The Shepard tone — Jolyon James

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A new musical work by Jolyon James

About//

WHAT : The Shepard Tone is an 80min live theatrical work for teenagers young adults and their families. Incorporating an original musical score, live electronic dance music and cutting edge digital technology, The Shepard Tone explores the impact of high modernity on the lives and brains of contemporary young Australians.

“Think Donnie Darko meets FanGirls…”

WHY : The technology revolution is well upon us and showing no signs of abating. Astonishing breakthroughs are announced weekly, the AI revolution is on our doorstep and social media competes for our eyes and our attention in increasingly complex ways. Never before have human beings had so much. But are we truly evolved for this?

“If everything is so good, why do we feel so bad?”

In recognising that human creativity brought us here, The Shepard Tone asks “Can creativity navigate us home?”

WHO : The Shepard Tone brings together the Helpmann award winning team who created Robot Song and Imagine Live. These works place creativity at the very centre of the human experience and employ connection, inclusion and imagination as powerful tools for building smart, kind and resilient human beings. In addition to the core creative team The Shepard Tone will work directly with young creators from the community to embed an honest and authentic voice inside the work from the ground up.

Video

Artist Statement : JOLYON JAMES Writer /Director/Designer

What the f#%k is the Shepard Tone?//

Named after cognitive scientist Roger Shepard, the Shepard tone is an unsettling audio illusion that creates the feeling of consistent, never- ending rising or falling pitch.

As both a metaphor and artistic tool, the Shepard tone becomes the foundation for a complex conversation around the escalating technology revolution, the rising mental heath epidemic in young people and the unfiltered, unregulated 20+ year experiment we call the Internet.

A pure example of the Shepard Tone in ascending scale.

Credit: Pschycoacoustics +Visuals

OUTLINE//

“I don’t think there is anything wrong exactly Mrs Lyons, I think your son might be an Artist.”

The Shepard Tone is the follow up work to Robot Song by Writer/Director/Designer Jolyon James. Using the complex social and structural dynamics of schools The Shephard Tone attempts to understand the rising levels of anxiety gripping young people in Australia today. Is there a correlation between choice, instant gratification and paralysis? How does technology enhance or inhibit the development of young people's critical thinking and understanding of relationships? How do parents navigate this ever shifting landscape?

Meet Eamon…Eamon refers to himself in third person. Eamon is seeing the school counsellor.

Meet Archer….Archer is Eamon’s art project. Archer is Eamon but better. Archer speaks for themselves…

“There’s a hum in our head. It never turns off. It’s either loud and far away or low and close, we don’t know. It circles and spirals and twists in the distance like a movie tornado that moves wherever we go.”

Eamon is angry. No-one knows why. Not even Eamon. Not even Archer. That’s not good. Eamon’s parents have split but he can’t be angry at them. They are being so adult about it. His dad hasn’t disappeared with a pharmacist like Mali’s parents, or moved into a one bedder in Queensland like Allegra’s. No. Instead he’s putting a kitchenette and bathroom into the garage and moving in there. With the tools. They’re calling it shared-parenting or something, although Eamon’s not sure what it was called before. He does know they have sacrificed a lot for him, they tell him everyday. So it can’t be that.

Of course there’s: Climate change; the shootings; the terrorists; the gender war. Medication; sex attacks; party drugs and porn. Old people; young people; billionaires and new royals; true crime; fake news; the dark web and paedophiles. Social media; keep cups; VCE and memes. There’s billionaires and vegan friends; politicians; refugees. Maybe more omega 3’s? It’s probably that. Yes.

For Eamon, rational thought and language is failing him, school is failing him, the internet is failing him, art is the only thing that make sense any more and Art = Archer.

Like Robot Song, The Shephard Tone places creativity as a tool for wellbeing and change at its very centre. It will employ cutting edge digital technology, original music and interactive audio visuals to explore the impact of high modernity and accelerating technology on the lives of young people, their parents and peer-groups and provides a glimmer of optimism in the face of the rising anxiety epidemic.

SCRIPT//

Click here for Script Extract

The script is currently in draft form and is ready for development opportunities. The seamless integration of the show’s dynamic performance style, design and music is key to the success of the work.

Jolyon James is one of the country’s most innovative theatre makers for young audiences. He is known for his early adoption and innovative application of new technologies and his work regularly redefines the boundaries of live performances. His works have toured both nationally and internationally and are recognised for excellence and artistic rigour.

“Technology becomes a shared widow into a conversation around identity and place.” Imagine Live 2024

Selected works include:

2015 - FUTURE SELF employed drone technology as a mechanical messenger between the present and the future allowing young people to communicate with older versions of themselves.

2016 - AAI presented an audience with an [artificial] LLM style AI interface and challenged the audience to train it to become a convincing member of the school community.

2017 [ongoing] - ROBOT SONG employed animatronics, cutting edge live digital puppetry to tell the incredible true story of an autistic girl bullied by classmates. The show has toured for six years both nationally and internationally winning a Helpmann award for 2019 and two Drama Victoria awards and selected for the VCE Drama playlist .

2018 -19 GIFT OF THE BOWER BRID, FIGMENT and THE FIGHT OF FLIGHT were site specific community works created in conjunction with Monash University for age care residents, kindergarten children, and low vision audiences.

