Adapting the mechanics of open world video games, Anti-Gone revises traditional narrative into a continuous simulation, taking place in a meticulously crafted 3D world, full of visual signifiers of paradise: a bright blue ocean, lush vegetation, a sunken city lit by glowing sunsets. Spyda and Lynxa are a couple navigating this world frictionlessly. On their sailboat, they glide from shopping to movies to psychedelic drugs. In this post-climate change world, environmental catastrophe and late-capitalist culture have become oddly normalized.<BR>

“At the core of Anti-Gone lies a performative system that attempts to bridge contemporary performance ideas with the mechanics of open world video games. I wanted to provide performers with the right tools and drop them into a meticulously crafted 3D environment where they have agency and feel empowered to improvise and explore. I really enjoyed this element of risk and uncertainty that brings performers to a state where they need to respond to everything in real-time rather than relying on scripted and rehearsed responses. I think this gives the audience that sense that “anything is possible” during the performance. This is something that was very present in Anti-Gone, the comic book by Connor Willumsen, that the performance is based on. And that was what really made it click with the ideas I was interested in exploring in Mixed Reality. This improvisational approach was also present in the whole process of making the work, from our early rehearsals with MoCap and VR, to the live music score and sound design to the level design in the game engine. In the latest Live Stream version of the performance we introduced a new element of audience participation via live chat that highlights this improvisation system and helps the audience participate and understand what’s at stake.” Theo Triantafyllidis