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M: (laughs) Yeah.
[Monkey falls]
M: This is harder than when Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star.
[Monkey falls]
M: Shit! (laughs) I just want to say that the rehearsal didn't have any video games involved. That's why we were able to stay more focused.
Q: And with Monkey Ball, our attention is certainly split. What were we talking about?
(both laugh)
M: I think we should talk about research. I think that's a good starting point.
Q: Right, the idea of internalizing a lot of research and processing through that information, pulling it into yourself in a way that you can then translate back out. Not always literally quoting from your sources, not always showing your sources, but there's a reinterpretation that can go on once you have internalized the material. But you also run the risk of short-handing too much. You become so familiar with your subject that once you translate it back out to an audience there can be a lot missing. You forget because you know it so well. You don't think about what's not there.
M: I don't know if you want to talk about specific projects, but...[Monkey falls] what!
Q: So close.
M: All you do is fly across. But one thing that stood out for me is that the bird box [Fear and the Irrational Mind: Proposal for a System to Prevent Bird Attacks] is not so much based on research. The other three pieces in your show are. I'm not saying they should all be on the same page with research, but that's one thing that came to my mind.
Q: The bird box is definitely an outlier in all those works because it was the first thing I made and everything else was a follow up on the same theme. But it definitely came from a very different working method. With "Fear and the Irrational Mind" there's almost a level of false research in that one, there are these ideas from the pamphlet, they're not research based ideas, they're kind of this person's own, you're not sure where these ideas come from. Whether it's made up...
M: Like the personal.
Q: Right, it's much more personal. The other ones are explicitly research based projects. Something that I'm interested in that's come up with the London Necropolis Railway piece is that some people don't think it's real.
M: Because of the level of believability.
Q: Because that one is kind of...
M: ...insane.
Q: Insane. Again it's that thing, I've internalized enough information, I've seen the maps and the photos and the pictures and the history of it and I forget that people need a little hint that it's all not coming straight out of my head.
M: I was very interested in that relationship between the conception of the bird box, because that is something growing out of your personal fear, and the railroad thing, which is actually more believable because it is not about fear itself but it's about... [Monkey reaches goal] Yes! ...about the industry that comes with fear.