SOUR MILK

.ABOUT

.PROJECTS

SOUR MILK

Two performers blow party horns over a table of toy cars.

Joe Rivera and Aylin Eker in TRAFFIC, 2022. Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk.

SOUR MILK is an artist collective comprising Christina Tang, Carsen Joenk, and Anna Jastrzembski. We make interactive experiential games that explore how we, as people, find our place and power within complex systems.

Our work is based on experiments in mediated liveness, digital nostalgia, new pathways for human-human connection, and having a grand punkin’ good time.

CONTACT

sourmilk.xyz@gmail.com

sourmilk.xyz

A laptop in foreground shows 3 people on zoom. There is a cat behind the laptop.

WHO?

CHRISTINA TANG

// Artistic Director & Creative Technologist

Christina is a lighting designer and creative technologist based in NYC. She is a frequent design collaborator on new works for theater and dance. As a creator, she is interested in technology’s ability to express and elide systems of labor and connection. She is currently an artist-in-residence at the NYU Production Lab and a post-doc research resident at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, where she holds her M.P.S.

CARSEN JOENK

// Creative Director & Experience Designer

Carsen is a multidisciplinary artist who embraces the weird, wild, and unfamiliar. Much of her work lives at the intersection of sound and story, using stylized theatricality as a means of entertainment, conversation, and dissidence. Carsen is the co-artistic director of Rat Queen Theatre Company, a 2023 Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, member of the 2020-2022 Roundabout Directors Group, and a resident artist with New Light Theater Project. As a sound designer, her work has been heard across theatre, film, podcasts, and new media.

ANNA JASTRZEMBSKI

// Narrative Designer

Anna is a New York City and Santa Fe-based playwright, lyricist, and transmedia artist. She graduated with an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University in 2019. Anna’s work often combines a relentless interrogation of the status quo, exploration of sexuality and identity, and an embrace of the fantastic.

A two-story home with a large pile of household items in the front yard.

FEAST.

Tomorrow’s the big day. Wake up.

Play it here

FEAST. is a hypertext fiction game that takes you through a strange, near-future landscape as you search for your best friend, WHIP. By casting the audience as both player and reader, FEAST. seeks to capture the immediacy of a live theater experience through a sense of autonomous gameplay.

Existing in the world of early-internet aesthetics, the tender days of LiveJournal, chat logs, and instant messenger, the format of FEAST. recalls a sense of nostalgia from our recent digital past.

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Screenshot of the game showing a hypertext rendition of a river.

FEAST. is adapted from the original script, DOG, by Anna Jastrzembski.

Created by Anna Jasztrembski, Carsen Joenk, and Christina Tang
Art direction by Jesse Itskowitz

FEAST. is adapted from the original script, DOG, by Anna Jastrzembski.

Created by Anna Jasztrembski, Carsen Joenk, and Christina Tang
Art direction by Jesse Itskowitz

Performance History

FEAST was presented by The Tank in March 2022.

Indoor image of a home with piles of books on the floor. It is dilapidated.

Animated image showing a seated audience and performers behind a string curtain.

TRAFFIC

You’re not IN traffic, you ARE traffic.

Simultaneously a live theater show and interactive video game, TRAFFIC is your daily commute from hell! Audience members choose an irl toy car a la Mario Kart and must make increasingly fantastic choices in their attempts to escape bumper-to-bumper traffic.

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Created by Christina Tang
In collaboration with Carsen Joenk and Anna Jastrzembski
Produced by Sami Pyne and Connor Scully
Performed by Joe Rivera, Nora Daly, and Aylin Eker
Videography by Jesse Itskowitz
Sound Design by Eryn Bogen

Additional writing by friends: é boylan, Theresa Bucheister, Mercy Corredor, Raz Golden, Jesse Itskowitz, David Levitt, and Milo Longenecker

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Photos by ZANNI Productions and Walter Wlodarczyk.

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Photos by ZANNI Productions and Walter Wlodarczyk.

Animated image showing people arriving at the show. There is a projection screen showing many toy cars in the background.

Performance History

Due to COVID-19, TRAFFIC was livestreamed from The Brick on January 25, 2022, as part of the 2022 Exponential Festival.

It was performed live at The Brick on March 25 & 26, 2022.

A performer touches a single car in a neatly laid formation of cars.

Three performers backstage with two production staff in the background.

A cluster of audience members wearing. party hats gather around to look at someone's phone.

