digital performance

All-Time High was a participatory netprov (networked improv narrative) game that took place on Twitter throughout July. Based on a concept by writers Claire Donato and Jeff T. Johnson (who collaborate on Special America/Atelier Spatial America), All-Time High was developed with Meanwhile Netprov Studio founders Mark C. Marino and Rob Wittig. According to the official website, “In All-Time High we find ourselves— our own high-school-aged selves—together at the same high school in July of 2015. What a nightmare, right?! And yet, what an opportunity. For comedy, if nothing else. And maybe even a bit of redemption.” Readers became co-creators of the Twitter-based netprov with the use of the #ATH15 hashtag, and chose their own adventures at All-Time High. The official Twitter account, @alltimehigh2015, operated as a PA system and make announcements over the course of the netprov. Throughout July 2015, participants will played out the differences (generational, geographical, subcultural) and the commonalities (stress, sugar, hormones) of life on a high-school wormhole. Using their own Twitter accounts or creating new ones, participants played their teenage selves and fictional or historical characters reimagined as high-school students or teachers. This hyperactive summer school was scheduled around four grand, archetypal high school events—The Talent Show, The Big Game, The Big Dance, Graduation—at which participants gathered on Twitter for an hour each week at 11:00pm EDT (8:00pm PDT). From Thursday to Tuesday students, teachers, and PTA members worked up some good old-fashioned (and new-fangled) high-school drama while avoiding the glare of the Vice Principal (@ATHvice). Special guests included Mark Amerika, Kevin McPherson Eckhoff, Cassandra Gillig, The Coup (Boots Riley), Jake Kennedy, Flourish Klink, Heidi Montag, Nick Montfort, Spencer Pratt, and The Pistol Shrimps.