these should be images ya

and the anchors should be for reals?

Mercury Cuffs
a psychoquantum teleconspiracy
Clandestine Rendezvous
unmnemonic devices
phonogram
bike pirate treasure maps
Surréal 3000
Choose Your Own Adventure
magnetic bike poetry
aliased
skill-testing question
i ♥ telebus
Downtown
287.7433

We are a new messenger company formed to serve clients with specific and demanding needs.

We need skilled information handlers who show promise at using lateral thinking to accomplish unique tasks.

Looking for a challenging and rewarding technical messenger job in this brutal economy? Register and come to our recruitment and testing in Winnipeg on the afternoon of Saturday, October 15

secret keys (or clicks here): b eginning p revious r andom n ext e nd s kip messenger
Information messenger?

Yeah, don’t you know, in the Nu Nu Economy, networks can’t be trusted with precious company secrets? As a technically skilled messenger, you represent clients who need to exchange information. We establish neutral meeting points for you to work with other messengers to securely exchange the data.

If you register for our on-the-job interviews being held in Winnipeg on Saturday, October 15, 2011 you will be assigned times and meeting points so we can ascertain your suitability for being a messenger with us as long as possible.

(or until anti-business anti-freedom nanny state labour laws force chromatin to take you on as a full employee, just before which time you will be terminated, whichever comes first)

What does it look like?

Here are some of the lengths we’ve gone to and below.

Wait, what is this, really.

This is a bike courier-themed interactive puzzle-solving adventure. A game! Scavenger hunt-esque. Participants will encounter each other and collaborate to find directions to exotic locales. The rest of the site is cryptic due to being “in character”, but you can use the form if you have any questions.

What skills do I need?

Useful skills include the following:

Can you complete this equation? 3 + 2 = X

Can you raed a stnenece taht is jubmeld?

Can you orient yourself with a map?

Can you finish this statement? The letter two letters before V in the alphabet is…

Can you be on time for appointments?



a psychoquantum teleconspiracy

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the post-Higgs incompleteness theorists’ party?”

Eerily familiar words, aren’t they?

It’s no secret that since the polar ice caps melted and the Higgs boson was declared the “last” particle, the

Powers That Be

have taken bold steps in increasing social control. The sudden stability in quantum theory let them charge in with

Green Rights Neomodernism

and suppress all heretical psychophysical practices!

We have resorted to the curious dead medium of the telephone to commune-icate as we can no longer trust the nets.

We need YOU to help our heterodoxic readings survive the ideological purge!

CLICK HERE FOR A PRACTICE EXERCISE

Register NOW to join us and attend our hands-on knowledge-preservation study group on the afternoon of Monday, March 4, 2013, taking place SIMULTANEOUSLY in the downtown interconnected spaces of Montréal, Toronto (1:30pm), and Winnipeg (12:30pm)

Clandestine Rendezvous

You are a member of a secret society with a mission of the utmost importance.

You will have encounters with other members around downtown where you will obtain information to get closer to fulfilling your mission.

Clandestine Rendezvous is an adventure taking place downtown during the day on Thursday, February 9, 2012. Participants receive a set of appointment cards that direct them to specific locations at precise times at which they will meet other operatives and exchange information with them. Each rendezvous will provide a clue to solve the case.

This adventure was based around a voice-recognition telephone system. Participants who stumbled across the secret link were welcomed into a subversive resistance group. This screen generated a “voice password” for them to use when they called into the system, where they could talk to each other and listen to messages from the resistance. Here are some of those recordings.

π

unmnemonic devices ™

Is knowing about the impending doom and subsequent death of everyone on Earth getting you down? We here at Chromatin know the feeling. That’s why we want to share with you our breakthrough invention: unmnemonic devices™

What is it?

Want to stop obsessing about how most of your family perished in the dramatic coastal floods of this past summer? Need to block out those terrible experiences you had when martial law was declared? Having nightmares about the tornados that obliterated Calgary? By following the state-of-the-art procedure we’ve developed (patent pending), you can leverage knowledge stores to help you forget about everything that’s been bothering you lately.

How does it work?

When you discover a phrase that represents a traumatic incident you’ve barely survived and tell it to our advanced processing system, you’ll receive kinetic instructions. If you follow them properly, the catharsis will purge your pain.

phonogram was a pay phone adventure that took place during the afternoon of friday, august 28, 2009 in and around central winnipeg. generous volunteers gave over their voicemail boxes for the afternoon, and participants found pay phones as directed, used the environment to determine what voice mailbox to call, and listened to the temporarily-altered voicemail messages, which gave directions leading them from the pay phone to an exciting locale.

here is a sample message, with directions for the groups “vernix”, “femur”, and “trnrdgr”.

at each exciting locale, they found a single digit; after visiting seven locales, they had the seven digits of the final voice mailbox that gave the directions to the thrilling end meeting spot.

here is an example showing the maps and phone directions for the “femur” group.

