GAMESCENES

EVENT: WORLDGLIMPSING: ROLE PLAY AND THE DESIGN OF ALTERNATE REALITIES (OCTOBER 3 2025 - AUGUST 16 2026, STIOCKHOLM, SWEDEN)

Reinis Hofmanis, Britta Hoyer as Youa the Manwolf, LARP series, 2011. Courtesy of ArkDes. © Reinis Hofmanis

Worldglimpsing
Role Play and the Design of Alternate Realities
October 3, 2025–August 16, 2026

ArkDes
Skeppsholmen
Exercisplan
Stockholm
Sweden

Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am-6pm,
Tuesday and Friday 10am-8pm

 

press release

ArkDes and Nieuwe Instituut are excited to announce Worldglimpsing: two exhibitions that shine light on the ways in which we inhabit our reality through designed worlds.

Across 2025 and 2027, Worldglimpsing invites you to envision and embody alternate ways of nurturing our identities, our communities, and the planet at large. From live action role play (LARP) and game design to film, animation and avatarism, the exhibition explores social and artistic approaches that are guiding us to other possible futures—today.

Engage with sophisticated worlding efforts that marshal the potential of empathy through speculation and serious play. Outlining an emerging creative field that blends visual art, design, architecture, performance, fashion and more, this participatory exhibition highlights forms of creativity that foreground role play and the design of alternate worlds as civic and political acts. Worldglimpsing introduces you to a series of extraordinary experiments—human, machine, and otherwise—at the bleeding edge of contemporary culture.

At the heart of the exhibitions: Our Brood
Conceived and created by OMSK Social Club, Our Brood is an expansive and embodied RGP (“Real Game Play”) experience. Combining immersive role play with AI interaction, it explores themes of motherhood and care in the context of ecological and technological crises. Here, the power of play becomes a tool to navigate complex contemporary scenarios. Envision alternate futures of yourself—and the worlds that you design.

OMSK Social Club is a stewarded practice of collective storytelling. It involves a specific immersive improvised methodology, which they coined in 2017 as “Real Game Play”, encompassing collective immersion and speculative worlding. From these live iterations, they harvest media relics such as films, scripts, and large-scale video installations invoking states and gateways that could potentially be fiction or an as-of-yet unlived reality. The living installations that they create examine virtual egos, popular experiences, and cautionary tales.

Worldglimpsing: Role Play and the Design of Alternate Realities is a collaboration between two national museums with a shared focus on investigating an expanded field of design. The first chapter of the exhibition, hosted by ArkDes in Stockholm, will open on October 3, 2025. The second chapter, hosted by the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, will open in Autumn 2026.

LINK: Worldglimpsing: Role Play and the Design of Alternate Realities

LINK: OMSK Social Club 

EVENT: ONE TETHERED BIRD (JANUARY 17 - FEBRUARY 21 2025, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON STATE)

Brent Watanabe: One Tethered Bird

The Behnke Family Gallery at Cornish

1077 Lenora Street

Seattle, WA 98121

Jan 17th - Feb 21 2025

 

Brent Watanabe's upcoming solo show at The Behnke Family Gallery at Cornish will include work covering the past two decades, including his Grand Theft Auto interventions (San Andreas Deer Cam, Community Cam, Possessions), several computer controlled installations, MINE VR, his Animal Crossing intervention, and the two new works.

 

Brent Watanabe, San Andreas Community Cam, 2017, studies for computer-controlled installation, Modified version of Grand Theft Auto V

 

Brent Watanabe, Possessions, 2018-19, animation, animation, modified version of Grand Theft Auto V

 

Brent Watanabe, Animal Crossing: All Mine, 2020, video game intervention in Animal Crossing: New Horizon

 

Stay tuned for more news about this monumental exhibition!

 

Brent Watanabe’s art practice defies categorization, fusing traditional techniques with cutting-edge technology to create installations that are at once visually arresting and intellectually engaging. Drawing on his extensive background in drawing and sculpture, Watanabe uses computer programming and electronics to create kinetic sculptures that are at the forefront of a new wave of digital art. Watanabe’s work has been recognized both nationally and internationally, with his groundbreaking 2016 project, San Andreas Deer Cam, receiving over 800,000 visitors in its first three months alone and being featured in publications such as New York Magazine, the BBC, and WIRED. In addition to his solo work, Watanabe has participated in group shows and screenings around the world, including Through Machine Eyes at the NeMe Arts Center in Limassol, Cyprus, Game Changers at MassArt Art Museum in Boston, and Playmode at the MATT Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. With recent solo exhibitions at prestigious venues such as SOIL Art Gallery, McLeod Residency, Jack Straw New Media Gallery, Gallery 4Culture, Anchor Art Space, and the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival, Watanabe continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of digital art. 

