Welcome to the second instalment of New Moon Transmissions; a monthly reflection on what I've been up to in the immersive/online events world.
Online experiences are evolving at an incredible speed, on creative, technological and conceptual levels. It's been hugely inspiring to see the lengths humans will go to be able to share a laugh with each other, or to feel inspired, or both! Being close to this impulse has kept me going this year, I hope it can bring similar magical moments to you too, which is why I put all of my activities on this blog...
Jury Duty Sequel
Jury Duty has now been played over 250 times, so it was about time a sequel was designed. I was thrilled to be invited to a weeks R&D to help develop The Inquest, a new storyline following the death of a student named Scott Davies. Some really cool tricks in this one, I was most interested in ways the theatrical game could 'leak' into real life. Book tickets at jurygames.com. If you haven't played the original Jury Duty I highly recommend it, not just because I'm hosting!
New BuckBuck Game
BuckBuck make beautifully silly and uplifting theatrical games and as far as transitioning online has gone, they have really nailed it. I have been too busy to actually host a game for them yet (which is very sad as they are super fun!) but I've spent the last week tinkering with tech to add extra dimensions of delight to their new game - White Rabbits Hole. Check it out here.
SuperNothing TV Buyout
The Super Nothing Amazing Channel - the interactive nonsense channel I've been running since April with pals from Boomtown's Job Centre and Postal Posse - had a Black Friday special live stream this month. This somehow culminated in the channel itself being bought out by some sort of corporate character played by the actual Alexei Sayle, which was nice. We are called Super Nothing TV. This project is the one where we do whatever we want without limits, so it's very special to me. Follow us on Twitch here. We're also on Facebook and Instagram.
An IRL Pilgrimage Performance?!
Incredible theatre maker, writer and witch Jolie Booth is walking from London to Glasgow in Autumn 2021, bringing a troupe of pilgrims with her. Whatever inspires them on the way will form a performance at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. I'm overjoyed to be coming on board to help produce the walk, and will be walking the full 500 miles (da-da da-da!) Do you want to come with us? Fill in this form!
Channel 0 at V-Com 2020
One of the funnest shows this month was Channel 0 - a monthly arty party from The Rose Hill in Brighton, UK. This party was part of V-Com, the virtual decompression party for virtual Burning Man, which saw online parties from spaces all over the world happening art the same time. We had appearances from Puppet Alan Watts, an interview with amazing photographer Eugene Ankomah, and the weirdest music video I've ever seen from Chewy She. The next party is the 19th of December and as soon as there is an event I will link it here.
Vibes for 9 to 5's
The Financial Times posted this article about the boom of online office Christmas events... and they're not wrong - my usual work has been pretty much steam-rolled by the weight of demand for these experiences. I'm amazed at Sparkle.space who since forming in the spring have not only been throwing experiences for literally thousands of revellers at a time, they've also incorporated some pretty off-the-wall ideas and taken creative risks which have really paid off; their parties are some of the most memorable out there.
Amazing People Awards
Shout out to creative director and artist Sofi Lee Henson of XNN.systems, doing amazing work to make online parties real. We've worked on a lot OF stuff together this last month including online Karaoke bars, online taxi experiences and a fun Nonsense Olympics game which we'll make available as soon as I have time to get it up online! She also has the coolest personal website in the world (go on, click this!)
Final thing is that I'm working on the website for my new theatre company - Cosmic Joke - so keep an eye out for that if you like what I do. I think that's all from me! Until next new moon !
xxx