

  • Ritter, J. M. (2020). Tandem Dances: Choreographing Immersive Performance. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

  • Birringer, J. (2021). Kinetic Atmospheres: Performance and Immersion. London: Routledge.

 

Spatial Sound & Sonic Arts

  • Fry, G. (2019). Sound Design for the Stage: A Practical Guide. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.

  • Barclay, L. (2019). “Acoustic Ecology and Ecological Sound Art: Listening to Changing Ecosystems.” In C. Carlyle (Ed.), Sound, Media, Ecology (pp. 37–54). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Film, Animation & Poetic Media

  • Tremlett, S. (2021). The Poetics of Poetry Film. Bristol: Intellect Books.

  • Robinson, K. S. (2020). The Ministry for the Future. London: Orbit.

​

All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2025 Gilbert Gabriel, Amanda Mullinger and Aidan Hoyle.

bottom of page