A New Immersive Arts Venue Is Launching In London With A Groundbreaking 3D Sound System

Immersive theatre, 360-degree virtual reality gigs, 4D cinema – the world of arts is becoming much more than just a passive experience these days. But a new venue is hoping to push this even further by becoming the first permanent space to engage all the five senses – taste, sight, touch, smell and sound.

Aures London, based in Waterloo, has just launched music and arts space Sensorium, which incorporates the world’s first permanent 3D sound system. This means listeners will have crystal-clear sound wherever they are in the room.

The groundbreaking audio technology, developed by Titan Reality, features 25 Pioneer Pro Audio XY speakers dotted around the venue.

Sam Davis, who set up Aures London with his partner Robyn Collins, told Culture Trip: ‘It’s like putting a massive pair of headphones on with the clarity of one of the best recording studio in the world, essentially allowing the listener to hear the sound the musician’s intended it to be heard. The results are mind-blowing.’

The venue will also be adding sound-absorbing parametric walls, an overhead speaker and haptic flooring, which vibrates to add an extra dimension to the experience.

Sam said: ‘The vibration is not really noticeable but it vibrates at such a frequency that it travels through your skeleton into your inner ear, which essentially allows you to feel the sounds and music you are hearing, obviously enhancing the listener’s experience and making it more lifelike.’

Aures London have also worked with Azzi Glasser of The Perfumer’s Story on ‘smell’ with bespoke and familiar scents like chocolate and gunpowder distributed throughout the venue via a ‘scent delivery system’ built into the wall.

An installation called ‘Memory Light’ hangs in the entrance

As for ‘taste’, they have an in-house molecular mixologist to serve up specially created drinks and are looking to work with Heston Blumenthal, Kitchen Theory, Charles Spence, and Bompass and Parr on their food offering.

There are also plans to collaborate with Observatory London, innovators in visual content creation, to introduce 360 3D project mapping visuals, holograms and virtual real experiences to deliver the best ‘sight’ experience.

‘There are many companies that claim to be immersive; however, many do not embrace all five senses. They usually focus on one really well and then add in the other elements to an acceptable or even poor level,’ Sam said.

‘It’s really important to the Aures team to be able to offer a space that gives sensory tools to the artist or event curator to help them create and take their audience on a journey using as many of the different sensory experiences as possible in order to create real to life moments and a memorable experience.’

The venue is planning to put on a range of events from cinema screenings and art installations to yoga classes and live concerts.

Sam added: ‘The better the sensory experience across all five senses, be it elation or tragic, the more chances that the experience will be remembered by the audience.’

You can find Aures London at Unit 7, 18 Leake Street, London SE1 7NN.

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