TMC Zed.TO Case Study 2013 Part 2. Extended Case Study of The Mission Business' 2012 transmedia production of Zed.TO & the invention of ByoLogyc. Case study created by Siobhan O'Flynn

1. Zed.TOCase Study
HOW TO START A CONTENT REVOLUTION
Invent the Future.... & End the World!
Part 2

2. byologyc
CASE STUDY
Part 2
GOzed.to

3. Why?
The Mission Business is an adventure laboratory and start-up
company based in Toronto that designs connected live-action and
online experiences. In 2013, ZED.TO broke new ground as a
participatory serial theatre production and with a highly successful,
thought provoking new business model.
Think theatre meets game, LARPing, ARGs... next level

4. What?In 2013, ZED.TO ran as an 8-month narrative told in real-time
through an integrated combination of interactive theatrical events and
online content. Participants followed the story of the beginning of the
end of the world, from a viral pandemic created by ByoLogyc, a
fictional Toronto-based biotech company.
Part 2 tracks The Mission Business’ spectacular staging of an end-
of-the-world scenario accidentally triggered through ByoLogic’s
ambition to redesign you.

5. innovative cross-platform entertainment

6. "In all ways, the interactive instances in ZED.TO were designed to provide as much
agency as possible for the individual user. In some ways, this is the impossible
dream of interactive fiction, giving participants or players real choice that has real
consequences not only in their personal story and experience, but also in the world
of the larger narrative as well.
Indeed, even the fictional corporation's name, ByoLogyc, was an arrow shot toward
this target. Byo, as in 'bring your own' or 'build your own' or even 'become your
own' hinted to users that this adventure was going to one part 'them', one part 'us',
and one part 'we'.”
Byron Lavoilette, Writer, Visionary, Wonder Junkie
Designing for Creative Participation

7. Sent to VIPs, seeds clues & keeps story alive between events

8. Spotlight on Fan/Participant in VIP of the Month

9. Conspiracy clues seeded before ByoLogyc Patient Zero event via Graphic Nove/Blog
‘SEPTEMBER 28, 2012
‘I got banned from ByoLogyc, yet here we are. There is more to see at ByoLogyc, and so I
suppose I won’t be done until they are… or my funding runs out. Renata Reinger is a bit of a
mystery. I’ve only ever met her once or twice and she’s never been all that chatty. At least not
with me. To be honest, I sort of overlooked her as, in comparison to the Chets and Olives of
the world, she doesn’t seek the spotlight. What I’ve learned is that she’s been promoted to
the head of something called the Sanitation & Containment Division. As well, there have
been a lot of recent hires at ByoLogyc lately. Or so I’ve heard. Are they connected? It’s hard
to know WHAT’S going on at our dear Biotech/Lifestyle Solutions/Problem-Child...’
Original post here

10. Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Church of the Holy Trinity, September 30 2012
‘Over 2000 visitors moved through ByoLogyc's free Public Health and Community
Wellness Clinic, set up for one night in order to respond to growing threat
presented by the BRX virus. Scotiabank Nuit Blanche offered the perfect context
for ByoLogyc's outreach, as an all-night arts festival with tens of thousands of
potential victims roaming the streets. Those who responded to the invitation
experienced an intense ten minute journey through a crumbling corporation and a
disaster on the horizon.’
http://zed.to/
patient Zero
Live Event #3

11. • All visitors were efficiently introduced to ByoLogyc and the BRX virus by a
combination of actors, video stations, detailed signage, and an online dissident
faction communicating with visitors via SMS.
• A team of medical staff administered a personal examination for every visitor.
• An immunization pill was offered to every visitor. Those who elected not to take
it were photographed, and the image projected outside for passers-by to be
alerted about the possible risk.
• Outside the clinic, ByoLogyc's riot-equipped security force faced off against a
group of protestors, while those in line for the clinic watched (or joined in.)
Live Event #3
HIGHLIGHTS
• A century-old church fully
transformed into a medical
processing facility, complete with
quarantined areas, cleaning
stations, and an examination area.
• http://zed.to/

12. Build up to Live Event #4
Facebook Page invitation to
Public Health & Community
Wellness Clinic
Pandemic announced via
Facebook Page

