asses.masses
Interested in durational performance? In gaming? Have we just the treat for you. Beta Festival is thrilled to present asses.masses a durational performance collectively played by the audience.
The unemployed donkeys have one demand: the humans must surrender their machines and give all donkeys their jobs back. But revolution is never easy!
asses.masses is a custom-made video game about labour, technophobia and sharing the load of revolution, designed to be played from beginning to end in a live theatre. This is gaming as performance; an immersive, cheeky and highly original work. Brave spectators take turns at the controller to lead the herd through a post-Industrial society, where asses are valued more for their hides than their potential.
Confronting automation driven job loss, nostalgia as a barrier to progress, and the role of technology in adaptation, we are encouraged to find space between the work that defines us and the play that frees us.
asses.masses is Animal Farm meets Pokémon meets Final Fantasy: as exciting in form as it is in content. No previous gaming (or donkey) experience required.
This performance will run between 12-9pm and have 4 breaks including lunch, dinner and snacks.
Creator/work website: https://www.assesmasses.work/
IMPORTANT DETAILS - asses.masses
LENGTH
7 h 30 approx. with 4 intermissions
The length of the show is variable, depending on how long it takes the audience to finish the game. Food will be provided throughout the experience and served at each intermission. Drinks will be available for purchase.
PRACTICAL INFO
asses.masses is not designed for audiences to come and go anytime, or to arrive late. We encourage you to get there on time or you will miss the introduction. Intermissions take place every two episodes, approximately every 1.5 hours.
For additional information about access, please review our Access Guide:
LANGUAGE
All text in asses.masses is visually displayed on the screen. The show will be presented in {ENGLISH}.
CONTENT ADVISORY
asses.masses includes flashing lights, audience participation, violence, crude language, simulated donkey sex, simulated human sex, and references to drug use, suicide, and police brutality. We recommend it for audience members ages 14 and up. This is not a performance that is suitable for young audiences.
Participation and active spectatorship is a central part of asses.masses. We invite you to be part of our Herd in any way you can.
Bios: Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim (Canada)
Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim are conceptual artists exploring urgent questions around the social value of art, digital labour, and the political potential of games. Mixing their backgrounds in performance, philosophy, psychology, and digital media, their collaborations have manifested in video games, participatory installations, digital archives, and card games.
In addition to their asses.masses, Patrick and Milton are also the co-founders of the Canadian national video archive of performance (videocan) and the co-creators behind a performing arts economy trading card game (culturecapital), a role playing game about cultural design (FARCE), and an escape room intervention in a German museum (FUNFUG FORUM). Their projects have been presented across Canada, as well as in Germany, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the USA, in English, French, Italian, Catalan, Turkish, Portuguese, German, and Spanish.
Their next projects include, dam.nation, following the true story of twenty Canadian beavers acquired by the Argentinian government in 1946, and DRAGONS, a performance for young audiences about power, hierarchy, toxicity, and teenage dragons.
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