Work

Watchers

Maker 36 inch penguin  ·  Work date 2024  ·  Medium headphones  ·  Role control  ·  Experienced by the compiler 2026-06-28

Description

Maker-published: "An Immersive, Interactive Audio Experience for 2 People." — "We are currently interviewing for the role of a 'Watcher' at Vita Strategic Services — an exclusive, Private Healthcare, Security and Fire Prevention Service Provider." Participants log in to "the VSS Interview Portal" as a pair and "will both need to make choices based on what you hear." The company describes its form as "designed to be heard over headphones... it aims to transport the listener from their own home to another location or reality." Press release: "a 25-minute interactive, immersive audio experience looking at the manipulation of people, and how we too readily accept information as fact without question."

Source. https://www.36inchpenguin.com/watchers

On the medium. Synchronised audio for two, over headphones; by video call if remote.

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 headphonesyesP

  The maker states the form is "designed to be heard over headphones."

• Participants move through space as part of the worknoI

  Participants log in to a portal and listen as a synchronised pair; nothing directs them to move.

• Audio technology is necessaryyesP

  Published as "a 25-minute interactive, immersive audio experience."

• Site-, situation- or language-specificnoI

  The work aims to transport the listener from their own home elsewhere; no site, circumstance or language is required.

• Engages with the history of a sitenoI

  Vita Strategic Services is a fictional company, not a real place with documented events.

• Created for an urban environmentnoI

  Heard at home over headphones; nothing requires urban surroundings.

• Created as an artwork other than theateryesI

  The maker frames the form as audio work — "immersive audio experience" "designed to be heard over headphones" — rather than as theater.

• Intended to be understood as theaterunknown?

  No show, performance, audience or ticket vocabulary appears in the quoted maker text, and the 'autoteatro' label could not be confirmed.
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• Accidental real-world sights and sounds are importantnoI

  The design supplies a complete audio world intended to "transport the listener from their own home to another location or reality," not to incorporate what is there.

• Spectator must participateyesP

  Participants "will both need to make choices based on what you hear."

• Has live performers other than the participantsnoI

  A fixed-length audio experience delivered to a pair through a portal; no performer is present.

• Involves game playnoI

  Choices within an interview fiction, with no stated objective, scoring or resolution state.

• Uses props other than the listening deviceunknown?

  Beyond headphones and the login device, no physical materials are mentioned either way.
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