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Following in a common law tradition, the trial is designed through a methodology of precedent.  Props, choreography, stage sets, camera angles, are extracted from the contentious and surreal cases that make it to court, such as the OJ Simpson trial and Donoghue v Stevenson’s ‘Case of the Snail and the Ginger Beer’. Tropes from legal dramas are also imported, including sweeping shots over the city; rooms with windows framing the city; lawyers walking and talking; eating junk food; working late at night; and continual American flags in the background. 

AI collaborators assist in the design of the legal drama. AI GPT-2 writes the script; trained on thousands of legal transcripts and prompted by legal dramas, it continues in the opaque language of legalese. Jukebox OpenAI collaborates with Mike Post to design the theme music, whilst Attngan and Vision AI assist in prop design.

Through a series of films, staged photographs, animations and scene maquettes, the world surrounding the legal drama is developed, offering a view of the wider behavioural and societal implications of the performance. Focussing on the site of the legal drama - the stage sets, supporting spaces, props, and costumes – the piece examines the role of design and architecture in the performance of law.

Both the stage sets of the show and the supporting infrastructure embody the data extracted from past trials and popular legal dramas, collaging the symbols, tropes, props, and spatial layouts. These are fused with the surreal implications of a never ending performance - of people falling asleep in the vast prop room, and corridors doubling up as backdrops for walking and talking sequences. Authoritarian and pop aesthetics bring these spaces together, emphasising the site’s tension between entertainment and pacification.