We were given Photo ID and a Number and told to enter Storehouse via the side door of a huge riverside warehouse where we had to negotiate our way through huge reels of paper and into a room with your designated number on.
An IT geek gave us a rundown on the birth of the internet and the rise of fake news – the subliminal message being how the media manipulates the information it sends out.
What nobody else in that room of Number 5s knew was that the last owner of that warehouse at Convoys Wharf was Rupert Murdoch and one of the last jobs my father had as a stevedore was unloading the paper for the Murdoch empire at that site.
Storehouse evolved from an idea Liana Patarkatsishvilli had when she asked herself: ‘How are we manipulated, and why don’t we see it happening?’
She didn’t want to answer it in a lecture hall but through a live, immersive experience.
A team was pulled together to plan, write, design and build until that spark of an idea became real in a Deptford warehouse.
Storehouse is where every piece of data since the dawn of the communication highway is kept. But there is a power outage, data leaks, and we – the Trustees of Storehouse – need to save it.
You quickly become mesmerised by the angles and textures in this strange world, with its ever-changing light and soundscape forming the hypnotic backdrop that you only become conscious of when a voice gives you information or instructions. And there is a lot of data to take in while you are distracted by various characters appearing with more details to add to the story and the journey through this wonderland of delights.
We were invited into willow forests of fibre-optic cable, where the walls whispered, a candy floss library with books written in Binary Code.
Are we being manipulated? Should we believe everything we are told or shown?
Someone actually hissed in my ear to ‘Watch out for that one’, while pointing out one of the most important players.
As I turned to ask for more details I could see the whisperer scuttling off, back down the tunnel we had just came through.
At one point we were handed lanterns that we could control by switching them to blue or red in order to place our votes to questions posed to the group. However, our control was taken away at one point and another power was changing our lanterns’ colours to vote for us. Technology had taken over.
Storehouse is so relevant right now. The country was convinced by a bombardment of lies and personalised, targeted online propaganda to believe Brexit was a good thing; Elon Musk says he bought himself a President with his media platform, the right wing press gave us Bojo Johnson.
People need to seriously think about where their news is coming from and whether it has a bias designed to deflect their thoughts.
Storehouse is a major happening, a triumph of design (Alice Helps) a crucial event; it is much more than 90 minutes of visual and audial fun – It is a warning!
Deptford Storehouse, Off New King Street, Grove Street, London, SE8 3AA from Tuesday 4th June – 20th September. Times: Wed, Thu, Fri – 6pm & 8pm; Sat – 3pm, 5pm & 8pm; Sun – 12pm, 2pm & 5pm. 90 minutes.
Admission: £27.50 – £47.50
Booking and full details: https://www.sageandjester.com
