Game Art: Michaela Davies' "Game On" (2013)
This amazing performance features real human beings as they fight for their life in combat-game simulation, Game On. The last artist who did something as daring, creative, and bold was Eddo Stern, in 2001. As Australian artist Michaela Davies writes:
"Game On uses electric muscle stimulation (EMS) to control real people as game characters. Based on a scene from the 1970’s film Future World, where human players control android boxers, the work explores violence in modern entertainment and the ethical challenges faced by society as technology advances to a point where the level of realism in ‘games’ becomes indistinguishable from reality. Players use joysticks to control the movement of two boxers (real humans) via a midi controlled electric muscle stimulation device. This sends electrical impulses to specific muscle points on the boxers via electrodes connected to their arms, causing them to punch their opponent involuntarily." (Michaela Davies)
Davies is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice includes installation, sculpture, sound, performance and video. Also a doctor of psychology, her work is informed by an interest in the role of psychological and physical agency in creative processes, and how obstruction can change the trajectory of development. She lives and works in Sidney, Australia. Game On was presented at the Underbelly Arts Festival, Cockatoo Island (Sydney), Carriage in 2013.
LINKSubmitted by Matteo Bittanti; video courtesy of the artist.