GESHER SCHOOL | FUNDRAISER

B R I E F 

 

INSYNC were delighted to be asked to create an immersive sensory experience at a high profile fundraiser for the pioneering Gesher School, who provide a dedicated environment for children with special educational needs. The experience would be the first touch point with guests on arrival to help them understand what the challenges of living with autism can feel like.

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D E L I V E R Y

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Our first point of call was to research how different people experience the five senses all of life must pass through and how everything that enters the body is often accompanied by some semblance of pain or at least by some extremely uncomfortable sensation.

 

Aversions to certain textures, sounds, smells and tastes, as well as a deep dislike of sudden noise are very common:

 

“Everything flows through with equal force. Life is like a continual sensory storm. A raging flash flood of sensorial data is always pulsing through the marrow of my bones. It’s a never-ending, devastating deluge of chaotic kinesthesia. Everything hits me full on, and I’ve had to learn to sink or swim against the surging onslaught of my five senses.”

 

The setting for the event was the eighth floor of White City House and as we were very limited on space, the best solution was to build a short tunnel experience guests would move through on arrival, a journey through different experience zones and scenescapes – each designed to create a sense of claustrophobia and overload of sensory data.

 

After being met from the lift by three performers who gave a short introduction to the experience whilst waiting for the cloakroom, guests were directed into a narrow winding corridor thick with hanging ribbons printed with thought-provoking words whilst mirrored walls created a disorientating infinity effect.

 

From here a performer guided them past multiple screens showing a range of fast-moving content accompanied by a loud cacophony of external everyday sounds and intimate human noises, culminating in a display of lots of staring eyes and high pitch audio.

 

Moving into the final space, the walls became blackboards displaying written text in the style of children's hand writing spelling out repeated lines such as “I must sit still” as well as algebraic equations and classroom doodles.

 

A flashing black light blinked on and off displaying hidden messages in UV paint and a child’s voice delivered the final message – “If you can see the world through my eyes, you can help me feel safe.”

 

Once through the tunnel, guests were welcomed by a friendly face on hand to answer questions about what they had experienced and giving out Lovespecs which turned all the LED light sources in the main room into hearts.

 

Walkabout performers hosted simple sensory games loved by autistic children to win a range of prizes and guests were treated to cocktails by Hendricks and Monkey Shoulder, and live performances by the legendary Soul2Soul and Alison Limerick.

 

The main event of the night though was the auction which thanks to a signed Banksy amongst other money can’t buy items, raised an incredible 500k to help the school achieve their ambitious development goals over the coming years.. an amazing and well-deserved outcome for such an inspirational cause.

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"I wanted to thank you and your brilliant team.  You did an incredible job coming in so late in the day to create something truly remarkable for us, we were all so touched at how hard you worked to understand the school, its ethos and what we are trying to achieve and everyone was blown away by the

production and the performers!"