Bunker PLC- Creative directors Olivia Bellas and Joanna Shaw (Screendeep) with Hackney council

The brief for Bunker PLC was to create a site-specific surround soundscape that immersed audiences in a speculative vision of the near future within a real Second World War bunker. The installation explored themes of climate change, technology and humanity's relationship with the natural world, using the historic environment itself as an integral part of the storytelling.

Bunker PLC deals with the daily conditions of our lives in just 20 years’ time, focusing on links between ourselves and the world around us, questioning our vision of the future while also offering an optimistic view on how we can deal with current environmental challenges.

The audience was taken around in small groups and the whole experience lasted approximately 45 minutes.

As Sound Designer, I was responsible for creating the sonic narrative across three interconnected spaces, using sound to guide audiences both emotionally and physically through the experience. Each room had a distinct purpose: the first introduced visitors to the fictional world and encouraged them deeper into the story; the second created an immersive emotional environment that formed the core of the experience; and the final space offered a reflective conclusion, gradually transitioning from industrial and mechanical sounds towards natural environments as visitors returned to the outside world.

The overall aim was to use the heritage and history of the bunker space itself to subconciously take people from the past, through the present and into a near future, in the hope that we could see past mistakes and predict future ones, enabling us to move forward with understanding and purpose.

First opening in 2011, it then re-opened a decade later in 2021 utilising a word of mouth policy to spread the news of the event akin to how messages were spread during the life of the bunker. This approach also minimised power and resources of devices and social media, to relate to the projects wider environmental concerns, whilst also nurturing a human-centric response that tied into what Bunker PLC felt the answer to our problems were: More connection, understanding, inspiration and action.