BLACK NOISE: PLAYING GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS WITH BROKEN CONTROLLERS
Allen-Golder Carpenter
Same Things Make Us Laugh, Make Us Cry Pt. 2, Witness, Act 1: Black Noise
September 10 – November 10 2025
Walk into Derosia for Same Things Make Us Laugh, Make Us Cry Pt. 2, Witness, Act 1: Black Noise and you are met, first of all, by Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Two PlayStation 2 consoles sit on the floor, their cords spilling forward. Above them, Vizio flatscreens perch on black folding chairs. On both monitors, Carl “CJ” Johnson, the protagonist of Rockstar Games’ 2004 open-world epic, stands inside a Los Santos safehouse, idling in the limbo between mission triggers.
The controllers, though, quietly wreck the game. One pad has been stripped so that every input except the combat button is removed. No analogue sticks, no directional pad, no jump. CJ can only inch forward embedded in his punch animation. On the second console, the opposite condition holds: full directional movement, no attack. You can run, circle, retreat, but you cannot hit back. This is not exactly modding. It is sabotage.