ZED.TO was an 8-month narrative told in real-time through an integrated combination of interactive theatrical events and online content. It told the story of the beginning of the end of the world, from a viral pandemic created by ByoLogyc, a fictional Toronto-based biotech company.

Winner of 2012 Digi Award for Cross-Platform Fiction

Winner of 2012 Toronto Fringe Performance Innovation Award

Winner of 2012 WorldFuture BetaLaunch Best in Show

Winner of 2025 International Design Innovation Award

The Creators The Mission Business is an adventure laboratory and start-up company based in Toronto that designs connected live-action and online experiences to thrill you, challenge you, and make you think. The founding members of The Mission Business share a background in the performing arts, and have matured across diverse professional and creative disciplines. The team has assembled in order to explore new platforms for sustainable creative development and transmedia storytelling. View the full credits.

Live

ByoLogyc: 20 Years Forward Fifty of Toronto's movers and shakers were brought together by ByoLogyc for a cocktail reception celebrating their 20th anniversary, and the unveiling of their most exciting product yet. Highlights A main cast of 3, and a supporting cast of 10+, including ByoLogyc employees, reporters, and suspicious bartenders moving seamlessly through the crowd.

Free sampling of all of ByoLogyc's signature products.

A live opera performance from a fictional character.

Secret notes, hushed arguments, and incidents between ByoLogyc staff members provided a hint of conflicts to come. Read more | Full Photo Gallery

ByoLogyc: Where You Become New More than 1000 ticket holders got to know ByoLogyc, when it opened its Versatile Intern Program, and invited members of the public to join up at the launch party, held at a nightclub. Over 12 shows, participants became embroiled in bitter inter-office dramas, competed in some fun activities, sampled ByoLogyc's latest product, and witnessed the creation of the super-virus that would destroy our world. Highlights Participants were split up into departmental groups, each led by a member of ByoLogyc's senior staff, who guided them through a number of activities that illustrated the high and lows of life at ByoLogyc.

Participants were encouraged to take an active role, by asking questions and performing tasks.

Loads of rabbit holes leading to the deeper world of ByoLogyc, including its website, its phone support line, product videos, a documentary comic, and mysterious phone calls received by participants from someone with a grudge against ByoLogyc.

A scripted climax where participants watched staff members respond to an escalating crisis, before being evacuated from the building.

The world of ByoLogyc spilled beyond the show, into the rest of the Fringe, with company representatives moving through other festival venues, offering product samples. Read more | Full Photo Gallery

ByoLogyc: Patient Zero Over 2000 visitors moved through ByoLogyc's free Public Health and Community Wellness Clinic, set up for one night in order to respond to growing threat presented by the BRX virus. Scotiabank Nuit Blanche offered the perfect context for ByoLogyc's outreach, as an all-night arts festival with tens of thousands of potential victims roaming the streets. Those who responded to the invitation experienced an intense ten minute journey through a crumbling corporation and a disaster on the horizon. Highlights A century-old church fully transformed into a medical processing facility, complete with quarantined areas, cleaning stations, and an examination area.

All visitors were efficiently introduced to ByoLogyc and the BRX virus by a combination of actors, video stations, detailed signage, and an online dissident faction communicating with visitors via SMS.

A team of medical staff administered a personal examination for every visitor.

An immunization pill was offered to every visitor. Those who elected not to take it were photographed, and the image projected outside for passers-by to be alerted about the possible risk.

Outside the clinic, ByoLogyc's riot-equipped security force faced off against a group of protestors, while those in line for the clinic watched (or joined in.) Read more | Full Photo Gallery

ByoLogyc: Retreat As the world succumbed to the BRX virus, 500 ticket holders over 4 shows paid top dollar for access to the ByoRetreat, ByoLogyc's solution to the imminent collapse of society. Part refugee camp, part deluxe getaway, this large compound would serve as their home, along with the ByoLogyc senior staff. Unfortunately, over two hours, they witnessed the final breakdown of an institution built on greed and hubris. With 50 performers facilitating 9 participant tracks and 63 different possible paths through the evening, every participant was given the opportunity to truly decide what part they would play in the end of the world. Highlights Held at the Evergreen Brick Works, a large site with multiple indoor and outdoor spaces tucked away in a pocket of Toronto wilderness, converted into ByoLogyc's stronghold.

Four different ticket types offered unique experiences. Adventure ticket holders joined the ByoLogyc senior staff on their personal journeys; Power ticket holders were integrated into ByoLogyc's fully equipped paramilitary force; Action ticket holders joined up with the resistance group working to destroy ByoLogyc; and Privilege ticket holders joined the CEO for refreshments, live opera, and world-altering decisions.

A huge, interactive space with loads of unique installations, including a medical processing centre, a welcome area, a military outpost, an archive room, a board room, a disaster relief area and a campsite.

Dozens of individually designed participant-driven activities gave every kind of participant the opportunity to get into the story.

A grand finale depicting the final apocalyptic showdowns between characters, between factions, and between worlds. Read more | Full Photo Gallery

ByoLogyc Around Town ByoLogyc appeared by invitation at a number of industry events, taking the opportunity to introduce new customers to the wonders of synthetic biology. A selection of staff was on-hand at each event to interact with guests, and explain more. These events served a dual purpose. They functioned as miniature tests for presentation and interaction techniques being developed in advance of the larger shows; and they brought new participants into the story world, through an unexpected and memorable rabbit hole. Read more

Online

ByoLogyc The ByoLogyc website was the entry point for many participants, and quickly established the tone of the story. With a slick consumer-facing presence mimicking Apple or Starbucks, detailed product descriptions, testimonial videos, a clear corporate vision, and a functioning support phone line (1-866-BYO-6090), ByoLogyc became a palpable reality.

Versatile Intern Program ByoLogyc's VIP Initiative provided an online participation gateway to fans near and far. After a one-click registration, members were asked to join the ByoLogyc infrastructure in a bold new approach to "democratize science" through series of tasks, the output of which was used to enrich the storyworld for more casual participants. Through this system, many participants evolved from audience to co-creator.

EXE The hacker group EXE's online presence was the antithesis of ByoLogyc—crude, adaptable and self-organized. Their basic homepage established their mission, while drama unfolded on their anarchic message board, and ByoLogyc's wrongdoings were tracked via ByoLeaks. Much of EXE's infrastructure was assembled by participants, and it served as an experiment into letting the audience take control of a major story agent.

Graphic Novel Pages from a graphic novel called ByoOptic were released gradually throughout the project, presented in-narrative as the work of a grad student in the arts doing a study on ByoLogyc. These pages allowed further examination of individual characters, their motivations, and their backstories. In this way, each character was given a full narrative arc.

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