CHRIS HOWLETT, DESERT STORM LOGIC, 1-3 channel synched, HD video (16:9), Stereo, PAL. Duration: 20:13 mins
In Chris Howlett's Desert Storm Logic, a naked Bart Simpson's like creature roams the desert of the real. Both a simulacrum and a bricolage - "an assemblage of human, cartoon, toy, and art-historical parts that were first developed from a life-size sculpted figure that were photogrammetrically captured and digitised into a 3D animated avatar" - the creature is, according to Howlett, a machinimator, both a character in a fictional story and the artist's alter ego, as creator. Doomed to repeat the same inconsequential actions in an environment that look realistic but does not behave like concrete reality, the machinimator is simultaneously at home and lost in a world of floating signifiers and deranged memes. Desert Storm Logic is unfinished, or rather, ongoing. A collection of screen-captured clips generated from Unreal engine, photogrammetry, and 3D scans, Desert Storm Logic adopts the logic of the update to redefine the notion of the upgradable work of art, firstly championed by Walter Benjamin.
LINK: Chris Howlett