Fever (2010)

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About a year ago, I heard about this experimental performance in which audience members were placed in hospital cots, and were invited to experience the process of dying.

http://www.radixtheatre.org/fever/

The piece was called Fever, produced by the Radix Theater in 2010.  They basically set up a quarantine space in a parking lot, and had performers dressed as doctors usher participants inside.  There, participants would be placed on a hospital bed, and would receive a set of headphones narrating their experience, and inviting them to think about their aspirations before death. (1)

Augmented reality is usually associated with the superimposition of computer-generated material on the real world.  However, Fever expands the possibilities of “augmented reality” in performance by using physical and narrative elements to “augment" reality for the participant.   

It's an interesting example of how sound, visual installation, and performance can transport the participant out of the real world, while still leaving the real world intact around them.


 1 Radix Theater, http://www.radixtheatre.org/fever/