The Very Near Future part for is a continuation of the film noir / cinematic story world established in Part 1-2 and Part 3. In this iteration of the work we see a return of gumshoe detective Eddie Getz, Vinnie ‘The Bagman’ Vincenzo, and a new protagonist caught up in the tangled web, Patsy.

The narrative of the work was formulated around the site specific location of the competitive woodchopping arena at the historic Berry Showgrounds, NSW, Australia. For the purpose of the narrative, the site was transformed as a location where a bar knuckle boxing match transpires.

As with The Very Near Future Parts 1-3, an imaginary film crew (Director, Sound and Camera Assistant and Operator) is present at the location to shoot Scene 32, Take 7 (Shootout at the Bare Knuckle Boxing Match). In this instance, the crew can be heard inside the upper level of the locked announcers tower. Each time the crew attempts to complete shooting the scene, they are unwittingly caught in a loop that shears time and resets back to the start of the scene. Upon each reset, both the fictional Noir scene they are shooting, and the characteristics and motivations of the cast and crew deviate and branch out into a series of alternate multiverse timelines. The audience becomes aware of these alternate realities, however the cast and crew appear oblivious to what is happening.

A total of 8 branching narratives were developed for The Very Near Future Part 4, A central thread at the inception of the scene is the revelation that the ‘fight has been fixed’. Each branching multiverse reimagines who fixed the fight, why they fixed it, and how Vinnie and Eddie subsequently respond to this information. Another example is the unexpected (from both an audience, and character perspective) appearance of the woman (Patsy) locked in the wooden trunk that has been dumped on site. In differing universes, she is at times is emboldened, timid and scared, mistakenly kidnapped, and even villainous herself. Romantic relationships between Patsy and the other protagonists also deviate between these parallel timelines.

In this narrative version of Scene 32 (Take 7), an additional character of the Emcee is also introduced into the story-world and is used to situate the narrative at a live boxing match and also provide event variation and further complexity within each multiverse.

The whole installation was presented over 9 speakers distributed throughout the site. Two were concealed under the stadium seating, primarily for the purpose of the dialogue between Eddie and Vinnie, one sealed within the shipping crate (Patsy), one inside the locked room on the lower floor of the announcers tower, one inside the upper floor, and a horn speaker specifically mounted outside door the Emcee was also introduced. Two more speakers were conceled opposite the stadium seating in order to establish an ambience sound field for the boxing match.

With the exception of the speaker for Patsy and the Emcee’s PA horn, all speakers were used to pan the movements of different characters for each repeated narrative scene. For example, Eddie might be heard running from the stadium seating to the upper lever of the tower, or the woosh of a Molotov cocktail can be heard moving through space as Vinnie lobs it at the announcers tower. The story elements represented through sound design were further enhanced by the use of theatrical smoke effects. The sound of the announcers tower ablaze in in several of the multiverse variations is re-inforced by smoke bellowing out of the top floor of the building.

The time rift reset event in each scene repetition is always sudden and unexpected, and often truncates the actor or crews dialogue off mid sentence. Within the announces tower where the crew is location, lighting goes haywire and simultaneously all the 9 speakers distributed throughout the site play a visceral spatial audio composition, before and equally sudden reset occurs whereby the cast and crew inadvertently commence preparing to shoot Scene 32, Take 7 (again)….

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