A/B Machines

Using Andy Warhol’s body of work as inspiration and source material, A/B Machines imagines a competition for fame and status between three performers. As each attempts to become the dominant personality in the room, they swap personas (and wigs), identity is duplicated like a silkscreen print, and the distinction between self and other begins to blur. What is at stake when we differentiate “me” from “you,” and how does our popular culture participate in these power dynamics? A/B Machines asks not only how an “us vs. them” culture is created, but also how we might resist it.

adapted from the work of Andy Warhol

created and directed by Philip Gates

Media Designer: Giada Sun

Assistant Media Designer: Sean Byrum Leo

Media Engineer: SooA Kim

Scenic Design: Katy Fetrow

Lighting Design: Ying Huo

Sound Design: William Lowe

Costume Design: Lindsay Tejan

Photos by Louis Stein

The project was supported by Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Performed at Carnegie Mellon University. Helen Wayne Rauh Theater, 2018.