Bag of Worms with Under the Radar
An investigation into the anatomy of a famous video game character. A tyrannical disembodied head leading his friends through a series of unnerving experiments. A meditation on all the Sims we left to die on our parent’s desktop computer. Bag of Worms is an irreverent grab bag of Looney Tunes violence and recycled intellectual properties in which artist Matt Romein uses motion capture suits to project performers into a video game of his own making. What starts as a game shifts into a battleground and a struggle for dominance. As the audience watches, their grasp on what's real and what's virtual begins to slip. For a generation nurtured on a diet of simulated violence and relentless media bombardment: what is their threshold for this digital onslaught, and what happens when they reach their breaking point?
Content Warning: Gun Violence
SCHEDULE:
January 10-13 @ 7PM
Run time: 40 minutes
VENUE:
Onassis ONX, 645 5th Avenue Lower Level, NY 10022
Entrances on 51st and 52nd Street
Wheelchair access via elevator. Check in with security desk in building lobby.
CREDITS
Created by Matt Romein, with Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey
Performed by Matt Romein, Tim Platt, and Amy Zimmer
Designed and Programmed by Matt Romein
Director: Julia Mounsey
Associate Director: Ann Marie Dorr
Sound Design: Peter Mills Weiss
Producer: Aaron Profumo
Additional Coding Support: Oren Shoham, Oliver-Rose Truxillo, and Sneha Belkhale
Presented with Onassis ONX
FUNDING
Bag of Worms was commissioned through Onassis ONX. It was developed in the MAXmachina laboratory and originally presented by Media Art Xploration.
LINKS
Website: matt-romein.com | peterjulia.com | onx.studio | onassis.org
Instagram: @header_munging | @onassis.onx
Facebook: @OnassisFoundationUSA
Twitter: @OnassisUSA
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Matt Romein is an artist and performer based in Brooklyn NY. His work consists of live performance, virtual production, generative computer art, and multi-media installation. Employing humor and subversion, he makes work that playfully navigates the complexities of bodies caught between physical and digital worlds. His video design and performance work has been shown at SchauSpielHaus Hamburg, Soho Rep, The Public Theater, The Kitchen, and more. His art installation work has been shown at Sundance’s New Frontier Program, IDFA’s DocLab, and SXSW. He has had artist residencies and received grants from NYFA/NYSCA, Pioneer Works, CultureHub, NYU, NEW INC, The Onassis Foundation and more. He is a NYFA/NYSCA 2023 Artist Fellow in Digital/Electronic Arts and a Studio Member at Onassis ONX.
We are Peter Mills Weiss and Julia Mounsey. We collaborate together. Our work wrestles with questions of cruelty, authenticity, deception, entertainment, and power. We value simple language, functional design, autobiography, and vulnerability. Our work has been presented at Under the Radar at the Public Theater, La MaMa, JACK, Soho Rep, the Deutches Schauspielhaus, and the Radikal Jung festival at the München Volkstheater. We were both members of the 2017-2019 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, the 2017-2018 Devised Theater Working Group at the Public Theater, and were Baryshnikov Arts Center Resident Artists in 2019. Julia has worked with New York City Players, Soho Rep, The National Theater of Hungary, and was an Assistant Director on Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men. Peter has performed for or collaborated with artists such as 600 Highwaymen, The Wooster Group, Richard Foreman, and the Wallace Shawn-André Gregory Project.
Tim Platt is a multi-disciplinary comedian, actor, musician, and writer. He has appeared on screen on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Masterclass with Steve Martin. He has appeared onstage in The Working Group (HB Studio), Make People (La Mamma), Pasic & Platt: Orgy (Are Nova), and countless comedy/variety shows including his swamp cabaret Made of Bugs (Littlefield). He is a cast member on the popular podcasts Rude Tales of Magic and Oh These Those Stars of Space. He has written and performed original music for Sesame Street, The Story Pirates Podcast, and Rude Tales of Magic. His first standup album Teeth Like Beak will be out in 2024.
Amy Zimmer is a writer, performer and comedian based in New York. Her work has been featured on FX, Adult Swim, NoBudge, MoMa PS1, Vulture, and The New Yorker among others. Recent credits include Stress Positions by Theda Hammel, Julio Torres' Problemista, and Joanna Arnow's The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed. She is @aezimmer_ on instagram, @oneamyzimmer on X.