 

bike pirate treasure maps

Long-lost maps have been unearthed that show the locations of exciting places about southwest Montréal. Your help is needed to track them all down and share in the bounty.

Bike Pirate Treasure Maps was a radio adventure that happened on the evening of Monday, May 18, 2009 in Montréal’s southwest. Participants received a map such as this:

They listened to a temporary radio station where they heard the music all participants had uploaded and received directions to locations in the southwest via descriptions and map coördinates, which they could pinpoint on ærial/orthographic map pairs such as these:

At each location they found a card revealing one digit of the coördinates of the final location where everyone met up again.

Surréal 3000

You are a descendant of those who took refuge under Mont Royal over a millennium ago to escape nuclear destruction. You’ve lived your whole life in a repressive regime, never seeing the light of day. Now your subterranean city is threatened, will you defy the authorities with your friends to help save it?

Surréal 3000 was a team adventure that took place in the Montréal Métro during the afternoon of Saturday, March 21, 2009

segments clockwise from top left: decoder, book cover, map with sticker types, answer grid
Each team received a toolkit which consisted of a pair of blue and red filters (frameless 3D glasses), a UV flashlight, and a sheet of information (visible at left, click for a PDF of the outside). They traveled to specified Métro stations and followed instructions to find stickers that had been placed there.

On this sticker, the red filter of the 3D glasses reveals the coördinates D2 (hover over the image), removing the letter A on the answer grid.

Using the UV flashlight (hover over the image, exaggerated due to technical limitations) reveals the coördinates B5, removing the letter T on the answer grid. Participants could also leave messages for others, hidden until revealed by the flashlight.

Additional clues were found in designated cars on Métro trains. Thanks to Yo Rodeo for the beautiful 3D screenprints.

A team at Acadie, just after having gathered a new clue.

Most of the teams managed to escape the collapsing city and see the sun for the first time in their lives.

Choose Your Own Adventure

February 16, 2007

Choose Your Own Adventure was a guided exploration that took place at indoor location in Winnipeg on the evening of Friday, February 16, 2007. It was a kick-off event for DIY Fest, which happened over the course of that weekend.

Participants received a booklet with a Choose Your Own Adventure-style story. Following the text led them around the locations by having them find things and make decisions.

Following is a simplified example. The actual booklets were be more involved, requiring participants to interact with and observe the environment to proceed.

You’ve almost lost your pursuers! After going down the ramp, you come to the end of the hallway.

If you go left, go to §36.

If you go right, go to §51.

magnetic bike poetry was an adventure that took place in winnipeg during the day on sunday, august 27, 2006. participants received one of the booklets below with a series of hints they deciphered to find locations, at which they would find a clue that pointed to the next location, using the text of a magnetic poem.

a short ride

cover map poem
clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue

pedestrians unite!

cover map poem
clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue

riel to riel

cover map poem
clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue

riverviewy

cover map poem
clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue

take the water bus!

cover map poem
clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue

the scenic route

cover map poem
clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue

tour the less offensive southwest

cover map poem
clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue clue

aliased was an exploration of the indoor spaces of the university of manitoba. it took place on friday, february 24, 2006.

participants received a booklet with a building on each page. a sheet was hidden at a location alluded to which the participants found and recorded the numbers from into their booklets. at the end, the numbers were used to fill in a grid and eventually deliver an aliased image.

to step through a sample booklet, click somewhere and see the image be revealed.

skill-testing question

bring your own portable audio device (or share!)

skill-testing question was an audio-led tour of the indoor spaces of downtown winnipeg.

there were six editions, the insert of one is displayed below. participants followed the directions on the cd, searching for the answers to questions posed by a narrator. a short calculation provided the next track number to switch to.

2
17
-3
6
3
22
11
2
27
-2
1
13
4

i ♥ telebus

i ♥ telebus was an adventure homage to I ♥ Huckabees, “Away With All Cars”, and The End of Suburbia, and Winnipeg Transit.

Each participant took on a character “passport” from I ♥ Huckabees, such as Marty:

The group traveled together by city bus to four locations in Winnipeg, receiving an insert for their passport at each one.

The group split at each destination for various activities, including finding a pictured location:

finding a described location:

or playing a movie-themed version of the card game Pit, based on the exciting scenes of the American Corn Exchange:

D
O
W
N
T
O
W
N

DOWNTOWN was a team exploration Jumble-themed puzzle-solving adventure in the downtown interconnected spaces of Winnipeg, what is now called the Winnipeg Walkway. It happened on the evening of February 24, 2005.

Participants received a unique booklet and joined a group of others. They visited buildings as directed by the order of pages, filling in the blanks. After all the answers were collected, they unscrambled selected letters for a final answer.

Click the invitation to step through the pages of a sample booklet.

you’re invited to…

287.7433

(bus ride)

the evening of saturday, october 16, 2004

featuring

what’s up with that yellow strip?

prizes on the road

spot the elusive invero bus!

routes beyond your wildest dreams