Are we having fun yet? consists of four bratty teenagers standing and leaning against the gallery walls eyeing up and intimidating the gallery audience while simultaneously engaging with their smart phones. This work is a durational bait performance where the audience was challenged/invited to participate within. The performance was triggered by audience interactions through specific rules of engagement that the audience were not aware of and had to discover. The only clue were prop cues via laser-cut telephone numbers acting as sculptural objects on the floor, allowing the audience to do as they wish with this information. The performers would only respond via text messaging following five script scenarios triggered by the audience all other acts of engagement outside of texting was shut down.

The interaction emulates traditional reward systems: the audience can reveal another layer of the performance by agreeing to engage directly with the performers but only within specific parameters set out by the artist. Are we having fun yet? critiques the notion of experience whereby the work also looks at how people engage with a triggered performance which relies on the audience to make any action happen. Through texting the performers and continuing a conversation with them, the audience will be divided by watching a real performance in front of them and engaging with their phone devices. At the end of the performance it was difficult to see who the performers were and who the audience because everyone was on their phones.

This performance took place within Duration & Dialogue Performance Art Festival and Symposium at Katzman Contemporary.

Actors: Alexandra Matic, Gjorg Luca, Raphael Bruk, Renée Ashanta Henry