Work
A Machine To See With
Maker Blast Theory · Work date 2010-09-16 · Medium telephone · Role work · Experienced by the compiler 2011-01-29
Description
"It is a film where you play the lead. You sign up online and hand over your mobile phone number. On the day, you receive an automated call giving you the address you need to go to. Once you arrive on your allotted street corner your phone rings. From there a series of instructions lead you through the city." The narrative is a bank heist: the participant hides money in a public restroom, meets a "partner in crime," and approaches a real bank, in "a developing narrative of ethical decision making" drawing on cinema, consumer choice and the financial crisis. Calls are automated, built on Asterisk call-center software. Commissioned as a Locative Cinema commission by Sundance, 01SJ Biennial and Banff New Media Institute.
Source. https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/a-machine-to-see-with/
On the medium. Automated mobile calls driving a solo walk through real streets and banks.
Anatomy
Thirteen criteria after Lauren R. Beck. Each carries a source grade: M maker-confirmed, P published, F first-hand, I inferred by the compiler, ? not yet established. Definitions are on the anatomy page.
- Participants listen through headphonesnoI
Delivered as calls to the participant’s own mobile phone; no headphone requirement is stated or implied.
- Participants move through space as part of the workyesP
“Once you arrive on your allotted street corner…a series of instructions lead you through the city” — the participant must relocate repeatedly for the work to advance.
- Audio technology is necessaryyesP
Every instruction arrives by automated phone call, so removing the phone stops the work.
- Site-, situation- or language-specificSiteI
The work requires a scouted real route — a named address, a specific public restroom and an actual bank — that must be prepared for the city it runs in.
- Engages with the history of a sitenoI
Content is a fictional heist drawing on cinema and the financial crisis, not documented past events of the streets it uses.
- Created for an urban environmentyesP
The work explicitly leads the participant through the city, street corners, a public restroom and a bank.
- Created as an artwork other than theateryesP
Blast Theory frames it as “a film where you play the lead” and it was a Locative Cinema commission from Sundance, 01SJ Biennial and Banff New Media Institute.
- Intended to be understood as theaternoI
The maker’s framing is cinema/new media and the description uses no theatrical vocabulary — no show, cast, audience, performance or tickets.
- Accidental real-world sights and sounds are importantyesI
The design sends the participant into uncontrolled real streets, a real restroom and a real bank where what is actually there drives the ethical decisions.
- Spectator must participateyesP
The participant must travel, hide money, meet a partner and approach a bank for the narrative to progress.
- Has live performers other than the participantsnoI
The description states the calls are automated and built on Asterisk call-center software; the “partner in crime” is not identified as a performer.
- Involves game playnoI
A branching “narrative of ethical decision making” is described with no stated objective, rules or win/lose resolution.
- Uses props other than the listening deviceyesP
The participant physically hides money in a public restroom.