Projects
Broad Haven Triangle / Triongl Aberllydan
Broad Haven Triangle / Triongl Aberllydan
Virtual reality teleports you to 1970s Broad Haven on the coast of west Wales, where a group of children witness a UFO land in the field behind their school and encounter a silver-suited alien, but nobody in the adult world believes them.
The incident heralds an extraordinary year of unusual happenings. Pembrokeshire is known as ‘Gwlad Y Hud’ (Land of Enchantment), with stories of fairies, witches, ghosts, mermaids, sea monsters, disappearing islands and an ancient drowned city.
This bilingual project looks at the similarity between fairy and alien sightings, weaving together witness testimony, Welsh fairytales, 70s sci-fi and music in a surreal, often humorous, docu-mystery XR experience inspired by the unsolved “British Roswell”, one of the most important UFO incidents in UK history.
Experiment
£20,000
Aims of the project
We will experiment with different technologies in the creation of a prototype for a bilingual (Welsh + English) immersive experience ready for the 50th anniversary in 2027 of the UFO sightings in west Wales in 1977 – known as The Broad Haven Triangle.
The experience will explore what these otherworldly encounters have in common with Welsh myths and legends, why these stories are so compelling and the cultural and linguistic importance of folklore and fairytales. The sensory experience will use 360, VR, eye tracking and pass through with real world interaction, weaving together witness testimony, archive, fairytales, animated drawings, 70s music and nostalgia.
The aim is to test with an audience, evoking the feeling of crossing a threshold into an Otherworld, taking us back to childhood and providing a ‘magical’ experience. Just as looking through a hag stone is supposed to let us glimpse the Fae, the VR headset becomes a magical viewing device allowing us to see beyond the veil. But some things happen in the corner of the eye and when we focus on them, they’re gone.
Tracy Spottiswoode
Lead artist, writer and director
she/her
Tracy Spottiswoode is an award winning multi-disciplinary filmmaker from Wales, who began her career as performer and designer – often working in immersive theatre and devised site-specific projects – before moving into writing and directing for theatre, radio, animation, film and more recently, XR.
In 2018 Tracy received a Creative Wales Award to research and develop narrative XR, combining an immersive theatre practice and experience as a filmmaker to create the first artistic 360VR experience in Welsh and English – A Signal Across Space / Arwydd Drwy’r Awyr. Inspired by Marconi’s first wireless signal messages off the coast of Wales in 1897, the project premiered at the Wales Millennium Centre in 2022 and was selected for festivals in Canada, USA, India and Australia.
Tracy works across animation, live action film, installation and live performance to create immersive, sensory and visually poetic experiences, underpinned by a deep mapping of a specific location, its history, mythology and natural environment and the stories arising from that genius loci, or ‘spirit of place’.
Recent work includes development of a Welsh language ‘Celtic Western’ feature film, queer short film Sally Leapt Out Of A Window Last Night (selected for 25 festivals internationally, winning 9 awards including Best Female Director and Best LGBT Film as well as the Chapter Queer Short Film Prize and was broadcast on BBC, C4 and OUT TV), selection for the Wales Virtual Production Fellowship and the European Creators Lab, Luxembourg.
