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. Audience decisions guide the course of the piece, making every playthrough unique.
Depending on their choices, participants may find themselves drawn into everything from sensual guided meditations, to singing songs with the AI call agent, to pitches to begin performing call-center work from home via a surgically-inserted implant.
There were forty-one half-hour long performances between October 24th and November 1st, 2020. The project featured three versions of the experience:
Solo Player: 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.
Quality Assurance Player: Experience Main Menu by taking part in a one-on-one phone call with “Annie” that is listened to by an audience. This option is only available for a selected number of performances.
Quality Assurance Audience: Experience Main Menu by listening to a one-on-one phone call with “Annie” as a part of an audience. This option is only available for a selected number of performances.
Project Detail
Review
Team
Lead Artist: Joseph Ahmed
Direction: Daniel Park
Voice Acting, Software Development: Arianna Gass
Sound Design, Graphic Design: Navi Azeez
Creative Producing: Cat Ramirez