Excess is part of my nature. Dullness is a disease. I really need danger and excitement. I’m never myself.
Freddie Mercury
I didn’t get dressed like this to get unnoticed.
Liberace
I am so excited to extend myself behind the scenes and live halfway between various realities.
Lady GaGa
Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and inform our lives.
Joseph Beuys
LOST is a transmedia composition developing through different formats and platforms, which include: LOST PLAY, a simultuaneous cross-genre performance, a kind of mashup which blends a song contest, live commentary, a documentary recording of a video game, a late night music show, and advertising art; LOST in TRANSIT, a music web series; the official, regularly updated project website www.LOSTdotLOST.com; LOST EXTRA, live events; LOST in BLUE, a Facebook page; LOST Magazine; and a novel entitled GAME of LOST. The unique transmedia nature of LOST allows the audience to go through a rewarding experience: everyone can follow the composition in their own way, discover and collect individual fragments and thus build their own vision of LOST. Each vision will be true, as there are no false interpretations. LOST is an ideal illusion; a real fake. The composition culminates in LOST PLAY: a simultaneous cross-genre performance that represents a peculiar blend of the genres listed. LOST PLAY integrates the mutually complementary elements derived from other LOST platforms and formats (video clips from the web series, video documentation of live actions). Eventually all those extensions—platforms and formats—enrich the narration of LOST by adding different realities inhabited by characters that participate in the composition: BB Blue, Fräulein Millenia, Yago, Sebbi, and several other friends. The audience can listen, watch, and follow the way in which the characters on stage create and perform music together, play video games, take part in a singing contest, or compete in the race of life. LOST, conceived as a transmedia story and cross-genre communication, evokes powerful emotions and experiences in the listeners, viewers and users. It offers the possibility of intimate insight into the life of the characters and the development of their stories. It creates a genuine illusion of the audience’s closer contact with events onstage.
Art, music, media, and the internet offer a journey into different types of space. On the one hand, media and music make possible an escape from reality, transporting us to the fictional universe of sitcoms , soap operas, and music theatre. On the other hand, TV talent shows direct our attention back toward ourselves, as in these shows we present ourselves as actors, singers, instrumentalists, and players—or simply share our everyday lives in real time. In this way artistic–musical programmes belonging to the reality TV genre can become blockbusters, as real people watch and listen to real people: real art, real music, real life. In the last decade, the internet has become a place where we spend a significant part of our lives, but also a stage. Social media have opened up hitherto unknown possibilities for megalomania and star production, allowing everyone to make their lives public and become a star in a 24/7 show of their own. Thus, everyone can now become a singer, musician or actor, and at the same time, a consumer of an artistic product. This digital exhibitionism, the desire to show and express, lay at the foundation of all the most popular applications and websites. We want to get unique and ideally customised products and we want them immediately. We want to express ourselves: My Space, My Sound, My Tube, My Face, My Book. Everyone wants, and everyone can, become a star, a celebrity, and an actor. Lost City resounds with Lost Sounds. The thin dividing line between being onand off-stage, between life and art, real and fake, has been lost.
Five female candidates for stars take part in the LOST PLAY talent show: Fräulein Millenia Transit, Edit Selfie Smart, BB Blue Touch, Taylor von Ready-to-Wear, and Yago Smith Jump. Each of them performs a number of songs. The performances are commented live by Commentator and jury member Freddie No-Comment, who makes remarks concerning the candidates’ performance skills, voice qualities and stage presence, and fills in rankings and tables that will reveal the winner who will qualify for the finals. Apart from performing songs, each participant is interviewed by Sebbi Joseph Screensaver for the Late Night Show. A member of an external jury—the candidates’ idol, famous singer Lady Blah-Blah—is also invited to participate in both the contest and the show.
Fräulein Millenia Transit is the first to perform. A typical representative of the Millennial generation, linguistically talented and born to travel as the child of the Transit family, she loves travelling and moving fast between continents and time zones, always trending. Her life’s motto is “throw forward and throw back.” She currently works as an air hostess for LOST Airlines. Fräulein Millenia Transit will sing three songs in the contest: Song I Lost Extension, Song II Timeshift Zone; Song III Global Warning.
The second participant, Edit Selfie Smart, grew up in grandiosity and self-admiration. From the beginning of her professional career she has worked as promoter of herself in a famous music agency. Edit promotes not just her own sounds but everything that is connected with herself. She has mastered the art of self-correction and self-promotion to absolute perfection: she is a “tip-top Photoshop-manipulator.” In her free time she builds her blog about the art of makeup, on which she offers advice on how to easily and effectively edit imperfect sections of the face. She has developed several applications for filtering faces and voice. Her mottos are: “I love to compete” and “filter your face.” In the contest, she will perform two pieces: Song IV Freedom of Edit and Song V Self-Love Song.
