Cradle of Fire Goes Immersive, No Bounds Festival, Oct 2025
Cradle of Fire (immersive) was part of the ‘No Bounds’ Switch Room programme on the 10th to 12th Oct 2025. It was the first art installation and public premiere of the ‘igloo’ immersive suite, which features a high resolution 360-degree screen, in the South Yorkshire Institute of Technology based at Hallam in the Strines building in Sheffield.
The arts council funded Cradle of Fire film made in 2024 by Diana Scarborough and Carolyn Waudby features poetry, rap and song that reimagines the story of Vulcan, Roman god of fire, forges and volcanoes, and symbol of Sheffield. This was one of a number of outcomes created for the Cradle of Fire project, inspired by collections from three industrial museums in Sheffield and Teeside.
It was invaluable to be able to adapt the Cradle of Fire film as a site-specific installation project for walls and floor in a 360 degree space (The Igloo) and to see how powerful the work was emotionally, sonically and visually, compared with a flat-screen version.
The original 22-minute film (full HD) format was adapted by Diana Scarborough to wrap the walls and floor of a 15m diameter space to create a looped immersive experience.
The film is post -festival documentation offering insights into pre-testing of ‘Cradle of Fire Immersive’ as well as visitors’ reactions.
A huge thank you from myself, Diana Scarborough and my co-director and collaborator of the Cradle of Fire film, Carolyn Waudby to the festival team for their hours of work to realise this unique creative opportunity.
Amy Carter Gordon – ‘No Bounds’ Switch Room Curator
Lauren McConnell – Creative Producer
Anne Doncaster – Lecturer BA/MA Art Digital Media Production
Tanni Moyana – Lecturer School of Computing and Digital Technologies