After questioning Rory Fitzpatrick, Evie Jones, and Owen Summers regarding the events that led up to the discovery of Matt Banks’ body, Spenningdale police have decided to interview each person present at the party. They have acquired a list of the following people who were seen at the party at any point within the night:
Millie Tan
Alice Banks
George Brewer
Leo Vitale
Robin Oliver
Charlie Hopper
Jane Oliver
Sam Abbey
Amelia Spurling
If your character is on the list of people present at the party, please answer the following questions in-character as if they are being interviewed by police and post them as a self-para tagged #farmlandstask:
When did you arrive at the party?
How long did you stay for?
Who were you there with and who did you leave with?
Who did you interact with at the party?
Did you see anything strange?
Did you see Matt at the party or on your way to the party?
Below are the interviews from both Rory Fitzpatrick and Owen Summers:
“Um, this morning while I was cleaning up from the party… It must’ve been about 9?”
How many people were at the party?
“Shit- ah, fuck, sorry. It’s hard to say, the parties are always bigger than I plan for them to be, yeah? With people bringing people and all... But, um, probably like 70 or 80 I guess? Maybe 100?”
What time did the party end?
“Around 4 or 4:30, that’s when the last few people filtered out, I think.”
Do you know if drugs were being circulated at the party?
“Uh… Yeah. They were. God my parents are going to kill me… People were drinking, there was some weed, some pills, coke, Mandy, stuff like that. Shit- I’m so sorry.”
Did you see Matt at the party?
“Hmm. No, actually, can’t say that I did? Which is odd, because when he’s at a party he’s usually hard to miss.”
What events led up to you finding the body?
“I woke up in the barn and started cleaning up the mess before my parents got home, ya know, typical post-party shi- stuff… Once things were cleared in the barn I walked around outside and down the path out back. I, uh, I thought that it was just someone who’d passed out at the party, ya know? Just had too much to drink. But then when I walked through the brush I saw that it was Matt.”
Was there any suspicious behavior at the party?
“Nah, I mean it was a typical party, yeah? But nothing out of the ordinary, that I saw anyway. I’m sorry, I wish there was more I could tell you- but I was pretty drunk, yeah? If I’d known something like this would happen, I would have never had the party…”
Provide us with a detailed account of your night on the 31st December, 2019.
“Sure, my friends and I were pre-drinking until about uh… 11 and then we went to the farm for the party. I was there all night and left at probably 3 am with my girlfriend. Oh, and I did leave the party just after midnight as some of my friends were passing through on their way to the next town over, so we just, you know had a drink somewhere else, but then I came back to the party.”
And your girlfriend -
“Yeah, Charlie Hopper. I’m sure she can account for that. She came back to mine and we didn’t sleep right away, so…”
Based on your previous cautions and arrests, it is strongly suspected that you deal drugs. Matt was found with a burner phone with texts to a drug dealer. Do you have any information about this? Do you know who he was texting with?
“No. No, I’ve got no idea.”
For the purposes of the recording, we undertook a search of you and took your phone. Are you sure you don’t know who he was texting with?
“Yeah and you can check my phone. I still don’t know who he was texting.”
It seemed like from the texts he owed his dealer quite a bit of money. He was also found with a bag of coke on him. Do you know where he would’ve gotten this from?
“His drug dealer I’d imagine.”
As you are in custody, we would now like to insist on retrieving fingerprints, footprints and taking your shoes for some tests. You will receive these back.
At Conflux 2009 you turned your Probability performance into a workshop which introduced participants to the ways of Google Earth pro, Google Sketchup and the nuances of a successful flythrough--so what did they come up with?
WWKSF: Since we started working on Probability about a year ago we've been keeping our eyes open for other people using Google Earth as a glorified presentation tool, mostly because we're really waiting for there to be a better way. Unfortunately, we haven't really seen too much pop up. Slowly, Google is adding features to Earth with allow custom overlays and better integration of different 3D specs but the fact remains that using SketchUp and Earth the way we do in Probability remains extremely difficult and pretty cumbersome. That - however - doesn't really stop us because we think it looks amaaaaazing. We just certainly wouldn't fault anyone for seeing what the process is and going "Oh man... I'll wait until thats a little easier."
