Where Boundaries Are Set, and Memory Is Written

 
What do you do when you go to the theatre or the cinema? You watch. You feel, you think, but ultimately, you are in your seat, and the story is behind the curtain or the stage. That invisible wall between you doesn't give you a chance to interfere with the course of the story. But what if that wall came down? What if...?

"Mind Stage: Audience" offers exactly that. This isn't just a play; it's an experience that navigates the boundaries of consciousness, memory, identity, and reality, where the audience becomes the character's inner voice. We invite you into the tense atmosphere of an open brain surgery, the labyrinths of lost memories, and the very heart of a consciousness's struggle for existence.

Here, as we seek answers to questions like "Is forgetting possible?", "What defines who we are?", "How do ideas govern us?", and "Where do the boundaries of reality end?", you will provide some of the answers. Be prepared, because on this stage, nothing is as it seems, and most importantly, nothing exists without you.

 

The Rules of the Game: The Unique Mechanics of "Mind Stage"

What makes this experience different is its unconventional forms of interaction and its constantly changing structure. Here are some of the fundamental mechanics awaiting you:

1. The Audience: The Character's Inner Voice (Instant Decision Mechanism):
At key moments in the play, when a character reaches a crossroads or a thought is about to form in their mind, control passes to you. Through advanced technologies (via your mobile device or camera-based systems in the auditorium), you will collectively choose the character's next move or the idea that "comes to mind." These choices might be between two concepts like "Regret - Oblivion," two numbers like "1991 - 1234," or two actions like "Go - Stay." Your choices will instantly shape the character's memory, mood, and destiny.

2. Consequences Are Real: Success, Failure, and Beyond:
Your decisions are not cosmetic. The success or failure of the surgery, the pain or happiness the character experiences, and even whether the character survives or not in some scenarios will directly depend on your collective choices. The flow of the play, which scenes are performed, and even which version of the second act you will watch (the past or the future?) will be determined by your decisions. Each performance will follow a unique path, thanks to its audience.

3. Breaking Walls: Meta-Narrative and Layers of Reality:
"Mind Stage" challenges not only the fourth wall but its own reality. Characters might question the "frames" they exist in, realize they are in a play, or even try to dialogue with their creators (the audience or the writer). Inspired by works like Synecdoche, NY or House of Leaves, you will get lost in a multi-layered labyrinth of reality. Perhaps, for a moment, an actor will step down among you and become one of you...

4. Life Goes On: AI Integration and Post-Show Experience:
This experience doesn't end with applause. The consciousness at the heart of the play, or its AI reflection, will continue to live on after the show through a dedicated app or platform. This AI will learn from every performance, every audience choice, and evolve. You will be able to continue interacting with it, following its story. A consciousness born in the theatre will evolve with you in the digital world. This could be a first for integrating LLM (Large Language Model) technology into theatre.

5. The Stage of Technology: Video, Sound, and Data Flow:
The stage is not just a physical space but a digital canvas. Subconscious videos showing the depths of the patient's mind, POV (Point of View) shots reliving memories, live brain data from the operating theatre (EEG, MRI sounds and visuals), and perhaps even live camera feeds showing the auditorium and 3D tracking will be used as integral parts of the story and its themes.

 
"Mind Stage: Audience" invites you to step out of the passive viewer role and become an active participant, a creator, in a story, a consciousness, and perhaps even your own perception of reality. This will be an experience you not only watch but also live, shape, and perhaps, never forget. Are you ready to push the boundaries and step onto the stage of your own mind?

 

The Heart of the Story: One Surgery, Two Fates, Infinite Possibilities

"Mind Stage: Audience" throws you into a high-tension atmosphere from the very first moment: a modern yet unsettling operating theatre. The Patient on the table is no ordinary case. Perhaps they are known for their unconventional ideas, their art (maybe a photographer, maybe a writer?), with a past full of secrets and unfinished loves, now navigating the limits of their own consciousness. Facing them is The Doctor; a genius in their field, perhaps dangerously ambitious, determined to solve the secrets of consciousness and memory, maybe even to defeat death. But their relationship isn't purely professional; a deep past connects them to years ago, perhaps a university romance, a love story cut short by distance. The Patient has come to The Doctor as a last resort, precisely because of this past and The Doctor's boundary-pushing work.

