“Deciding to create a Quest Game for children and adults to complete together in public space was an immediate commitment to creating an art work that could only come to be as a whole once several distinct but intertwining layers are developed. It required:

1. a compelling fantasy narrative, one that could bring resonance, wonder and a sense of purpose in its unraveling;

2. a certain amount of coherent set-design and props, to aid in sustaining this world throughout the course of hours in parallel with the sensory input of “reality”.

(Favouring performance and human interaction over mediation through technologies, the quest format also demanded:)

3. a dedication to character development and of actor direction on site;

and finally,

4. participants/players had to be brought in either by collaboration with an institute or by creating an identity and advertising the event publicly and privately.

These pre-production efforts would culminate in a one full day of play, in which a team of two or three began and ended playing in the time span of aprox- two hours. No two Temenos Quests were the same because no two teams were. The quest was restricted to just one day mostly due to financial limitations.

As it becomes evident, creating this quest was the first quest. Every element had to align, to become a container with conditions for the play to bring about meaning, learning and joy to those who played it.

The choice of a quest, and not of a sound walk, a street performance or an elaborate hunt for a sonic treasure is simple:

In the portuguese language the word for viewing a theater play is “assistir” or “assist”. It follows the notion that a theater play/concert/film is only complete once the audience supports it by actively experiencing it. I’m interested in exploring with creating works that can only be fully completed once the audience, or what in this case I call participants, given certain conditions (that involve reasons to trust the artists) actively contribute to it and make use of it. I’m also interested in the place in which sound art and education intersect.”