Immersive Experiences Lab x Take Me Somewhere

9.30am-5.00pm, 24 October 2025
University of Glasgow Concert Hall, Gilbert Scott Building, G12 8QQ

9.30am-12.00pm: Democracy, Performance, and Immersive Practices
Workshop with Patrick Blenkarn and David Mesiha

Do our practices and systems within the performing arts sector support or hinder a strong democracy? Led by two of the artists behind asses.masses, Patrick Blenkarn and David Mesiha, participants in this workshop will collaborate to answer this question and to playfully imagine new experiences, stories, games, and processes that might foster new forms of democratic practices within the performing arts and our society at large.

3.30-5.00pm: Politics of/in Immersive Performance Experiences
Panel presentation/discussion with Tania El Khoury, Patrick Blenkarn and Jack Lander; Chaired by Eirini Nedelkopoulou

Immersive performance invites us to step inside the story—sometimes as guests, sometimes as co-creators. But what happens when we think about the politics of these experiences? How might immersion itself be mobilised as a tool for critique, resistance, or complicity? Bringing together artists Tania El Khoury, Patrick Blenkarn, and Jack Lander, this panel will explore the possibilities and limits of immersive performance as a political form, consider the shifting role of audience engagement within it, and reimagine what it means to be part of a performance.

Supported by Thinking Culture funding 2025-26 and organised by Dr Iain Findlay-Walsh and Dr. Eirni Nedelkopoulou (on behalf of the Immersive Experiences Lab).

Accessibility

Information on the University of Glasgow Concert Hall can be found here.