Original workshop performance at Flux Factory, October 2016. Full installation at Wassaic Project, October 29, 2016. Upcoming installation at Dark Before Dawn, Ridgewood, NY.
As satirical Professors of Ethics (Dr. Alyssa Bergstrom and Dr. Alyssa Bindlzorts), we present a Universal Ethical System developed over years of research and experimentation. Experts in our fields of Human and General Ethics, we lead participants through a rigorous and ominous exam in order to pass on the tenets of this ethical system. The questions start off agreeable and innocuous, but soon, the Alyssas”” self-serving bias and manipulative tendencies take over. Participants who select the wrong answer have their answer sheet shredded and are scolded. Part-corporate-intellectuals and part-aspiring-tyrants, the two professors act as thuggish representatives of current cultural figureheads. As such, they thrive on the interchanging of fact and opinion. They achieve their self-serving goals through the popular impact of unrepentant “truthiness”. The performance is tongue-in-cheek and playful, but with an atmosphere of menace.