Future. Perfect
(2019-2020 performance) Future.Perfect is a collaborative multimedia performance exploring human perception of digital and financial systems. Begun months before the pandemic, after a single live performance the piece was forced on-line.
Performers and writers Ian Hatcher, Matthew Nicholas and Michael Thomas -- move between monologue, dialogue, singing, and lecture formats to poke at the digital power(s) that govern our lives. In the piece, a semi-fictional new cryptocurrency “The Lucky” is launched, its valuation tied to global weather stability. Shadows of impending catastrophe are cast by deathly mottos from antiquity. Lists of fantastical and impossible algorithms open spaces for thinking through what an algorithm truly is and might be. Three adorable creatures become our guides leading us from an enchanted algorithmic forest into a secret Pychonesque parallel Costco that may or may not exist. The performance asks: where and how do we locate an algorithm that exists as much in our memories and assumptions as in software? And once located, can it be rewritten for a different future?
Created and performed by: Michael Thomas, Ian Hatcher, Matthew Nicholas
As part of the project we kept a running list of speculative algorithms. Here are some of them.
660 Speculative Algorithms (a sampling): #1 This algorithm begins a list of speculative algorithms. #19 This algorithm creates a running list of things you are not: young, married, calm, car owner, homeowner, diplomat, desired, weather girl, teen idol, running shoes, salad dressing. #453 This algorithm is able to take the unpaid social justice internship. #127 This algorithm holds your hand while you die. #34 This algorithm models a world where Frank O’Hara dies laughing at age 78. #628 This algorithm misses the early days of the pandemic when even annoying friends would call. #485 This algorithm says “usually I’m a pretty even keeled guy.” #104 This algorithm models a world in which Bradley Cooper doesn’t exist. # 316 This algorithm confirms that invoking “common sense” is an admission of not really wanting to think. #653 This algorithm admits that grape-flavored means nothing beyond purple. #430 This algorithm creates family reunion t-shirts for the family you wish you had. #80 This algorithm records the dreams of sleeping dogs. #339 This algorithm begs to differ. #370 This algorithm is Mark Zukerberg holding a handwritten sign that reads “What’s not to like?” #547 This algorithm is checking symptoms like it’s 1985. #463 This algorithm brings the war back home. #661 This algorithm justifies ghosting.
