Ars Subterranea event June 10

[peterbillionaire]

Saturday, June 10
Kansas City Confidential
City-wide scavenger hunt organized by Ars Subterranea, New York
(http://www.creativepreservation.org)
and
Grand Arts, Kansas City
(http://www.grandarts.com)
Time and meeting place to be announced.

Based on the film noir from 1952, this urban scavenger hunt will send teams of explorers into the neglected underbelly of Kansas City. Participants will use architectural clues to foil a dark conspiracy hinted at in the film, which threatens to engulf the City Beautiful. En route, the teams learn to read historic buildings for messages that will bring them closer to their goal. This game will take place on the streets of Kansas City with 52 participants, one for each card in a deck. This event requires pre-registration by e-mail to: confidential@creativepreservation.org.

Ars Subterranea is an artistic preservation group based in New York City whose goal is to bring attention to forgotten yet historically significant locations through site-specific events and other creative projects, including publishing and exhibitions. Previous projects have included an exhibition on subterranean art inside an abandoned rail tunnel, a scavenger hunt based on underground streams in New York, and a planned commemoration of a lost Paleozoic museum in Central Park, among others. (http://www.creativepreservation.org)

For more information contact:
April Calahan-McDonald
Grand Arts Asst. Director
816.421.6887
gallery@grandarts.com

[Willard]

What kind of prize is there for the winner. It dosen't have to be money, I'm just curious to know because it sounds like a neat thing to do here in Springfield.

[mechfreak57]

damn it! i wolnt be in town till the week after!

[peterbillionaire]

What kind of prize is there for the winner....

I don't know -- somebody posted this message at kcurbex, and I copy/pasted it here.

[peterbillionaire]

The event involved a gangster conspiracy to destroy Kansas City. Teams of people were sent all over downtown. I was with LostLenore and a friend of mine.

Sites included the abandoned railroad bridge over the Kansas River behind Kemper Arena. We climbed up to the control house. There was a gangster up there in a suit. He had an excellent Godfather-style accent. He had a pile of dead fish. We had to pick the right one to get the next clue. The fish had been cut open, and one of them had a note inside.

Another site was at the abandoned municipal workhouse. There was a cryptic dialogue between Mr. Black and Mr. White, each of them occupying opposite towers. They asked us questions. We did not give the correct answers, so they refused to give us the next clue. I tried to bribe Mr. Black with a $20 bill. Finally, they made us draw a picture of an alligator, and that satisfied them, so we got going again.

Another scene was at Wheatley Provident Hospital. A mental patient had gone wild and was trying to escape. A warden was violently trying to subdue him, all the while shouting at us to GET OUT NOW!

There was an ambush on the James St. Bridge. A glamorous lady was hanging on the side of the bridge, wearing a slinky black evening gown. She was the enticement to stop, but then we were surrounded by two gangster cars, and we couldn't escape -- and this was on a public street! One of the gangsters threw an envelope at Lenore, and then they disappeared.

The event climaxed underground, in the abandoned pedestrian tunnels at 27th and Cleveland. There was a timed device which was counting down to the destruction of downtown Kansas City. People had to choose whether or not to save Kansas City. We had earned a metal key at some point during the day which was labeled "destroy KC". People could choose to insert their keys into the time bomb, which would stop the countdown and save Kansas City. But the gangsters were there and tried to stop people from inserting their keys. I chose not to save Kansas City because I wanted to keep our key and I was afraid that I would not get it back if I inserted it into the detonator. Anyway, enough other people chose to insert their keys, and the city was saved, dammit. I wanted to see an explosion! (Later, the keys were handed out to all of the participants.)

Our team came in second last. We actually had been in the lead all day. Lenore and I had already visited all of the sites at other times. (The event crew had used KCURBEX as a source for locations.) But then we misinterpreted the final clue and wasted a lot of time underneath a bridge looking for "giraffe storage", but we were in the wrong location.

Some of the gimmicks in the event were based on the film "Kansas City Confidential", a film noir from 1950, which I had watched in preparation for the event. In the film, the gangsters recognized each other by the use of playing cards which had been ripped in half, which we found at one of the locations. Also, they wore masks, and we were not allowed into the tunnel with the detonator unless we were wearing a mask.

Afterwards, everybody met at a bar and compared notes. Some of the clues were too difficult. If I were to organize something like this, I would try to have a way to get people going again if they got stuck.

Later that night, we went to the streetcar tunnel downtown. Then I took the group to an abandoned grain elevator complex at 1:00 AM. There were 12 of us, climbing up through eight levels of filthy, toxic, pigeon-infested, corroded machinery, up to the roof, where we sat around and drank beer. So that was fun!

[peterbillionaire]

This is the key to destroy or save Kansas City.

[peterbillionaire]

This photo shows me and ***** in the 8th St. tunnel. Our glamorous explorer visitor from out of town was shy about having her picture taken. I am not using her name here so that Google cannot find it. I have covered her face with a photo that she took of a tunnel in her own city. (Click on the photo to see full size.)

[Willard]

Schweet!

[ropingk]

man that had to be a rush it sounds like a great way to spend a day i have NO sence of direction but i would like to try

[White Rabbit]

Dude... That sounds like an insanely good time. I should've looked into this more, because I had no idea this scavenger hunt was going to be this detailed. I totally would've come up to participate in something like this.

[SirKit]

Will they be doing this again?

[peterbillionaire]

No.