THE ROAD TO TÃZ

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Imagine a work of art that is all about you, made by artists in collaboration with you. A work in which you are not merely an audience, but an active Participant. A work that is not an art object, but a tailor-made immersive journey: your very own Odyssey.

 

"The Road to TÃZ" is a self-guided, interactive documentary about one such work of art: the titular performance by the experience design group Odyssey Works, for a Participant named Jude Regula. This interactive documentary of Jude's Odyssey is designed to be played by 2-5 remote individuals at a designated showtime, it can be played by both friends and strangers who become friends. It can be played for free on this website.

 

In 2020, the Jude's Odyssey was intended to be created after of  six months extensive interviews with Jude and their loved ones. Delays caused by the pandemic meant that the months of interviews and research turned into years. Two years later, the end result was a day-long work of experience design borne out of a love for the Participant's life, loves, hopes, and fears. In particular, Odyssey Works were enraptured by Jude's heartfelt, profound sense of longing:

 

Namely, a longing to find new ways of making community, and a love for the mysterious lives people live in alternative, underground spaces. 

 

The resultant Odyssey swept Jude across swathes of urban and rural Portugal in search of a hidden community called TÃZ (pronounced tadj). According to local legend, TÃZ is a fabled Temporary Autonomous Zone: a perennially emergent community of individuals in search of new ways of living, working, loving, and experiencing their respective lives. We are all, in some way, searching for TÃZ, because if we are searching for something, that’s what TÃZ is.

 

This web documentary seeks to leave an impression of not just the sights and sounds of Jude's Odyssey to TÃZ, but, in so far as it is possible, the felt experience of the journey. It is an interactive, experiential outgrowth from the original 2022 performance, one where viewer/players partake in own search for TÃZ.

 

If you choose to embark on this hybrid documentary/journey, then, like Jude, you will not be an audience, but a Participant in a quest. You will have the opportunity to discover many of the sights and sounds of Jude's Odyssey via interactive video. And you will also have the opportunity to draw, journal, and collect objects that hold meanings unique to your life, actions that mirror those designed for the original Odyssey.

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Like Jude, somewhere along your quest, you will come into contact with other individuals in search of TÃZ. These searchers are fellow Participants who have also chosen to undertake this unique documentary/journey, both to learn more about the original Odyssey, and to make real their own understanding of TÃZ: perhaps a cypher for the life they wished to live, the community they wished to create, or the artist, parent, or lover they wished to be.

 

You will encounter your Co-Participants via watch-party, video chat, and the metaverse, and you will have the opportunity to eat with these fellow travelers, meditate with them, and dance and play with them. Perhaps, like Jude, you may eventually feel like sharing with your fellow searchers why you are in search of  TÃZ yourself.

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Even though you, Jude, and every other Participant comes to TÃZ in search of something only they can ever fully know and understand, empathy remains forever a horizon worth chasing. It is in that spirit that we chose to document Jude's Odyssey in this way.

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So, without further ado:

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