Where\'s Sue

Description

“REBIRTH TECH” have been trialling their very first “SUE” prototype, a physical robot, in-house, and are ready to introduce her to the world, via the aptly named “PROJECT SUE”. There’s just one issue… SUE, herself, is missing. In her mission to find SUE, Evelyn, assistant to CEO David, finds two post-its- “FOLLOW THE TRAIL – SUE” and “RESTORE POWER – SUE”. After finding another behind the printer which reads “PULL THE CORD”, a suspicious Evelyn urges her slightly idiotic colleague, Josh, to ignore the message. Naturally, he pulls the cord, which instigates an office-wide powercut. Evelyn discovers a trail of post-its, and, remembering the previous, “FOLLOW THE TRAIL, RESTORE POWER” message, she follows the trail on a whim – which eventually leads to the reinstation of power. However, its quickly discovered that the powercut has erased all the files related to “PROJECT SUE”.The office, again, is sent into chaos, and Evelyn discovers more post-its containing a series of contextless, bizarre tasks and instructions. After methodically extracting information from them, she shares her findings with David, and suggests that “SUE” may have left further instructions on how to find and restore her. David hastily brushes Evelyn aside and hands “Operation Post it Note” over to Josh’s supervision, despite Evelyn’s protests and devastation. Things worsen as the company mindlessly take on bizarre, outlandish tasks and coding based on “Operation Post it Note – they’re essentially being made to look like utter fools by a missing robot, and no progress is being made. Things reach a climax when Evelyn recognises a pattern in SUE’s post-its, which resembles a piece of coding she had once pitched to David, and that he had insulted. Evelyn, now in a state of urgency, having pieced together what the post-its really mean, rushes over to the cleaning cupboard (based on the post-it, “CLEAN THE CLEANING CUPBOARD”) and finds SUE, powered down, dead. She confronts David and its revealed that he had stolen Evelyn’s original coding, claimed it as his own, and used it to build “PROJECT SUE”. His hope was to gaslight Evelyn into training SUE until she was intelligent enough to completely replace Evelyn (it’s not personal, just cheaper). Evelyn reveals that all the tasks and coding, mindlessly being performed as part of “Operation Post it Note”, have actually been working towards powering down SUE, for good. A cruel irony by SUE’s design. SUE, turns out, was a suicidal robot – as a result of workplace maltreatment. Evelyn, her true creator, could bring her back, but it’s not what SUE would have wanted. Evelyn finds a note from SUE, addressed to David “FUCK YOU – SUE”. Evelyn adds her own name on the end, delivers the message and leaves the office behind for good, taking the remnants of SUE with her.

Biblical Connection

The passage “They are blind guides of the blind; but if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (MATTHEW 15:14) perfectly encapsulates one of the most resounding themes featured throughout the bible - the blind following and worship of false gods, prophets, ideas and morals. “WHERE’S SUE” seeks to reflect on this passage and these themes, and modernise them for a contemporary audience. Time and time again, our society has witnessed the churning out and worship of despicable billionaire after despicable billionaire. The blind following of false power. As a society that has built itself upon corporate capitalism, we rely on the existence of these individuals. Thus, we often forego the living, breathing individuals behind the “greatness” – the painstaking work of those at the bottom of the chain, of those who are underappreciated, undervalued and underpaid. “Where’s Sue” poses the question of what would happen if this community of people, were removed. Would their absence be the necessary key in exposing the essentiality of their existence within the chain? Are people truly replaceable, or is there a more nuanced argument, of individualism, and heart, that comes with that?