The Inside Room

Due to the process-based nature of the Session program, this project will undergo constant modifications; the features of this page provide accruing information on the project’s developments.

If, at some point in the future–between our point of origin and the point of no return–machine intelligence, virtual reality, and immersive set design conspire to render us powerless in the face of the ultimate media experience, it is now vital to make a TV show whose format speaks to an undoing of that future.

On April 19, Lex Brown will launch The Inside Room, a project that transforms Recess into a production studio for impromptu, tactile TV made for the body and voice. Operating in the gaps of media language, The Inside Room will seek a texture beyond the JPEG and create a dynamic relationship with the barrier of the screen. Tantamount to this project is a celebration and reinscription of what is human at a time when our lives are increasingly controlled by the inhuman and inhumane.

The Inside Room will produce an episode of a news broadcast TV show open to public participation. During Recess’s open hours, visitors will be invited to participate on varying levels, from observation to drafting scripts along guided prompts, delivering lines, or performing completely improvised scenes. Structured by Brown’s Revolving Narrative style–in which a single character is portrayed by multiple performers, and a single performer portrays multiple characters–storylines will approach systems, relationships, and common experiences rather than any limited notion of identity.

The public will be invited daily to engage using onset costumes and sculptural props; green screen filming; voiceover and instrumentation; and a daily “call sheet,” noting where the storyline went in the day before, and questions about where the storyline could go next. Remote viewers can participate via online plot polls and live chat. Each episode of The Inside Room will be devised and filmed over the course of a week and aired online on Monday night. Brown’s two month residency will culminate in a full day “Binge Party,” inviting performers and project participants for short cameo performances of their characters and a full day screening all of the episodes.

Session invites artists to use Recess’s public platform to combine productive studio space with dynamic exhibition opportunities. Sessions remain open to the public from the first day of the artist’s project through the last, encouraging sustained dialogue between artists and audiences. Due to the process-based nature of Session, projects undergo constant revision and the above proposal is subject to change.