She is followed on the stage by BB Blue Touch, whose motto runs: “Be and be Blue“ Already as a child, BB Blue was fascinated with TV and the silver screen. She has spent most of her life in front of the computer, always online, staring at the blue screen velvet. She collects blue boxes, green boxes, galactic screensavers, and display devices. She loves to play the game of “afterimages.” Her life motto is: “fly to the empty sky, close your eyes and watch the flickering blue afterimages.” She will only sing one song: Blue Screen Velvet (Song VI).
The next participant, Taylor von Ready-to-Wear, is a wellknown fashion blogger and personal shopper. In her free time, she works as a DJ, VJ, and sound trendsetter. She also creates popular memes and sends wonderful GIFs to her friends. She makes so many loops, repetitions, and copies of every not-herown creative activity that each of them becomes unforgettable. Her life motto is “follow me on my journey—I’m ready to wear.” Taylor will sing two pieces: Song VII Ready-Made-Ear and Song VIII Default Optics.
The last participant is Yago Smith, a fragile flower with smooth and mild skin. Though never afraid to take risks and jump, Yago is very sensitive and emotional. She never hides her thoughts and feelings and everyone can read them easily from her face. When this happens, Yago suddenly withdraws and turns shy against the blue and starry sky. She is always ready to follow her desires and touch the stars. She flies higher and higher, not afraid to fall, leaving behind the poor voyeurs pining away for their unfulfilled desires. She always concentrates on “living it” rather than “reading about it” or “passive observation of the world.” Her life motto is “do not sleep. You only live twice, so let’s follow and experience as much as you can.” Yago will sing Song IX, Explosure.
Freddie No-Comment is the Song Contest presenter, working in the TV studio. He has witnessed and commented many splendid song and sport contests etched forever in the memories of fans all over the world. Before he gained fame as a commentator, he worked as an arena-game organist. As he says, “it doesn’t happen anymore to play so frequently live. It’s all recorded. The only time I get to play a full song is when someone gets injured in a game.” Freddie is bright, splendid, visible, and he attracts attention: a real show star.
The host of the Late Night Show is Sebbi Joseph Screensaver, a mysterious “invisible man.” His interviews with guests in the studio are so in-depth that they reveal all the facts and subconscious thoughts. He studied medicine, majoring in psychoanalysis and psychoacoustics.
The remaining characters featuring in the show are: the singer Lady Blah-Blah and Paul Maria Superstar. Lady Blah-Blah, a famous singer, idol of all the talent show contestants (especially BB Blue), is a jury member. She was supposed to be in another location for the Song Contest online streaming, but there were problems with that original stream so she joined the nearest studio at the last moment and, with some delay, joined Sebbi Joseph Screensaver and Freddie No-Comment’s show. Lady Blah-Blah is surprised to see that BB Blue looks like her double: same hair, same costume, same voice, same song...
The jury is joined for a moment by Paul Maria Superstar, a specialist in new music performances. He is not just a professional trumpeter but is active in the entire music scene: an omnipresent opinion-maker. Not only does he set standards for new music, but also loves arranging newest hits using the Super Mario Composer application, as well as arranging and recycling sound material from unknown LOST compositions.
Who is original? Who is an illusion? The talent show participants and live commentators are simulated and real at the same time.
Their similarity to themselves is fully premeditated.
Switch to the Find My ID application, use the LOST mode, and find your identity.
Jagoda Szmytka
PARTS
1. INTRO
2. TALENT SHOW WITH LIVE COMMENTARY I
Fräulein Millenia Transit and Freddie No-Comment
Song I Lost Extension
Song II Timeshift Zone
Song III Global Warning
3. EPISODE I
4. LATE NIGHT SHOW I
Fräulein Millenia Transit and Sebbi Joseph Screensaver
5. COMMERCIAL I
6. TALENT SHOW WITH LIVE COMMENTARY II
Edit Selfie Smart and Freddie No-Comment
Song IV Freedom of Edit
Song V Self-Love Song
7. EPISODE II
8. LATE NIGHT SHOW II
Edit Selfie Smart and Sebbi Joseph Screensaver
9. COMMERCIAL II
10. LATE NIGHT SHOW III
BB Blue Touch and Sebbi Joseph Screensaver
11. COMMERCIAL III
12. TALENT SHOW WITH LIVE COMMENTARY III
BB Blue Touch, Freddie No-Comment and Paul Maria Superstar Song VI Blue Screen Velvet
13. EPISODE III
14. LATE NIGHT SHOW IV
BB Blue Touch, Sebbi Joseph Screensaver and Lady BlahBlah
15. EPISODE IV
16. LATE NIGHT SHOW V
BB Blue and Lady Blah-Blah
17. COMMERCIAL IV
18. TALENT SHOW WITH LIVE COMMENTARY IV
Taylor von Ready-to-Wear, Freddie No-Comment
Song VII Ready-Made-Ear
Song VIII Default Optics
19. EPISODE V
20. LATE NIGHT SHOW VI
Taylor von Ready-to-Wear, Sebbi Joseph Screensaver
21. EPISODE VI
22. TALENT SHOW WITH LIVE COMMENTARY V
Yago Smith and Freddie No-Comment Song IX Explosure
23. RETROSPECTION
24. CREDITS
25. SEQUEL