13. Evergreen Brick Works, November 2-3 2012
‘As the world succumbed to the BRX virus, 500 ticket holders over 4 shows paid
top dollar for access to the ByoRetreat, ByoLogyc's solution to the imminent
collapse of society.
Part refugee camp, part deluxe getaway, this large compound would serve as their
home, along with the ByoLogyc senior staff. Unfortunately, over two hours, they
witnessed the final breakdown of an institution built on greed and hubris.
With 50 performers facilitating 9 participant tracks and 63 different possible paths
through the evening, every participant was given the opportunity to truly decide
what part they would play in the end of the world.
http://zed.to/
Live Event #4
Retreat

14. Live Event #4
• Action ticket holders joined up with the resistance group working to destroy
ByoLogyc; and Privilege ticket holders joined the CEO for refreshments, live
opera, and world-altering decisions.
• A huge, interactive space with loads of unique installations, including a medical
processing centre, a welcome area, a military outpost, an archive room, a
board room, a disaster relief area and a campsite.
• Dozens of individually designed participant-driven activities gave every kind of
participant the opportunity to get into the story.
• A grand finale depicting the final apocalyptic showdowns between characters,
between factions, and between worlds.
• http://zed.to/
HIGHLIGHTS
• Four different ticket types offered
unique experiences. Adventure
ticket holders joined the ByoLogyc
senior staff on their personal
journeys; Power ticket holders
were integrated into ByoLogyc's
fully equipped paramilitary force;

15. patientzero
zed.to
fans mobilized as supporters & protesters

16. fans mobilized as protesters run Twitter accounts
patientzero
zed.to

17. Online app accesses facebook
diagnostics your friends suspect
warning to network
infected friends
Create an Online Experience
Facebook Diagnosis Tool
http://www.drakevisitations.com/byologycapp/
September- November 2012

18. Bring the Future to Life
http://byologyc.com/shadowfall/
HIGHLIGHTS
• The Mission Business was hired by Autodesk to kick off an annual-workshop
event at NASA Research Park with 30 VIP attendees
• It’s ByoLogyc in 2021 - what are Chet, Olive, and four new department heads
working on nearly a decade after the BRX disaster?
• Event attendees were split across four teams sprinting to defuse a rogue artificial
intelligence hurtling towards Earth orbit with a seemingly extraterrestrial organic
signature in tow.
• The event invited science fiction authors including Ramez Naam and Douglas
Coupland, technologists like Brian David Johnson, designers like Hugh Dubberly
and even astronauts to imagine what decisions might result from a disruptive and
alternative future scenario... all through an engaging and game-like immersive
activity.

19. Bring the Future to Life
http://byologyc.com/shadowfall/
Zed.TO BYOLOGYC: shadowfall

20. Zed.TOshadowfall
Create an Infographic Timeline

21. Zed.TOshadowfall
embed a crazy amount of content....

22. embed a crazy amount of content....

23. http://byologyc.com/shadowfall/
embed a crazy amount of content....

24. link to...
PDFS
Slidedecks
Images
Whiteboard notes...
share your secrets... & the future

25. The Mission Business
INSIGHT
‘There’s an adage in storytelling that you can always up the ante by showing, rather
than telling. With ZED.TO and ByoLogyc, we have tried to shape our storytelling
across media platforms to feel more like SHOWING audiences what is happening,
rather than telling them. Even if we have to produce a recap before one of our live
events, it should be present within the larger narrative we’re constructing, and
delivered in such a way that it aligns with or supports the behavior of our characters
(individuals or mega-characters, like ByoLogyc or EXE).
As much as what we’re designing is an elegant and richly detailed simulation, our
goal has always been to give audiences the impression that our story is ALIVE…
which I think puts us at odds with many storytellers working in film and TV.’
Trevor Haldenby, Co-Founder, Designer, Evangelist, Foresighter