 

Read an interview about MINE VR

 

Read an interview about Animal Crossing: All Mine

 

LINK: Brent Watanabe

 

LINK: The Behnke Family Gallery at Cornish

GAME ART: MIKHAIL MAKSIMOV’S FLYOVER VR (2024)

Mikhail Maksimov’s FlyOver is a VR experience that merges meditative gameplay with a deeply existential narrative. By transforming players’ hands into wings, the game invites participants on a tranquil journey through surreal landscapes, including serene swamps and dreamlike vistas where reality and imagination blur. The journey is marked by discovery: abandoned VHS tape recorders, placed in the heart of a swamp, beckon the player to engage. By inserting old VHS tapes into these machines, players unlock cryptic movies that weave a narrative of memory, mortality, and transcendence.

Are they fragments of forgotten lives? Echoes of alternate realities? Or glimpses into a subconscious? At its core, FlyOver is a “game of overcoming death,” exploring the liminal space between life and the afterlife, where transgression becomes key. This sense of transition - what Maksimov describes as meeting oneself in a dream - captures the enigmatic beauty of FlyOver.

Mikhail Maksimov engages with the conceptual interplay between digital media and reality, employing advanced techniques such as simulations and 3D animation to interrogate potential alternative realities. His practice, grounded in the framework of ‘transmedia storytelling,’ traverses multiple platforms, including film, installation art, and mobile applications. Through these media, Maksimov rigorously examines and critiques ideological and philosophical constructs, situating digital interfaces as both a reflective medium and an active agent in shaping the relationship between creator and audience. He posits that if reality can be understood as modeling gaming principles, then digital forms such as animation and interactive artworks possess the capacity to reconfigure reality itself. Maksimov’s academic foundation includes studies at Moscow State Construction University and the Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia. His works have been featured in prestigious exhibitions and festivals, including the Moscow Modern Art Biennale, the Locarno Film Festival, Manifesta 10, the Venice Architecture Biennale, and DA Z Festival in Zurich.

Download the game here for Windows/Android platforms

LINK: Mikhail Maksimov

GAME ART: HUGO PILATE’S LAGARES DO ALVARÁ (2023)

Lagares do Alvará is a virtual environment created using Unreal Editor for Fortnite, envisioning a partial reimagination of Mouraria, Lisbon, as a thriving, self-sustaining neighborhood no longer reliant on tourism. The project was mmissioned by Davide Onestini and André Trindade (aka By the End of May) for the 2024 Gentler Futures Festival. Special thanks to Maria Mascarenhas for providing invaluable local insights, enriching the project with contextual depth, and recommending Vale dos Vencidos, José Smith Vargas’s evocative graphic novel.

Hugo Pilate’s work revolves around enabling diverse groups to collaborate effectively by crafting shared visions, defining guiding values and principles, and developing actionable plans to bring concepts to life—from research to prototyping and piloting. His practice thrives at the intersection of design fiction, urban development, gamer culture, and maker culture, drawing inspiration from practitioners such as Sara Hendren, Nicolas Nova, Taeyoon Choi, and José Sanchez. With over a decade of experience, Hugo has honed a multidisciplinary approach that bridges speculative design with practical implementation, fostering innovation and inclusivity in collective projects. Beyond his professional endeavors, he nurtures a passion for creative coding and small-scale digital experiments. He has organized hackathons such as Digikat and Museomix India, exploring the interplay between traditional crafts and creative technologies.

LINK: Hugo Pilate

Fortnite map: Lagares do Alvará

CALL FOR ARTWORKS: FILE SP 2025 (DEADLINE: JANUARY 15 2025)

FILE 2025 – Open Call – Art and Technology

FILE is now accepting applications for the 2025 edition, inviting artists, creators, developers and researchers to submit their projects. This is a unique opportunity to exhibit your work in São Paulo, from July 15 to September 7, 2025, at the renowned FIESP Cultural Center.

We seek innovative and creative projects that integrate art and technology, both national and international, covering diverse areas such as installations, robotics, CGI, virtual and augmented realities, animations, mobile art, games, kinetic art, public art and much more. We value proposals that explore interaction with the public and the use of Artificial Intelligence, in various formats of artistic expression.

