Interactive site specific work that transformed central London into a living historical document.

Referencing a speech given in 1912 by Emmiline Pankhurst, The Argument of the Broken Window reimagines the civil disobedience campaign she led as immersive, interactive theatre. It was commissioned by Norwegian experimental music festival Borealis for the event March On London, which marked key moments in the women’s suffrage movement.

Video and audio installations were embedded along a route, which led from Waterloo to Westminster, using a mixture of original and archive recordings, holophonic sound, Augmented Reality, and 3D modeling.

As well as creating an immersive experience, the technology (which was still quite cumbersome at the time) itself became a comment on the voyeurism of history. At one point, for example, we witness a brutal force feeding, with the hustle and bustle of clueless tourists providing a disinterested, passive audience to the spectacle.

The decision to include references to modern day protest movements such as Pussy Riot, hint at the idea of history being a continuous process and highlights how the fight for basic civil rights remains incomplete.

Other commissioned artists involved in the event, which was held in 2013, included Anat Ben-David of Chicks On Speed, and experimental noise enthusiasts Langham Research Center.