asses.masses (2023)
created by Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim
Description:
asses.masses is a custom video game designed to be played from beginning to end by a live audience, one person at a time. It’s the 7+ hour epic story of a herd of unemployed donkeys trying to get their jobs back, all while navigating the perils of a post-Industrial society in which they’ve been made redundant.
Cheeky, political, and best described as Animal Farm meets Pokémon meets Final Fantasy, asses.masses puts the control(ler) in its audience’s hands and asks them to discover the space between the work that defines us and the play that frees us.
For the most up-to-date information on the project, please check out: assesmasses.work
asses.masses tours internationally in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Turkish (with more translations in the making). For the performance history of the project, visit: assesmasses.work/performances
On donkeys:
Equus asinus—the ass, the donkey—has played a central role in religion, colonialism, warfare, and the economics of almost every major civilization since its domestication over 5000 years ago. It has symbolized everything from power, strength, and stupidity, to wisdom, piousness, and fertility. In recent years, however, the utility of the ass has been made superfluous in post-Industrial societies and the animal is being ‘transitioned’ to produce other forms of value. In light of these transitions, the contemporary status of the ass presents a particularly potent context for understanding the state of labour in our current era, as well as a reminder of the deeply anthropocentric features of philosophies of labour and emancipation.
Credits
Patrick Blenkarn (Canada) — co-direction, text, programming, pixel art, 2D animation
Milton Lim (Canada) — co-direction, text, sound design, video, 3D visual effects
Laurel Green (Canada) — dramaturgy, text, touring producer
David Mesiha (Canada) — original music, sound design, audio implementation
Clarissa Picolo (Brazil) — pixel art, 2D animation
William Roth (France) — pixel art, 2D animation
Ariadne Sage (Germany) — 3D environments
Samuel Reinhart (USA) — additional programming
Marcos Krivocapich (Argentina) — Spanish translation
Gilles Poulin-Denis (Canada) — French translation
Clarissa Picolo (Brazil) — Portuguese translation
Julius De Michelis (Italy) — Italian translation
Birgit Schreyer Duarte (Canada/Germany) — German translation
Emre Yıldızlar (Türkiye) — Turkish translation