As a non-profit cultural organization, FILE promotes experimentation and development in the field of Art and Technology, providing a platform for artists to connect with new audiences. In this 24th edition, the festival continues its commitment to exploring the boundaries between technology and art.

You can also take advantage of the chance to participate in the FILE LED SHOW, exhibited annually at the FIESP Digital Art Gallery, or to lead a session at the FILE WORKSHOP. Sign up using the form and check the guidelines in the regulations.

Project submission: until January 15, 2025

FILE SP 2025: from July 15 to September 7, 2025

Read more about the submission

FILE FESTIVAL

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: CINEMATIC AND VIDEOGAME ARCHITECTURE MARCH (DEADLINE APRIL 4 2025)

The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
22 Gordon Street
London WC1H 0QB
United Kingdom
Hours: Monday-Sunday 7am-10pm,
Saturday-Sunday 9am-6pm

press release

Applications are now open for the 2025 intake of the Cinematic and Videogame Architecture MArch course at the Bartlett School of Architecture, based at UCL’s brand new UCL East campus.

The first programme of its kind in the UK, the Cinematic and Videogame Architecture MArch course teaches students to employ innovative architectural design methods using cinematic, animation and gaming technologies. Students will critically situate their work in relation to new developments in time-based digital media and how they shape our culture, identity and politics.

What is the programme’s focus
Architecture has a long history of acting as an underlying structuring device for both film and videogames. From the construction of film sets to developments in film compositing techniques and innovations in computer graphics, the depiction of space has been a key challenge in arriving at our contemporary media landscape of film and videogames. In turn, the narrative and storytelling power of time-based and interactive media are reshaping not only how architecture is constructed and represented, but also how it is conceived and experienced.

How will the programme be delivered
Taught by internationally renowned experts in cutting-edge digital technologies, the programme is based at UCL’s new campus, UCL East, occupying new state-of-the-art design studio and computation facilities alongside shared specialist media and workshop spaces. The programme is founded on a strong and experimental practice-led studio element, where practical learning is supported by robust theoretical research. Students engage with theoretical concepts through lectures and introductory design projects, supported by digital skills modules.

This cross-disciplinary approach allows students to test ideas and invent new research methods, leading to the production of architectural design projects that are developed and realised through films, video games and hybrid digital-physical environments.

The programme is led by Prof Penelope Haralambidou and Dr Luke Caspar Pearson. Penelope’s teaching and research employ an innovative practice-led methodology that uses, drawing, modelling, digital film and immersive environments to investigate spatial culture. Luke is co-founder of You+Pea, a design research studio working between architecture and videogames that collaborates with cultural and educational institutions alongside industry clients, and is the co-author of Videogame Atlas (Thames & Hudson, 2022).

How will the programme equip people for future careers
Students gain technical skills and explore time-based, storytelling and interactive media as new platforms for engaging with the design and production of space, from the domestic to the urban. Graduates develop advanced skills applicable in the fields of architecture and architectural visualisation, and gain expertise that can form the foundation for careers in immersive environments, film and videogame industries. Through regular visits by academic and industry experts, graduates will  understand how to position and present their work for future careers in many different creative disciplines.

Who should apply
We are looking for applications from graduates and professionals from architecture, but also from other backgrounds – including design, filmmaking, film studies, anthropology, geography, fine art, videogame design, graphic design, animation and computer-generated imagery design – who are interested in studying the relationship between architecture, cinema and videogames, and show evidence of a strong record both academically and/or in practice.

Applications close on April 4, 2025 for applicants requiring a UK visa, and August 29, 2025 for applicants not requiring a UK visa.

LINK: Cinematic and Videogame Architecture 2025 program

EVENT: LUKE CASPAR PEARSON (NOVEMBER 8 - 21 2024, ONLINE)

Reyner Banham Loves Los Santos

digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 5’ 15”, 2016, United Kingdom

created by Luke Caspar Pearson

vral.org

 

Reyner Banham Loves Los Santos reimagines Banham’s original exploration of Los Angeles through the virtual lens of Grand Theft Auto V. In this adaptation sui generis of a 1972 BBC documentary, Banham’s vision of a city defined by mobility over monumentality is amplified within the sprawling, simulated metropolis of Los Santos. Just as Banham embraced the freeways and fluidity of LA’s urban fabric, Los Santos takes this mobility to an extreme, where the ability to instantly commandeer any vehicle represents a new kind of urban experience, rooted in speed, freedom, and fluid motion. Luke Caspar Pearson’s machinima reflects Banham’s fascination with the paradoxes of the city – its chaotic structure and capacity for personal liberation. The narrative juxtaposes Banham’s celebration of LA’s automotive culture with the lawless nature of Los Santos, transforming Banham’s intellectual engagement with LA into a playful yet critical examination of the intersections between urbanism, architecture, and video game spaces.