2022 [ongoing] - IMAGINE LIVE. A stage adaptation of Alison Lester’s iconic best seller Imagine. Projection/live digital puppetry.

2025 THE SHEPARD TONE. [In Development]

Lead Artist//Jolyon James

Recent work

TEAM//

Jolyon James

Nate Gilkes

Jolyon James is a multidisciplinary visual artist, writer and performance maker. Between 2014 - 2021 Jolyon was the Artistic Associate and lead artist with Arena Theatre Company and has held teaching and directing roles at The Victorian College of the Arts [VCA] and Monash University. In 2019 Jolyon wrote, directed and designed Robot Song winning the prestigious 2019 Helpmann Award for Best Children's Production.
Robot Song has since been selected twice for inclusion on the VCE Drama Playlist and won two Drama Victoria Awards. Robot Song perfectly showcases Jolyon’s skillset, methodologies and collaborative practices.
The show incorporates live performance, interactive live animation, animatronics and large-scale puppetry with an original Musical score composed by Nate Gilkes. Robot Song has toured extensively throughout Australia and secured multiple international dates including the Imaginate festival in Edinburgh and U.S. and Canadian tours. [on hold due to COVID-19].
In addition to writing and directing Jolyon is a professional animator, illustrator and photographer and embraces new technology in the realisation of all his works. In 2021 he co-created Heart VR, a hybrid live performance and virtual reality work that takes young people on a journey deep into their own hearts. Trapper another co-creation with Arena Theatre Company combined slam poetry with large-scale remotely operated kinetic sculpture and was showcased at the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne. Hidden Creature Gallery employs live animation and augmented reality technology to bring to life stories and characters created by young participants. Having already toured extensively throughout Victoria, Hidden Creature Gallery proudly participated in Adelaide's Dream Big 2021, and Castlemaine State Festival.
Jolyon's personal and cultural background is as diverse as his art practice. His mother, a prominent West Australian artist, arrived in Australia as a refugee after fleeing Burma [Myanmar] and raised a family in the remote North West. Jolyon is also the proud parent of a child with a disability. These influences play an important role in the making and access to his work.
Nate Gilkes is an award-winning musician and artistic director working across disciplines of theatre, music and performance. As theatre maker, director, music director and performer, Nate’s artistic practice sits at the colliding points of music, theatre and opera. Drawing on art and popular music, opera and contemporary performance practice, Nate sees music and the sung voice as fundamental connectors to our own ancient, human story and the activating agent for making theatre.
In 2019 Nate composed the score for the Helpmann Award winning production, Robot Song with Arena Theatre Company (Best Production for Children and Young People), and is the current Artistic Director at Marian St Theatre for Young People in Sydney.
Since 2010 he has worked across the country with many companies and in roles including Composition and Music Direction for Robot Song (Arena Theatre Company - Helpmann Award Winner 2019 for Best Performance for Children and Young People); A Kindling Throne (Arena Theatre Company - Work in development 2020)
Previous work includes Direction for new musical Jack of Two Trades (Jeanne Pratt Artist in Residence, Monash University); Composition for The Acoustic Life of Sheds (Big hART and Ten Days on the Island - APRA Art Music Award Winner); Music Direction for Hipbone Sticking Out (Big hART, Melbourne International Arts Festival); Blue Angel (Big hART, Tasmanian International Arts Festival); Collaborations with Rawcus; Vocal Direction for Murru (Big hART and Melbourne Festival); performing in Oedipus Rex/Symphony of Psalms (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs/ Sydney Festival) and Ricercar; Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert (Theatreworks), Chants des Catacombes (Castlemaine State Festival) FOMO: the Fear of Missing Out (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival) all with The Present Tense Ensemble
For MSTYP Nate has developed new works, Testament, The Red Dust and Little Boy Blue.
Nate continues to advocate for strong artist training and teaches regularly at Marian St Theatre for Young People, The Sydney Opera House, Federation University, the Victorian College of the Arts, The National Theatre Drama School and Monash University.
Nate holds degrees from the Victorian College of the Arts in Directing, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Education and and currently completing an MFA in Cultural Leadership at NIDA.

www.nategilkes.com
Ashlea Pyke is an accomplished performer in both Theatre and Musical Theatre with numerous professional lead roles under her belt. In addition Ashlea is a choreographer and movement co-ordinator, recent credits including, Trapper; Marlin and Robot Song with Arena Theatre Company. Ashlea has choreographed numerous shows for Judith Lucy and Denise Scott, including their most recent comedy festival piece ‘Still Here’ and choreographed the adaptation of Alan Broughs ‘Charlie and the war against the Grannies’.
Ashlea’s experience helping to workshop, develop and originate the role of Juniper in the Helpmann award winning Robot Song with Arena Theatre Company and Jolyon James was a life-changing experience for her, shifting the way she viewed both herself as a creative and the possibilities of creating ambitious, exciting works for young people. It inspired her to enrol in a Bachelor of Psychology to facilitate her ability to make meaningful, inclusive theatre with an impact. Having her own children only further inspires her to build and perform theatre that encourages young people to ask questions and dare to dream.

At this early stage the current creative team consists of Jolyon James, Nate Gilkes and Ashlea Pyke with producing partner NCM as production support. In time the team will expand to include an access coordinator, additional artists and technical support and young creatives from the Geelong community to consult and contribute directly to the work.

Ashlea Pyke