26. Create a Future Storyline
via embedded documents

27. Keep the Story Alive
Chet live on Twitter

28. tracking social connectivity
dataViz TwitterNetworks
•‘The following visualization was produced using the software tool Gephi.
•The visualization depicts the network of connections that existed between the
accounts attached to:
•@ByoLogyc and @ByoLeaks on Twitter (blue)
•the online terrorist organization EXE and its mascot Paul Fisher (red)
•@ByoLogyc’s senior management team (grey)
•Twitter users who followed ByoLogyc or its senior staff & mentioned one of them at
least once (green).’
Trevor Haldenby, MDes. Thesis. Co-Founder, Designer, Evangelist, Foresighter

29. tracking social connectivity
dataViz TwitterNetworks

30. tracking social connectivity
What you see
•The thicker the edges connecting two nodes, the more frequent the mentions back
and forth between the two accounts.
•The size of the nodes themselves indicates the amount of Twitter activity related to
the account or hashtags for ByoLogyc.
•The positioning of a node is optimized relative to the pattern of its connection.
Twitter users with connections to multiple ByoLogyc staff members, for instance,
are represented spatially within the ByoLogyc staff cluster.
•Twitter users with connections to ByoLogyc CEO Chet Getram alone are clustered
•together in the top-middle of the visualization — their proximity together indicates a
•likeness in behaviour, not dense connectivity with each other.
Trevor Haldenby, MDes. Thesis. Co-Founder, Designer, Evangelist, Foresighter

32. Clear
Dramatic
Themes

33. Zed.TO
Google Insights
Over the course of the project, ZED.TO attracted more than 4,000 live participants
to its pervasive and immersive experiences materializing moments from a
speculative biotechnological future, and generated more than 35,000 online
engagements.
ZED.TO Traffic + Time-on-site:

34. Zed.TO
Google Insights
Between its launch in February of 2012, and the conclusion of ZED.TO’s narrative in December of 2012, the
official ByoLogyc website was accessed by 7,046 unique visitors over 16,000 visits, generating 82,833
pageviews, and an average time-on-site of over 5 minutes. In contrast, the ZED.TO project website, which was
publicized in media coverage and promotion of the project rather than highlighted in-narrative, was accessed
by 13,391 unique visitors over 19,500 visits, generating 31,518 pageviews, and an average on- site time of
approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds.
ByoLogyc Traffic + Time-on-site:

35. BIG THANKS TO
TREVOR HALDENBY & BYRON LAVOILETTE
FOR ALL THEIR HELP
IN CREATING THIS CASE STUDY!
For the curious and the obsessed, know that there is
MUCH MUCH MORE
out there to be documented on the extraordinary experience that was
Zed.TO...
Fan blog posts
Facebook exchanges & posts of pics & videos
Twitter content
Reviews on theatre, culture & digital culture blogs....

36. You can find Trevor Haldenby’s MRP (Major Research Paper) submitted to
the Master of Design, Strategic Foresight & Innovation, OCAD U here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/164913914/Bringing-the-Future-to-Life-Pervasive-
Transmedia-Scenarios-and-the-World-of-Worlding
And you can also watch two of Trevor’s recent talks here:
here here

37. urls...
http://www.byologyc.com/
https://www.facebook.com/zedtoronto
http://www.themission.biz
http://www.zed.to
http://www.byologyc.com
http://www.vimeo.com/byologyc
http://www.youtube.com/user/exeishere
http://www.twitter.com/byologyc
http://www.facebook.com/byologyc
http://www.exeishere.org
slide specific urls...
Slide 9: http://byooptic.tumblr.com/
Slide17: http://www.drakevisitations.com/byologycapp/
Slide 18-24: http://www.byologyc.com/shadowfall/

38. THANKS to...
tmcrkpartners

39. The Zed.TO Case Study is released under a
NonCommercial ShareAlike Creative Commons license to
be shared, remixed and expanded non-­‐commercially, as
long as you credit the TMC Resource Kit, the creator of
the Case Study, Anthea Foyer and/or Dr. Siobhan
O’Flynn, and license your new creations under the
identical terms.
Images from third parties retain original copyright.

40. Get in Touch
Zed.TO Case Study was prepared by:
Dr. Siobhan O’Flynn
siobhanoflynn.com @Sioflynn
contactus
TMC Resource Kit
info@tmcresourcekit.com
tmcresourcekit.com