1) Find out which quadruple the Mesos put you in!
Search for your name in this document and see your quadruple assignment.
2) Pretend all four of you went on a date last night.
Post in your quadruple’s thread/discussion in the Warm-Up Date category.
Share (imagine/invent) how your date went from your perspective.
Build on each other’s account, and/or contradict each other about the nuances.
Was it comfortable? Awkward?
What went right? What went wrong?
Read How to Play
You can read about the 5 Genders here
or find out which Gender you are most like here.
(no private conversations!)
so the Mesos can put you in the perfect quadruple later in the week!
About
The Background
Thermophiles, a class of extremophiles, are bacteria that can thrive in extreme heat, such as the thermal vents of Yellowstone, or peat Bogs. They also are known for their romantic delusions, loyal friendships and occasionally wicked tempers. Our particular pool of characters put the extreme back in extremophiles.
The Fiction
Trouble is bubbling among the users of the 5-gender Thermophile dating site. The microscopic members are complaining about the site itself, the long work hours that leave little time for romance, and the gentrification of the once-affordable neighborhood sulphur vents. Like most organisms (micro or macroscopic), their primary goal is hooking up and finding someone who doesn’t mind their snoring. In this participatory netprov (internet improv) the complex permutations of affection among the five genders lend themselves to endless intrigue, complex data analysis, and comedy. Thermophiles in Love is a creative exploration of contemporary gender fluidity viewed through a microscopic collaborative narrative.
Thermophiles in Love, a netprov (2016) is an alternative reality game, an interactive art piece, and a transmedia production. It spans websites, social media platforms, film, dance, larp, and is centered around a netprov produced by Meanwhile Studios. The creators of Thermophiles in Love are Samara Hayley Steele, Cathy Podeszwa, Rob Wittig, and Mark Marino.
Artist’s Statement
As a piece of experiential art, Thermophiles in Love allows players to interact with the mechanics of gender, centering play around activities such as the formation of the gendered subject, gendered foreclosures, and performative gender, with participants playfully inventing social apparatuses, rituals, and acts of normalizing judgment to facilitate the formation, achievement, and maintenance of a fictionalized gender schema.
Thermopiles in Love will also be an official netprov of SLSA16 (The Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts 2016) in Atlanta, Nov. 3-6th.
Thermophiles in Love is produced by Meanwhile...Netprov Studios. To find out about future netprovs, sign up here.