Based on the concept of new age spiritual movement, The Illusion of the Moment is a multimedia sta¬¬¬ge performance combined with instrumental performance, electro-acoustic music, body performance and video presentation. It illustrates a spirit’s birth and death, the progress of its learning, experiencing, growing and fulfilling of life’s tasks as a human being, and its departure after everything comes full circle. Every element on the stage is a symbolism. The piano pieces represents the blueprint of the person’s life; the four-channel audio performance represents the forwarding of life stages and the accumulation of life experiences; the video projections serve as clues, echoes and reflections of the issue the person is facing.

Body performer represents the spirit’s learning “in the world” while the piano player and the staffs behind the acoustic pannels, along with the audience, represent spirits that are outside the world, assisting the human to complete the tasks in accordance to the blue-print of life. This work is divided into six sequential parts named ‘Innocence’, ‘Enlighten-ment’, ‘Tasks’, ‘Suffering’, ‘Extrication’ and ‘full circle’. ‘Tasks’ includes seven themes with six variations respectively, and are arranged at the pianist’s preference.

This thesis describes the motivation for creating The Illusion of the Moment , a brief introduction to new age spiritual movement, and the design process of the piano pieces, electro-acoustic music, stage, body performance and the video parts.