The Great Outdoors connects ideas of infinity and the unknown in a dynamic show on the MCA Stage
In The Great Outdoors audiences are invited to lie on yoga mats inside an inflatable planetarium and imagine the internet’s infinite possibilities as a new form of celestial authority. As we voyage under a digital starry sky—a 360-degree simulation of the universe designed by writer-director Annie Dorsen with Ryan Holsopples—we become the new century’s explorers. Set to Sébastien Roux’s live-mixed composition (inspired by the theory that the universe’s energy is constantly being expended), this digital infinity articulates the same anonymity of the living rooms where, at any given moment, millions of people launch countless comments into virtual space.
To give voice and body to the thoughts of this aggregate of individuals, a female performer reads aloud 4chan and Reddit comments from the previous 24 hours. These fragments of chatter, which Dorsen selects and runs through an algorithm she created, emerge as the internet’s id—unrestrained and protected by anonymity.
