The Incident of Room 216 is a transmedia project initiated during my graduate school program. Since then, it has evolved to be my political outlet while processing what it means to be a privileged United Stater who paradoxically isn't represented by the racist and sexist system I benefit from. A liberal southerner isn't a rare thing, but it is an ideology that isn't nurtured in the region and tends to push out those who might help balance the political force of the South. This contradiction forced me to look within at my own fractured ideology and try to reconcile its disparate parts.
I took on the persona that most aligns with my outward facing beliefs: those that I have learned and nurtured through education, empathy, and responsibility. Then I investigated source material for a persona that was the antithesis of that: the things I still haven't unlearned, the microagressions I don't notice, the outright paranoia and pessimism. (bare in mind this project played out two years before Trumpism was normalized).
Senator Kip Tunamelt formed from my worst impulses and darkest thoughts. He lead me through a maze of performances and interactions with live-acted and projected versions of myself. Tunamelt ultimately put Hamilton through a Senate confirmation hearing to prove the reporter deserved to exist. All of this before the unlikely end to the project played out in real-time, through websites, news articles, performances, installations, and back-room conversations. Senator Tunamelt ultimately lived on, and he has this project to thank for it.
In 2013, investigative journalist Morgan Hamilton of the Hamilton Tribute took on a mission to oust Democratic senator from Florida Kip Tunamelt from his seat of power. Hamilton found stacks of evidence of corruption, bribery, illegal deals, and an FBI file on the senator and published an exposé in the Washington Post. This is a Presidential Commission report on what followed from Hamilton's article.
Senator Kip Tunamelt looses his cool during a press briefing, having reporter Morgan Hamilton of the Washington Post forcibly removed. This incident is said to have set the fates of Senator Tunamelt and Hamilton in motion.
Senator Kip Tunamelt, emboldened after his press conference returns to his office. After realizing the gravity of the situation, he calls in a favor from Senator Margaret Glenross.
Freedom of Information Act case number 772-0AHM has been filed on behalf of the Hamilton estate regarding information between Tunamelt's call to Sen. Glenross and the final confirmation hearing. Please contact the clerk of court for status on this request.
The Senate confirmation hearing (Senators Margaret Glenross (R-MD), Kip Tunamelt (D-FL), Mandrake Featherbuckle (D-CA), Vince Longreen (R-NJ), and Eric Passage (I-NM) convenes to hear final testimony by Hamilton and determine the fate of his existence.