EVENT: CARSON LYNN (APRIL 2 - APRIL 15 2021, ONLINE)
digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 5’ 58”, 2020 (United States of America)
Written, filmed, narrated, and scored by Carson Lynn
April 2 - April 15 2021
Introduced by Luca Miranda
In a place where players and avatars coexist in apparent harmony, noticing the constraints and constrictions of game environments is not easy. Design choices, storytelling, and even marginal aspects like the physiognomy of a character are imbued with cultural values based on canons, stereotypes, and conventions. Dear Eidolon invites the viewer to become aware of these aspects and to extend the metaphorical frames of game design. Structured as a conversation between the artist and his avatar, this machinima poses many questions but provides few answers. It is the “user” who is tasked to fill the gaps. As Lynn writes, “By blurring the lines between gamespaces, I sought to explore my complex relationship to these virtual environments that serve as sites for both trauma and discovery.” Originally created for the ArtCenter College of Design Graduate Fellowship: Fall 2020 in Pasadena, California, Dear Eidolon was subsequently presented on the ArtCenter Graduate Art website as a virtual exhibition in February 2021
Carson Lynn uses digital content, sublime landscapes, and game environments to create artworks that propose a reinterpretation of photographic conventions and heterocentric game systems through the lens of queer theory. In 2020, he received an MFA and in 2015 a BFA in Photography and Imaging, both from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California.