Since 2016, artist Rebecca Kopycinski has been developing a dystopian storyworld that unfolds across three performances and a scripted fiction podcast. If you ever see fresh flyers like the one above posted around town, you can be assured there are tickets on sale for one of the shows that make up the ThotBot Storyworld.
ThotBot is a government-mandated brain implant program instituted by a fascist regime known as The ULTRA, a group that seized control after an apocalyptic event known as Impact that occurred on June 21, 1995. ThotBot erases "harmful" memories and dulls emotional response. ThotBot uses the ULTRA Algorithm to apply points to one's thoughts and actions. This is known as Value, and accrues until one decides to Redeem. There are various levels of Redemption.
The initial concept, devised during the 2016 Presidential Primaries, imagined a world in which Trump won (ha-ha! at the time seemed impossible), and subsequently everything awful about our society was blown out to the Nth degree: climate change, racism, misogyny, class disparity, etc. Then I threw it all back into 1995 and added an apocalyptic event and a brain implant.
I’m working to make sense of the current chaotic world from the safety of this dystopian creation, exploring how themes of personal/collective trauma & memory/emotions/identity intersect with class disparity/imbalanced power structures/misinformation, and systemic injustice. I mean, it IS speculative fiction; it's easy to indict everything shitty about OUR society through the lens of this make-believe storyworld (and I do).