It’s not every day you get to make a childhood dream come true, but that is exactly what is happening for Karin Schaupp on her latest project, The Immersive Guitar. A collaboration between Schaupp, Artistic co-Director Vanessa Tomlinson, architect Bruce Wolfe, engineer Dr Hassan Karampour and famed luthier Jim Redgate, TIG (as it is affectionately known) is an over-sized guitar – 11.5 times the size of a standard instrument – that is equal parts instrument, performance venue and education space.

First seen at Curiocity, Brisbane’s annual World Science Festival, in 2021, it will be on display at the Adelaide Guitar Festival from 15–24 July. And as Schaupp tells Limelight, it isn’t just her who is being blown away by this extraordinary creation.

Karin Schaupp inside The Immersive Guitar.

Karin Schaupp inside The Immersive Guitar.

Take us back to where this project started – where did the idea come from? 

I can’t even remember the first time I fantasised about being inside a guitar. I guess when you spend hours playing something every day, you have all kinds of fantastical thoughts, and the one that recurred was, “What does it look like inside...