Luke Caspar Pearson is a London-based architect, academic, and co-founder of the design research practice You+Pea, where he explores the intersection of video game technologies and architectural design. As an Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, he founded and co-directs the new Cinematic and Videogame Architecture MArch programme, emerging from his work with the innovative Videogame Urbanism studio. His research focuses on how digital tools can engage new audiences with architectural design. Luke is the co-author of Videogame Atlas: Mapping Interactive Worlds (Thames & Hudson, 2022) and his work has been widely published in journals such as eflux Architecture, Design Studies and Architectural Research Quarterly.  His design projects have been featured in exhibitions at venues like the Royal Institute of British Architects, Somerset House.

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CALL FOR PAPERS: ARTS AND GAMES (DEADLINE: DECEMBER 13 2024)

The fields of arts and games are continuously and progressively intersecting, creating hybrids and cultural frames, mutually influencing each other. This is not new; arts have been using games as subject and material for millennia from depictions of athletes in ancient Greek sculpture to Yoko Ono’s All White Chess Set (1966) and from Caravaggio’s Cardsharps (1594) to Harold Hejazi’s game performance series Adventures of Harriharri. Weiqi, or as it is named in the West, Go, was one of the four arts a scholar should master in ancient China. However, games are increasingly recognized as having artistic qualities after the cultural ascendancy of digital games.  

Games as a form of expression, and gaming as a performative practice, hold significant artistic potential. They are used for artistic self-expression, both within recognized art worlds and in alternative and emerging fan-based art practices across different forms of media. These renegade art worlds challenge traditional curatorial practices. Popular triple-A digital games have been placed within artistic discourse and practice, both when existing games are used as platforms for artistic interventions, such as Joseph DeLappe’s dead-in-iraq (2006-2011) or Brent Watanabe’s San Andreas Streaming Deer Cam (2016), but also in the aesthetic experience they create without additional modding.  

The cross-pollination between arts and games is particularly strong right now. Art history has been a constant inspiration for visual and sound design in games, establishing structures of expectation and shaping player experience through points of reference, or by directly utilizing various aesthetics such as, surrealism, renaissance paintings, and medieval illumination. Furthermore, interest in what games can offer art practices has been strengthening. Features such as structured participation, instruction-based performance, 8-bit aesthetics, virtual co-presence, exploration, and simulation have made games a significant part of contemporary media arts. From JODI’s Untitled Game series (1996-2001) to Zach Gage’s Lose/Lose (2009), Harun Farocki’s Serious Games I-IV (2011), or Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s The Lack: I Knew Your Voice before You Spoke (2023), digital games have become medium, topic, and site of artistic practice. Similarly, live action role-playing is used both as a generative engine in visual arts, like in Brody Condon’s Twentyfivefold Manifestations(2008), and as the heart of the performance as in Pihla Lehtinen’s Do Crime (2019) or Signa’s Das 13. Jahr (2023).  

Arts and Games are coming together all kinds of ways. Games are also a way for art museums to show their collections or offer alternative paths to art, with games about art, artists, and art worlds – like Reiner Knizia’s Modern Art (1992). The aesthetics and functions of digital games also allow for idea-historical perspectives. By pointing out the intersections and parallels between experience, design, and reception of digital games and historical phenomena of arts (ranging from painting and literature to theater and architecture) entirely new perspectives on existing works of art can be enabled. 

To play around with all this, the spring seminar of Game Research Lab wants to carve a space for a discussion of artistic approaches to games and ludic approaches to art. We are not looking to discuss if games fit in the arts, but how the multiple fields of games and arts intersect and tickle each other. As always, we encourage interesting interpretations of ‘games’ and ‘arts’.  

