David Mesiha explores the slippery notions of identity from the viewpoint of the immigrant and refugee experience in his immersive multimedia show, Same Difference.

David Mesiha is a Toronto and Vancouver based award winning composer, sound, and mixed media artist. Mesiha’s critically acclaimed artistic work has often seen him take on a collaborative role in the conception, co-creation, and realization of work with particular sensitivity to dramaturgy and immersive audiovisual design.

David developed Same Difference, an interactive mixed media piece in association with Theatre Conspiracy. From the viewpoint of the immigrant and refugee experience, Same Difference delves into themes of self-alienation, isolation, togetherness and otherness, through audio/visual interactive installation, immersive performances, a newly created chamber piece of music, and a podcast series.

“I’m interested in design based devised processes that explore alternatives to traditional narrative structures with focus on immersive and mixed media performances.”

Same Difference examines how identity is created through perceptions of Sameness and Difference, and how we develop a sense of belonging, with verbatim text drawn from interviews with immigrants and refugees from Northern Ireland, Serbia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Colombia, and Venezuela.

Visual design and multichannel audio form the language through which the audience’s perceptions of the self are challenged. At all times, audience members experience different materials and viewpoints from each other. The design serves as the main viewpoint through which narratives are deconstructed and reshaped into sensoriums, where experience is the story.