Game Art: Josh Harle's "Playing The Other" (2014)
With Playing the Other, Australian multi-disciplinary artist Josh Harle creates a fictional videogame that allows for a variety of avatar configurations. The "player" can select his alter ego from a versatile editor whose parameters include ethnicity, gender, and age. The artist used his face as a starting point (the default) which is subsequently modified with various aesthetic modifiers. As Harle writes, Playing the Other "Explores tensions inherent between embodiment, representation, and agency in the adoption of diverse virtual identities by a predominantly male, white game audience. It also problematizes the artist’s own efforts to engage in identity politics from a position of privilege." With a background in Computer Science, Philosophy, and Sculpture, Harle's research investigates the virtual spaces generated by emerging technologies, our encounters with the world through them, and their political and philosophical consequences. His latest solo show, Making Sense (2014), was staged by Firstdraft Gallery, in Sidney.
LINKSubmitted by Matteo Bittanti