THU, OCT 8 | 7PM | YOUTUBE LIVE
Join us for a live, work-in-progress premiere of ELEVATOR on YouTube Live. Watch a theatrical presentation of this new work created by interdisciplinary collective ThoughtThought and pose questions to the creators in real time through the YouTube chat. ELEVATOR is an immersive multimedia performance exploring a deconstructive critique of the Elevator Pitch, a capitalist ritual where a concise business proposal is delivered within a two-minute elevator ride to a captive listener.
FRI, OCT 9 | 7PM | ZOOM
After a viewing of the work-in-progress, we’ll engage in a panel discussion about algorithmic justice and how it relates to power dynamics, biases and discrimination in venture and tech, and the value of artistic expression. Panelists include Jenny Gerow, BRIC Curator of Contemporary Art; Lisa Nash, IDEO Data Scientist; Sean Green, Arternal Founder and CEO; and Wendy Xiao Schadeck, Northzone Ventures Principal.
ABOUT ELEVATOR
A tech start-up company is pitching a product proposal for a “human upgrade” to a panel of venture capitalists. As the pitch unfolds, a surreal hall of mirrors emerges, escalating into a visual and sonic choral cacophony unveiling the gendered, racialized lens of the white cis male dominating the tech world, whose performative optics claim “client-facing” diversity and inclusion. ELEVATOR reveals how “the pitch” promotes the morphing of personhood and product, pushing the viewer to question the ethics of creation.
ELEVATOR draws from our experiences as artists and entrepreneurs who are continually asked to engage with the ritual of pitching. This work examines the start of the entrepreneurial journey as an entry to our capitalist system, which not only influences how we run businesses, but also how we live our lives and structure our communities. The performance explores tech start-up culture for its underlying inequities and embodiment of capitalist extremes – idealism, competition, and ego. In our COVID reality, our dependence upon technology has accelerated exponentially, elevating the privilege and inequity of the tech industry, leaving us unaware of how deeply this culture influences and surveils our lives without our knowledge or permission.
Conceptual Artist: Tahir Carl Karmali
Playwright/Director: Mia Rovegno
Pitchwriting Dramaturg: Elizabeth Thys
Editor: Tyler Jensen
Sound Designer: Roman Chimienti
Cast: Starr Busby, Daniel K. Isaac, Ben Beckley-Chayes
