The protest group ACTIV is based upon the ethos of a multitude of existing groups including the Socialist Alternative. ACTIV descent into moral ambiguity as their actions become increasingly more aggressive invites the audience to question how far they would go to fight for what they believe. Does their actions make them any better than the oppressive nature of the governments that they detest? ACTIV is presented as a flawed group whose fight to do what is right by thousands results in them destroying the life of one.
For the duration of the project my focus will be upon the ACTIV narrative thread, creating and maintaining email, twitter and blog accounts for the group. This maintenance includes regular postings as the group alongside digital publishing of journal articles from various members. To explore the inner turmoil of the group a variety of accounts will be created to post comments reflecting the various factions within the group. My interaction with this fictional protest group will extend to partaking in the defacing of Jeff Shroud posters and attacking his online presence. To maintain both authenticity and the mystery surrounding the group these activities will be carried out late at night or early in the morning. Hosting much of our narrative online and in our final installation experience we eliminate the need for a large crew and cast of actors. Ned and myself are able to take on the role of both writer and actor though our online characters.
Also by presenting a vast majority of the content we create online we open the story up to public viewing and hope that there will be, however little, some interaction with audiences outside of our course. Placing a number of posters around RMIT particularly focusing on building 9 we are attempting to minimise confusing the general public whilst also targeting an audience that is engaged with online media and potentially already involved in socialism or politics in general. By utilising social media platforms and digital links such as QR codes on our posters we hope it is simple for people to initially engage and then follow our narratives. Using twitter as a medium, we intend for the narrative to become just another part of the their endless newsfeed, a story they can follow with ease.
Throughout the two weeks prior to the final installation event Ned and myself will immerse ourselves into our respective roles of social media managers. In this period we intend to meet regularly to insure that content is posted at correct times that make sense within the two simultaneous narratives and that responses directly address the opposition’s post. Toward the end both Ned and myself will take on the role of Director as we begin to explore the way in which our presentation will take on an immersive theatre aspect. During this period we will start to work with a handful of actors who will facilitate the audience experience alongside us. As the presentation shifts to one of a spatial and performance experience our roles will also shift to curators. In this role we will select from the vast plethora of content we have created for each narrative thread plus content specifically created for the theatre installation.
As a whole we hope our project shatters the conventions of good verses evil and allows the audience to explore two simultaneous narratives as they interact with one another.
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