With all that in mind, the list of possible topics includes but is not limited to: 

• • (Playing) games as expressive forms 
  • Artistry of games 
  • Games in art 
  • Artistic vibes in games 
  • Art on games 
  • Games as material and/or medium in arts 
  • Curating/exhibiting/presenting game art 
  • Application of theoretical and methodological approaches from the field of art practice and theory 
  • Aesthetics and experience 
  • Curatorial practices/research in relation to games 
  • Diegetic Art in games 
  • Games as art 
  • Artistic appreciation of games 
  • Artistic praxis in games 
  • Games in the cultural heritage sector 

Seminar information 

Arts and Games is the 21st annual spring seminar organised by the Tampere University Game Research Lab. The seminar emphasises work-in-progress submissions, and we strongly encourage submitting late-breaking results, working papers, as well as submissions from graduate and PhD researchers. The purpose of the seminar is to have peer-to-peer discussions and thereby provide support in refining and improving research work in this area. The seminar is organised in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies and Games as Art Center. 

The papers to be presented will be chosen based on extended abstract review. Full papers are distributed prior to the event to all participants, in order to facilitate discussion. There will be two invited expert commentators to provide feedback on the papers. 

The seminar is potentially looking into partnering with a publisher so that the best papers would be invited to be further developed into publication. In the past, we have collaborated with e.g. Analog Game Studies, Games and Culture, Games: Research and Practice, International Journal of Role-Playing, Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, Simulation & Gaming, and ToDiGRA journals. 

The seminar will be held at Tampere University, Finland, on 26-27 March 2025. The event is free of charge. 

Submission guidelines 

The papers will be selected for presentation based on extended abstracts of 500–1000 words (plus references). Abstracts should be delivered in PDF format. Full paper guidelines will be provided with the notification of acceptance. 

Our aim is that all participants can familiarise themselves with the papers in advance. Therefore, the maximum length for a full paper is 5000 words (plus references). The seminar presentations should encourage discussion, instead of repeating the information presented in the papers. Every paper will be presented for 10 minutes and discussed for 20 minutes. 

Submissions should be sent through this form.

All information will be updated on the seminar website: https://springseminar.org 

Organisers can be contacted at: [email protected]  

Important dates 

• • Abstract deadline: 13 December 2024 
  • Notification of acceptance: 10 January 2025 
  • Full paper deadline: 5 March 2025 
  • Seminar dates: 26-27 March 2025 

 Organising team

Aska Mayer, Mark Maletska, Leland Masek, Jaakko Stenros, Essi Taino, & Heikki Tyni 

LINK: Arts and Games Seminar

EVENT: X VIRTUAL GATHERING: HONEY (NOVEMBER 1 2024 - FEBRUARY 14 2025, BEJING)

X Virtual Gathering: Honey
November 1, 2024–February 14, 2025

X Museum
Chaoyang District
Langyuan Station, E1 (Building 10), No.53 Banjie Tower Road
Beijing China

press release

Although the Chinese pictograph  and title of the project refers to “honey,” it also morphologically entails its originator, the “bee” and its natural habitat, the “hive.” “X Virtual Gathering: Honey” focuses on the expanded network of bees and its implications—ecological biogeography, human civilisation, and capitalisation. In recent years, resource depletion and ecological crises have resulted in a net loss of biodiversity, which has dramatically affected the living conditions of many species. Here, humans are no exception, and are never excused from these systems. The space occupied by “Honey” is not merely one of nature and ecology, but also a space shaped by totems and human activity that impacts wildlife. “X Virtual Gathering: Honey” is an interdisciplinary research project that commissions visual artists and music producers to explore organisms, ecosystems, food supply chains, cultural heritage, organisation and sharing. All of the works in this exhibition are new commissions, including a video game, eight music tracks, and an art installation. The game Honey will be available for download through X Museum’s online platform. At the end of 2024, the project will also release an eponymous vinyl record which will be distributed globally.

Humans created a nexus of civilisation, slowly deepening the division between civilisation and nature through technological revolutions. From reverence to exploitation, our shifted minds towards natural resources have disenchanted nature’s spirituality. Inorganics have been replacing the organics, continuing its claim as the centre of the capitalistic society. As of late, the delicate and dynamic balance amongst organisms has been disrupted against the backdrop of capitalism and the Anthropocene. The network of “Honey” symbolises a fluid environment, connecting humanity with “Otherness’, and capitalism with exploitation. This exhibition highlights and challenges a series of ecological predicaments coming towards us—artificial sugars, pesticides, intensive agriculture, and colony collapse disorder. Through various styles ranging from experimental electronic and dance music to free jazz and ambient music, this exhibition offers an interdependent soundscape. Sampled music from China’s ethnic minority regions trace an alternative perspective on the paradoxes of memories and loop back to the emotions of these interrelated communities.Techniques such as granular synthesis are used to further transcribe bee colonies and terrestrial ecosystems within the technological environment. As an abstract medium, music alters and challenges the participants” senses, urging us to rethink ecological justice and species justice.

