The inspiration for the immersive theater Ritual Sound of the King originated from the historical event that the King Li of Western Zhou period subdued the chaos successfully. The King Li ordered the casting of the bell of Zong Zhou, and its long inscription recorded this achievement. Through music by bell and drum, the King reported this event to Heaven in the ancestral worship ceremony and prayed for blessings for future generations. This immersive theater adopts the rhythms of symphonic poetry and modern scientific theories to interpret the cosmology of the Zhou people and rituals through which they communicated with ancestors. It also highlights the important role of bronzes in the ritual and music system during the Western Zhou period.
The story takes us back to 2,800 years ago. People then believed that the invisible “qi” was everywhere. This unpredictable “qi” constituted all things in the universe in the aftermath of the Big Bang. In order to convey the content of the inscription to the ancestors, the ornate decorative patterns on the bell of Zong Zhou first decompose back to the original form of “qi”, which is then transformed into a young dragon and a baby bird. The two animals further merge into a huge phoenix with a dragon crown, which flies high to carry the inscription to the ancestral residence in another dimension.
The immersive theater combines history, humanities and art with digital technology. Using dozens of projectors, audio systems and human body detection interactive devices to construct special effects of an immersive projection environment, the theater (12m x 12m x 4m) can accommodate forty spectators and detect the position of the audience in the space. Thus, the audience can experience the ancient oriental cosmology overflowing with “qi”.