MemeFactory seems to be your most popular performance/lecture. Do the memes "rank" differently in each performance or have you noticed any trends? What can you tell me about Forwards\Backwards?
WWKSF: MemeFactory is definitely a great crowd pleaser. Our methodology for determining what we talk about at each MemeFactory performance (and it IS different every time) is pretty loose. It all starts with the stuff we think is the funniest, and then we take into consideration the probable level-of-internet-expertise of the audience and a million other things. So in that sense, there is no real "rank" for the way we organize things. For example, Crank That was the "headliner" for one show and the opening example for the next. Different memes serve many and varied purposes when explaining the online ecology; your standard audience loves cute animals and fears being goatse'd. Those're about the only constants.
Forwards\Backwards is a performance for 1 vocalist and synchronous audio / video about time travel. It retains much of the same look of our other shows - a 1 for 1 relationship between a performer and his or her screen displaying media, but that relationship is reversed. In our work up to this point, the screen has always been controlled by or following the pace of the performer. Forwards\Backwards explores the idea of the performer having to keep pace with his screen - which runs autonomously - with the additional challenge that he cannot even see it. In this way it becomes a kind of memory-related parlor trick, and presents a performer/screen relationship which is new for us.
The pace of your performances reflects the instantaneous exchange of information the internet affords us, but do you find that participants of your theoretical derives are able to keep up? In your opinion, are memes and Google flythroughs turning the world into Marshall McLuhan's global village, or are our modems and monitors causing more missed connections than meaningful ones?
WWKSF: Our first performance in front of an audience was proceeded by about 2 months of fret. All of our shows operate on the idea that whatever your ears get, your brain will put together eventually (maybe not at the moment you hear it, since our performers speak so quickly, but soon after). And whatever your ears miss while your brain is putting stuff together, will hopefully be filled in or supported by what your eyes get from the visuals (which are also moving blisteringly fast). Back in 2008, we had no idea if this was going to work. After the first show, I had a friend of mine approach me and say "How did you do that?" after asking what he meant, he explained that while he couldn't tell me a complete sentence from the show, he knew exactly what had been said - knew exactly what the show was about. In the last two and a half years of doing this kind of work, that reaction - thankfully! - has been shared by many people.
We find that our audiences are not only able to keep up - possibly due to their modern media "training" - but they are elated that as performance makers we give them so much credit. We don't spoon feed or patronize or talk down. We do our best to present challenging and rewarding constructions of logic which put to use those cognitive abilities we've developed as consumers of modern culture.
As for the possibly-changing size of the globe, my opinion is that the internet is a symptom and not a cause. In the same way that the industrial revolution necessitated the railways, our growing "need" for goods and products gave rise to a system which supported that; the media revolution necessitates a global information framework. Starting with radio, our constantly growing "need" for information gives rise to a system and way of life which supports that. Now we ask the same questions about the internet that we did about the the printed word, the radio or television before they became defacto cultural standards. I think it is damaging - or at the very least occasionally irresponsible - to think of them as Determining Factors in Cultural Development; rather I consider them products of a culture's advance. The situation - and all previous media situations - are simultaneously idyllic, grotesque and mundane. To me that is what is most fascinating. "Too bad," said Jean Baudrillard, "We are in Paradise."
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WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR is a Brooklyn-based group of performers and the works they perform. Our performances look like lectures (suits, podiums, slide shows, the works), but are much more theatrical. For instance: there is music. We create complex and fast paced situations which are also engaging and affable.
WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR is directed by Mike Rugnetta and Patrick Davison
Mike Rugnetta is a composer and programmer. He has performed or had work show at HERE Art Center, The Kitchen, Judson Memorial Church, Mass MoCA, The Wexner Center for the Arts, The Walker Art Center, St. Mark’s Church, 3rd Ward and others. He is also a principal artist with Avant Media and his favorite word is elucubrate.
Patrick Davison is a digital artist living in Brooklyn. He is co-director of WWKSF, and has performed work in New York City at the Kitchen, NYU, Columbia University, The Gene Frankel Theater, and 3rd Ward in Brooklyn. He works closely with Eyebeam Senior-Fellow Michael Mandiberg, and film-maker Julie Talen.
Find WWKSF On: Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube and, of course, WWKSF.com