“Honey” also symbolically alludes to the sacred—it flows from the material world to the immaterial realms with a golden gleam. It washes over human minds, and extends to eternity. Since the Stone Age, honey has been one of the oldest substances cultivated, managed and distributed by humans. It is a natural sweetener, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antibacterial agent, which reflects upon human prosperity and longevity, embodying our quest to speculate on the unknown and the cosmos. In this exhibition, each individual music work from the artists represents a specific event throughout levels in the game-build. As the space shifts, these pieces are triggered by visitors, immersing them during real-time gameplay. Visitors are invited to participate through the perspectives of bees, engaged in a dynamic, unstable environment that enhances and augments the sensory experience. “Honey” unfolds as a fluid, generative virtual space where “you” influences the honey, and the honey influences “you.”

Bee colonies are organised by an effective social structure that manifests collective decision making. Their ways of collaboration closely resemble the neuron interactions of the human brain. To study the behaviour of bees is to study ourselves. These social insects collectively decode complex tasks and are guided by instinct and order, while humans tend to pursue independence and freedom. In response, the game Honey spreads its multiple story lines around this organisational aspect, challenging the stereotypical concepts of order and autonomy, civilisation and nature. Here, we explore the trans-dimensional space that “honey” occupies in visual culture through the construction of a series of totemic symbols, and a mix of organic and inorganic landscapes. From discursive sound environments, installations and virtual worldbuilding to text, images, and gamified spaces, “X Virtual Gathering: Honey” systematically unpacks the intricate network of civilisation embodied by these insects. Through the lens of honey, the project takes a multi-species ethnographic approach in a dialectical exploration of the primordial, non-Western-centric ecological futures lurking beneath the “human” crisis.

Artists

33EMYB W00 Zhang Gooooose Alex Zhang  Hungtaigogoj Hyph11 EABADIRDJ  Marcelle Jana Rush

About X Virtual

Launched by X Museum in 2019, X Virtual is a digital art platform that fosters new artistic 3D spaces within virtual worlds. We commission artists to create new digital works and organise online and offline exhibitions, workshops, and talks. As a museum affiliate initiative dedicated to cultivating virtual worlds, X Virtual aims to promote new thoughts, discussions, and interdisciplinary practices in relation to the emerging Web3 centred technologies, including XR, AI, and game engines. By collaborating with artists, technologists, architects, game designers, filmmakers, and other digital creators from diverse backgrounds, we are committed to building an accessible digital art platform that caters to the fast-evolving Web3 virtual worlds, for everyone.

LINK: X VIRTUAL GATHERING

EVENT: COLL.EO (OCTOBER 11 – 24, 2024, ONLINE)

REASONABLE TOO

digital video (3840 x 1632), color, sound, 10’ 03”, 2018 (2024), United States/Italy

created by COLL.EO

October 11 - 24 2024

vral.org

 

The second in a series of machinima by COLL.EO examining social and racial tensions in the United States produced between 2018 and 2020, Reasonable Too depicts a fatal encounter between a young man and law enforcement, set against a stark urban backdrop. Utilizing the digital environment of Grand Theft Auto V, the piece juxtaposes the overwhelming force of authority with the vulnerability of the victim, culminating in an execution. The progression of events – from the initial pursuit to the officer’s use of force – offers a pointed critique of systemic violence and power imbalances. By presenting this narrative within the context of a video game, Reasonable Too heightens the sense of helplessness and alienation often tied to real-world tragedies, underscoring the complex relationship between virtual worlds and lived experiences.

COLL.EO (est. 2012) is the dynamic duo of Colleen Flaherty and Matteo Bittanti, whose artistic practice can best be described as a tiresome exercise in recycling other people’s ideas. Known for their breathtaking lack of innovation, COLL.EO specializes in taking the work of others, throwing on a thin veneer of irony, and calling it subversion. After spending an extended period shuttling between San Francisco and Milan, they’ve managed to carve out a niche in Los Angeles, where the air is thick with their smug displays of so-called “appropriation” and “intervention.” Like an art world cover band, they rehash the past with neither flair nor purpose, but somehow they persist.

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