Te Wā

The Space Between Worlds

Concept Overview

Te Wā is an immersive, multi-sensory installation that explores the relationship between time (wā) and space (wā), sound and silence, presence and memory.

It is both an interval and an environment — a living, responsive system where light, sound, and digital form converge through AR+IQ.

Each participant steps into a shared time-space, co-creating a moment that only exists when they are together.

Philosophical Foundation

In te ao Māori, wā is not fixed — it flows, expands, and folds.

It is the pulse between past (mua) and future (muri), embodied in the present moment.

In this sense, Te Wā is an invitation to experience te ao hurihuri — the ever-turning world — through an interactive field of light and sound.

Ko te wā te manawa o te ao — time is the breath of the world.

This concept aligns with iSPARX™’s kaupapa:

• Tino Rangatiratanga: Creative sovereignty in defining our digital space.

• Whai Oranga o te Taiao: Designing technology that sustains ecological and emotional balance.

• Mana: Ensuring integrity in experience and representation.

• Ngākau Pono: Grounding innovation in authenticity.

Spatial & Experiential Design

The Installation:

A minimal physical set — LED curtains, reflective surfaces, and dichroic filters in deep reds and blues (181).

The environment is choreographed like a breathing organism: light waves, spatial sound, and AR objects move in relation to people’s presence.

Audio System:

• Binaural and Atmos layers delivered via Apple AirPods, mapped to each participant’s position.

• A sub-heavy house system anchors the group in a collective pulse.

• The AI engine modulates intensity, creating waves of tension and stillness.

Lighting & Projection:

• Intelligent fixtures with dichroic wheels create transitions of te ao and te pō — light and darkness.

• LED curtains act as portals; projection surfaces become membranes between digital and physical layers.

• Light behaves like a whakaaro (thought) — responsive, emotive, and evolving.

AR Layer:

• Participants see animated forms emerging from reflective planes — perhaps ancestral patterns or digital whakapapa nodes.

• Using the AR+IQ multi-user synchronisation system, these forms react to collective rhythm and proximity.

• The shared AR field becomes a living metaphor for whanaungatanga — connection through time and space.

Narrative Arc (Optional)

1. Te Ao Mārama — Emergence

The space begins in darkness. Subsonic vibrations rise as subtle light filters through — users’ AR views reveal drifting forms.

2. Te Ao Hurihuri — Flow

As people move, the soundscape and light synchronise. The AI reads the group rhythm — intensity, movement, energy.

Reflections shimmer. The wā begins to breathe.

3. Te Kore — Silence / Stillness

The system draws the energy inward — all audio drops to a low pulse, lighting shifts to soft red.

Each participant’s AR view glows faintly, reflecting their collective imprint in space.

4. Te Wā — Union

Everything fuses — sound, light, projection, and AR converge into one continuous resonant field.

A brief stillness, then fade.