Work
Main Menu
Maker Obvious Agency · Work date 2020-10-23 · Medium telephone · Role work
Description
"Main Menu" by Obvious Agency is a 30-minute-long live performance piece for one player at a time that takes place entirely over the telephone, mimicking a customer service call. Players meet "Annie" a new Interactive Voice Response system (IVR) designed by the enigmatic corporation Life Solutions to solve all of life's problems. Depending on your choices, you may find yourself drawn into everything from sensual guided meditations, to recruitment pitches, to performing call-center work from home via a surgically-inserted implant. Will your problems be solved? Call us to find out! THERE ARE 3 WAYS TO EXPERIENCE THE PERFORMANCE: Solo Player: You will experience Main Menu by taking part in a one-on-one phone call with "Annie". This option is available for a majority of the performances. Price is $10-$75 sliding scale. Quality Assurance Player: You will experience Main Menu by taking p
Source. No published description found.
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
A one-to-one phone call mimicking a customer service line; no headphones are asked for.
- Participants move through space as part of the worknoI
The listing gives no instruction to change location.
- Audio technology is necessaryyesP
It “takes place entirely over the telephone,” so removing the phone ends it.
- Site-, situation- or language-specificnoI
No site, named circumstance or language requirement appears; the call reaches the participant anywhere.
- Engages with the history of a sitenoI
Content is a fictional corporation and its IVR, with no documented events of a real place.
- Created for an urban environmentnoI
A telephone work presupposes a phone, not city infrastructure.
- Created as an artwork other than theateryesI
The maker frames it in game vocabulary — “for one player at a time,” Solo Player and Quality Assurance Player tiers, and branching “depending on your choices.”
- Intended to be understood as theateryesP
Billed as “a 30-minute-long live performance piece” with “3 WAYS TO EXPERIENCE THE PERFORMANCE.”
- Accidental real-world sights and sounds are importantunknown?
The listing never addresses whether the participant’s real surroundings carry meaning.
Did you experience this? Tell us - Spectator must participateyesP
“Depending on your choices, you may find yourself drawn into” different branches — the participant must choose for it to proceed.
- Has live performers other than the participantsyesP
Described as a live performance piece in which players meet the character “Annie” during the call.
- Involves game playunknown?
Menu navigation and “Will your problems be solved?” hint at an objective, but no rules or win/lose resolution state is established.
Did you experience this? Tell us - Uses props other than the listening deviceunknown?
No materials beyond the phone are mentioned.
Did you experience this? Tell us
3 of thirteen are still unknown for this work. If you experienced it, you can settle them in a minute.