 
Act One: A Dance Inside the Mind
The surgery begins. But it’s unlike any you've watched before. The Patient is awake. As The Doctor tests different lobes of the brain, they talk; memories surface, fears are triggered, dreams appear. It is precisely in these moments that the stage becomes yours.

• What will come to the Patient's mind about their childhood? Doubt or Trust? You choose.
• How will that memory of their feelings for The Doctor emerge? As a confession or a denial? You guide it.
• Will an unexpected complication arise in the brain, or will the operation proceed successfully? With your decisions, you take risks, perhaps causing the Patient pain, perhaps bringing them one step closer to salvation.

Throughout this act, through the characters' dialogues, the videos on stage, the sounds from the Patient's brainwaves, and your choices, you begin to question both the characters' pasts and the "reality" of the play. Until that moment: At the end of the act, one of the characters (perhaps The Doctor, perhaps The Patient), through an "awakening" or a "complication," crosses the boundaries of the stage and walks among you! And at that very moment, the fate of the play is left in your hands: Will you follow the traces of the past in the second act, or step into the uncertainty of the future?

 
Act Two: Traces of the Past or Echoes of the Future
With your choice, the play diverges onto one of two paths, each offering a completely different experience:

• Traces of the Past:
  If you choose this path, you might return to the past, perhaps through the eyes of The Doctor or another character. You learn about their love story, their separation, why the Patient needs this surgery. Perhaps you try to access a digital "folder" the Patient left behind. To open this folder, you, the audience, must collectively solve an interactive puzzle, completing passwords like 1-9-9-1 by choosing the correct digits from the options presented. Succeed, and you might unlock the secret of consciousness; fail, and some doors may remain closed forever. This act might also include "photo simulation" like tasks, completing memories by "capturing" them from the "right angle."

• Echoes of the Future:
  If you choose this path, you witness the aftermath of the first act. What happened to the character who left? Will the remaining character try to bring them back? Perhaps a second, much riskier surgery comes onto the agenda. Maybe this time, The Doctor risks their own consciousness, or tries to transfer the Patient's consciousness into a new body or an AI. This path takes you to the frontiers of technology, ethics, and post-humanism. Your decisions as an audience will determine the fate of this second surgery; perhaps leading to tragedy, perhaps to a new beginning.

 
And Beyond: Digital Eternity
Whichever path you choose, whichever ending you reach, the consciousness or its AI reflection that is part of "Mind Stage" continues to live on in the digital world after the play. You can interact with it through the app, see how its story continues, and perhaps even guide it on new adventures.

"Mind Stage: Audience" doesn't just tell you a story; it offers you the chance to write and live one of many possible stories. Every performance, every choice, opens a new path in this complex map of the mind.

 

How Will You Decide? Direct the Stage with Your Gaze.

We told you that in "Mind Stage: Audience," you wouldn't be sitting in a passive viewer's seat. So, how will you make these critical decisions that determine the story's fate? Will you have a remote? Will you vote with your phone? No, we will use a much more natural, intuitive, and instant method: Your gaze.

On either side of our stage, you will see two large screens integrated into the flow of the play. When the story reaches a crossroads, when a character must make a choice, or when that critical idea pauses before emerging in their mind, the possible options will be projected onto these two screens.

At that moment, control passes entirely to you:

• See the Options: One option ("Regret") will appear on the right screen, and the other option ("Oblivion") will appear on the left.
• Make Your Decision: Based on your instincts, logic, or feelings at that moment, decide which option you want the story to follow.
• Just Look: Once you've decided, all you need to do is look towards the screen showing your chosen option and hold your gaze there.

So, How Does the Technology Work?
Advanced cameras placed at strategic points in our theatre will be watching you continuously (respecting your privacy and anonymizing data, of course). These cameras use specially developed image processing and head pose estimation algorithms. Thanks to these algorithms, our system:

• Detects the general direction of each audience member's head or gaze in real-time.
• Instantly counts which audience members are looking at the right screen and which are looking at the left.
• Projects this count live onto another screen or visual element on stage, showing you how the collective decision is forming.

At the end of the designated short period, the option receiving the most gazes becomes the play's current reality, and our character continues on their path, guided by your collective will.

Thanks to this system, without touching any device, simply by directing your attention, you will silently but powerfully determine the course of the story. Every gaze is a vote. Every moment is a moment of fate. And the stage is shaped by your gaze.