An animated image of the East River in New York City flooding catastrophically.

DIRT

FRED: The East River is just gone. Like, poof! Disappeared. I look at the map on my phone and all the water has been colored in like sand colored. Still says “East River” but there’s no more blue. Crazy, right? I mean, how’s that happen, right? ... I guess you dump enough crap in a river and then one day you don’t got no more river.

KIMBERLY: Are you worried?

FRED: Worried? Nah, I seen crazier stuff before. This is New York, right? People are always sayin’ the city’s too crowded – Well now we got some more space!

KIMBERLY: Are you worried?

FRED: Worried? Nah, I seen crazier stuff before. This is New York, right? People are always sayin’ the city’s too crowded – Well now we got some more space!

A drop of blue dye in water slowly ripples.

A miniature sailbort made from a wine cork floats in the water.

A large amount of powder and detritus is thrown into the water.

Performed with three actors, an inkjet printer, and 15 lbs of instant pudding, DIRT miniaturizes NYC’s urban development process into a fast-paced voting game. As the neighborhood transforms, the group dynamics forming within the audience take center stage. Players have formed single-issue voting-PACs, zealous demagogues, and the occasional, brief, healthy community.

What will you build?

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Created by Christina Tang, Carsen Joenk, and Anna Jastrzembski
in collaboration with Marcella Murray, Joe Rivera, and Ean Sheehy

Produced by Most Unwanted Productions + Dani Turner
Scenic Design by Colleen Murray
Video Design by Jesse Itskowitz
Sound Design by Sid Diamond
Photos by Lee Rayment, ZANNI Productions, and Jesse Itskowitz.

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This project was made possible in part by a New York Foundation for the Arts Emergency Grant.

What will you build?

—

Created by Christina Tang, Carsen Joenk, and Anna Jastrzembski
in collaboration with Marcella Murray, Joe Rivera, and Ean Sheehy

—

This project was made possible in part by a New York Foundation for the Arts Emergency Grant.

Three performers stand center stage, flanked by screens reading 'Please submit your vote, 2024'.

Workshop History

January 2024
Exponential Festival
The Loading Dock
1/17, 1/18, 1/19

Featuring Marcella Murray, Joe Rivera, and Ean Sheehy

January 2024
Exponential Festival
The Loading Dock
1/17, 1/18, 1/19

Featuring Marcella Murray, Joe Rivera, and Ean Sheehy

July 2024
The Tank
7/6 thru 7/14

Featuring Enette Fremont, Joe Rivera, and Ean Sheehy

July 2024
The Tank
7/6 thru 7/14

Featuring Enette Fremont, Joe Rivera, and Ean Sheehy

Three performers spread icing onto lasagna noodles.

“We watched as apple slices became residential space, cookies turned into commercial zoning, and vegetables represented manufacturing. Public housing was erected with graham crackers. Streetlights were cheese balls on toothpicks. Despite this whimsical landscape, the show asks some big questions about the city and the decisions that make it what it is, for better and worse.”

– Nicole Serratore, American Theatre

Audience members raise their hands to vote.

A performer acts as if he is being interviewed. His face is also shown on the projector screen.

Three performers act out an interview scene. The center performer holds a camera.

Three audience members stand on stage to run for mayor.

Two performers look at a projection screen showing voting results. Another performer peers at the audience.

Three performers lean over a miniaturized East River with a bucket and some spoons.

Audience members help clean up the miniature city.

Audience members help destroy the miniature city.

A cake and a plate on a table. A video of a children's fun zone is being projection mapped onto the plate.

BIRTHDAY

Work in Progress

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Do you think your birthday is important?

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Did you ever think your birthday was important?

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When did that change?

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Why?

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Do you think your birthday is important?

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Did you ever think your birthday was important?

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When did that change?

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Why?

Development History

Artist in Residence, August 2025
NYU Production Lab

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Workshop Production, March 2025
New York University

In collaboration with Jesse Itskowitz, Genevieve Simon, and Alex Emond
Performed by Genevieve Simon and Alex Emond
Production Design by Christina Tang
Compositions by Sid Diamond
Sound Design by Alexandra Palocz
Potato Design by Jesse Itskowitz
Producing support by Dani Turner & Connor Scully
Photos by Mari Eimas-Dietrich

Artist in Residence, August 2025
NYU Production Lab

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A larger dinner table where all the guests wear party hats.

A guest answers a question on their phone. In the background, the table feels magical.