The Jejune Institute

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The Jejune Institute (also known as The Games of Nonchalance) was an alternate reality game, public art installation and immersive experience that ran in San Francisco, California from 2008 to 10 April 2011. [1] It was conceived by Jeff Hull and launched by the arts group Nonchalance in 2008.

Contents

Background and game experience

The Jejune Institute, also known as The Games of Nonchalance, was conceived by Jeff Hull and launched by the arts group Nonchalance in 2008. [1]

In 2013, a documentary about the project was released by Spencer McCall, titled “The Institute.” It suggested that The Jejune Institute “combined a Fluxus stunt, a freelance crowd-psychology experiment, a ludic self-help workshop, interactive promenade theatre, and some traditional hipster bullshit.” [2]

People discovered the experience through fliers for dolphin therapy and the "Aquatic Thought Foundation" placed around San Francisco, or via word of mouth. [3] [4]

There were four chapters total. 4,000 people had visited the first chapter by 2010, [5] and more than 7,000 people visited the game's first chapter by the game's conclusion. [6] [7] Hull reported that attendance dropped by about 50% [5] -75% [6] after each chapter, with about 120 people who made it through the first three chapters.

The first chapter took place at an office building at 580 California Street. Visitors went to the 16th floor of the building and watched a video in an automated "induction room", before embarking on a two- or three-hour walk around San Francisco's Financial District and Chinatown. Players looked for hidden information embedded in sidewalks, murals on the sides of buildings, and attached to statues. Clues were hidden inside mailboxes and on "missing person" flyers with in-game phone numbers. [7]

The second chapter began in San Francisco's Mission District and took 6 hours to complete. At the top of Upper Dolores Park, visitors could tune into a 1-watt radio transmitter playing a 45-minute piece of audio. [5]

There was a "mini episode" between the second and third chapter, a public rally held in San Francisco's Union Square. The event was attended by 200 people. [5]

The third chapter was set in the Coit Tower park area of San Francisco, where visitors could view videos showing events from the past.

Between chapter three and four, eight players received postcards, emails, and phone calls from in-game characters. They were instructed to bring their clues together to solve them as a group, and met in a mausoleum. [5]

Fictional story

A metal sign made for the fictitious "Elsewhere Public Works" as part of alternate reality game "The Jejune Institute" Soon obsolete metal sign.jpg
A metal sign made for the fictitious "Elsewhere Public Works" as part of alternate reality game "The Jejune Institute"

In the story, the Jejune Institute is an organization founded by a man named Octavio Coleman Esq. in the 1960s [3] as the "Center for Socio-Reengineering". [5]

The fictional Elsewhere Public Works Agency (EPWA) is an underground rebel group trying to dismantle the Jejune Institute. The EPWA pre-dated the Jejune Institute, with art and fake public service announcements appearing around Oakland. [9] The "mini episode" rally held between chapters two and three was framed as an in-world EPWA event. [5]

The story also features a fictional woman named Eva Lucien who went missing in 1988 near Coit Tower. [5]

Live finale event

Players received emails from the EPWA instructing them to attend a seminar on 10 April 2011 [5] to overthrow the Jejune Institute. 150 people gathered in the Garden Room at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco, California for the “Socio-Reengineering Seminar 2011: An Afternoon of Rhythmic Synchronicity". [6] The seminar lasted more than four hours. [10]

Players later stated that they were expecting an exciting event that concluded the narrative, [11] and stated that they were surprised and disappointed by the anticlimactic ending. [12] [10]

The Institute

In 2013, director Spencer McCall, who had edited videos for the game, [13] released The Institute, reconstructing the story of the Jejune Institute through interviews with the participants and the creators. The film screened at Oakland's Underground Film Festival in September 2013. [12]

The film contained both documentary elements and reenactment, [12] [14] leading people to call into question the veracity of the film. [15] [16]

Dispatches from Elsewhere

The 2020 TV series Dispatches from Elsewhere was based on The Institute documentary film. [17]

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<i>The Institute</i> (2013 film) 2012 documentary film

The Institute is a 2012 documentary film directed by Spencer McCall reconstructing the story of The Jejune Institute, an alternate reality game set in San Francisco, through interviews with the participants and the creators. The game was produced in 2008 by Oakland-based artist Jeff Hull. Over the course of three years, it enrolled more than 10,000 players who, responding to eccentric flyers plastered all over the city, started the game by receiving their "induction" at the fake headquarters of the Institute, located in an office building in San Francisco's Financial District.

