Far-Flung follows function is a theatrical enactment of an ever-crashing computer system situated in a real-time weather-driven environment. The background story goes like this: an online computer user writes one word too many which triggers a "fatal error" – a crash that merges several realities, virtual and real, outdoor weather and indoor lights, global cities and local position, data and physical movement, human and digital, flesh and http protocol, viruses... and Kaiser-rolls. The boundaries between stage/actors and audience is blurred, as well as between software and users; the outside is felt inside as the weather of thirty [F a r - F l u n g] cities changes the lighting and mood in the theater space. Google Maps and Skype gone mad? All of our friends' location data governs our own surroundings now... About the theatrical enactment (the roles): Usual computer actions such as mouse movement, helper applications, or the finder application become "physical roles" played by actors. Weather data from different cities drive the visuals and lighting in the space, while representing a moody virtual character called "LocationProperties" who continuously alters the theatrical environment. As the piece is driven in parts by random directions, the practice of improvisation turned out to be the best approach for each role. (Most actors had some improv and "commedia dell'arte experience). About the ever crashing computer system (the storyline): The crashing system structures the piece into different sections. The system crashes three times which corresponds to three acts. The reason for the crash is kept ambiguous and multi-threaded: possibly schlepped in flour (Kaiser-rolls!) could be the source for a virus, so could be the fact that the Finder turns out to be selfish, the MouseCursor negligent and distracted by a mouse helper-application... Their "inner reasoning" that goes on in each character's mind, is displayed as its own storyline on the two large scale screens - one suspended above the writer's area, the second one integrated into the Finder's area. LocationProperties' constantly randomly chosen cities-of-day, time and weather information, not only changes the whole theater, but is also displayed as additional visual information on two small screens at the Innamorati's area.

About the weather- and location-data driven environment (the space): A motherboard stuck inbetween worlds (online and off) and exposed to rain in Adelaide or heat in London! It is all about location! Real-time weather and time-of-day data of different cities are translated into ever changing lighting, visuals and sounds, which make remote weather and location data physical and experiental in the here and now for actors and the audience alike! The setting of the piece resides at the intersection where computer hardware and software meet - and eventually fail. Software's ephemerality is expressed by an ever changing setting of directions (for the theater architecture and the actors), driven by algorithms and random signals. The hardware part is made more tangible by the notion that the physical component of the computer is suddenly exposed to weather, to a living habitat, showing vulnerability on this level; vulnerability is a key word for this piece: Software and hardware failure is an intricate part of the system. [f o l l o w s   f u n c t i o n] --> In the end the piece translates digital phenomena into physical experiences and blends real-time data with improvisation both by the computer program driving the piece as well as the actors embodying the software and hardware component of a computer. The piece invites the audiene into a surround-experience of the architecture they usually "dominate" and expect to behave by a single mouse click, but now resembles a gasping void opening its blank vastness of endless meta data plus further unknown areas (beyond the fringes of the theater space) showing that failure and misguided data is always embedded in every day computer use...