Sleepdome (2020) was a 23-minute immersive fulldome experience commissioned for Dr Helga Schmid’s Somerset House exhibition 24 Hours in Uchronia. This unique event ran from sunset to sunset and invited visitors to interact with installations, conversations, performances designed to challenge the 24/7 culture crisis, unlearn contemporary time structures and stop the clock. The Sleepdome corresponded with the longest stage of the 24 hour circadian rhythm – The Sleep Phase. The timing of this phase varies widely from five to eleven hours for an adult. However, it is during this phase, the hormone melatonin peaks, the body experiences its deepest rest, lowest body temperature, alertness, and gastric activity. The ideal light condition is complete darkness, and lying is the ideal posture.
In the 360° immersive audio-visual experience of Sleepdome the audience were gently invited to venture into the the ambiguous territory between wakefulness and sleep, where the boundaries of self, space and linear time are no longer differentiated. Rhythms of light, movement, sound and scale merged with physiology and breath to lure the viewer into states of rest and deep relaxation.
24 Hours in Uchronia took place at Somerset House in London from 5.00pm Friday 7th to 5.00pm Saturday 8th February 2020.