<i>Dispatches from Elsewhere</i> American television series

Dispatches from Elsewhere is an American drama television series created by and starring Jason Segel that premiered on March 1, 2020, on AMC. It is based on the documentary film The Institute about the alternate reality game The Jejune Institute.

Sara Thacher is an American game and experience designer. She is one of the founders of the San Francisco-based immersive experience The Jejune Institute and works as a creative director and senior R&D Imagineer at Walt Disney Imagineering, including creative leadership on the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser two-day immersive Disney experience.

Jeff Hull is an artist and producer from Oakland, California. He is known for creating the Oakland-based fashion line and street art campaign Oaklandish, the immersive experiences The Jejune Institute and The Latitude Society. Hull's work was the topic of the documentaries The Institute and In Bright Axiom, and was the inspiration for the television show Dispatches from Elsewhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonchalance</span> American design consultancy group

Nonchalance began as an art collective in Oakland, California around 2002, and later in 2008 was transformed into a design consultancy group. Their work focuses on interactive, immersive art installations, which they call "situational design".

Rick Paulas is an American author and journalist. He gained notoriety for his activism and for pioneering unique distribution methods of his works.

References

  1. 1 2 Soloski, Alexis (27 February 2020). "In 'Dispatches From Elsewhere,' Art Imitates Art Imitating Life". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  2. ↑ Patterson, Troy (28 February 2020). "On AMC's "Dispatches from Elsewhere," Jason Segel Plays with Convoluted Ways of Telling Straight Stories". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  3. 1 2 Newitz, Annalee (9 December 2008). "What is the Jejune Institute and Why Are They Recording Your Thoughts?". Gizmodo. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  4. ↑ Paulas, Rick (September 2015). "'We Value Experience': Can a Secret Society Become a Business?". Longreads. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Paulas, Rick (11 March 2011). "Last Chance: The Mysteries of San Francisco's Creepy Jejune Institute". The Awl. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 Harmanci, Reyhan (21 April 2011). "Interested in the Jejune Institute? It's Too Late". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  7. 1 2 Woo, Stu (24 March 2011). "Urban Scavenger Hunt Finds Followers". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  8. ↑ Watson, Jeff (10 March 2010). "Trap doors and hatches all around: Jeff Hull on infusing variability and play into the workaday world". remotedevice. Archived from the original on 1 January 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  9. ↑ Shirley, Perry (4 August 2011). "Games of Nonchalance". FunCheapSF. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  10. 1 2 Paulas, Rick (19 April 2011). "The Perplexing Final Chapter Of San Francisco's Jejune Institute". The Awl. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  11. ↑ Hinman, Tyler (29 March 2011). "Games of Nonchalance: An Artistic ARG Experience". Wired. Archived from the original on 21 April 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  12. 1 2 3 "'The Institute' Invades Oakland's Underground". KQED. 24 September 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  13. ↑ Rothe, E. Nina (1 October 2013). "Down the Rabbit Hole with Spencer McCall's The Institute". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  14. ↑ Keogh, Tom (17 October 2013). "'The Institute': caught between fact and fiction". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  15. ↑ Nijholt, Anton (14 October 2016). Playable Cities: The City as a Digital Playground. Springer Singapore. p. 128. ISBN   9789811019623 . Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  16. ↑ Rapold, Nicholas (10 October 2013). "A Bizarre Scavenger Hunt in San Francisco". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 22 April 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  17. ↑ Phipps, Keith (10 February 2020). "Dispatches from Elsewhere Review: Jason Segel Returns to TV With a Bold, Unpredictable Series". TV Guide . Archived from the original on 17 February 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
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