Based on Audiocraft’s award-winning podcast and featuring at SXSW 2024 and 2025, this in-person immersive audio experience is a multi-sensory meditation, weaving together a symphony of nature sounds with captivating storytelling that highlights Australia’s unique nocturnal ecosystems.
Nocturnal Worlds Sound Bath
“I wasn’t sure what to expect but when I sat down, put on my eye mask and the audio began, I found myself drifting away into another world. I honestly didn’t want it to end…..”
— visitor review, SXSWSydney 2024
SYNOPSIS
In 2024, Audiocraft transformed the Nocturnal Worlds podcast into a site-specific, immersive listening experience at SXSW Sydney: Nocturnal Worlds Sound Bath. Already an award-winning podcast with a loyal following, the in-person experience was designed to reach beyond the boundaries of audio-only, bringing people together for a multi-sensory journey into the natural world.
WHAT WE DID
Conferences are busy and demanding events, attendees often over-stimulated by new information, networking and navigating busy and complex spaces. The Nocturnal Worlds Sound Bath was therefore designed as an antithesis to this; a sensory refuge from the hustle and bustle of conference time, an opportunity to step out of the noise and into a calm and gentle shared space.
The in-person experience allowed the introduction of non-audio sensory elements to the listening experience. Firstly, a low-light environment was created with blinds used to block out outside visual distraction. Eye masks were also provided to encourage people to close their eyes for the entirety of the experience. Eucalyptus oil was then gently sprayed at key moments throughout the room, heightening the connection to the natural worlds being described in the sound bath narration and sound design.
For the audio experience, it was important that the elements be specifically designed for the room and the people in it. To this end, the original podcast episodes were deconstructed into the separate narrative and sound design elements so that the different stages of the experience could be controlled manually, able to be faded in and out in harmony with the movement of the people in the room. So too, new introductory and ending scripts were recorded to acknowledge the specific experience being had in the room, and to give important information or direction to help people get the most enjoyment out of the 20 minute session.
The three sessions at SXSW Sydney were so popular that extra chairs had to be brought in and people eventually had to be turned away; testament to the ever-growing need for experiences like this that both bring people together and back in connection with the natural world.
CREDITS
Scripting and Production: Olivia O’Flynn
Narrator: Olivia O’Flynn
Sound Designer and Mix: Laura Brierley Newton
Art: Evi O Studios
Executive Producers (Audiocraft): Kate Montague and Lorna Clarkson