Professor Angela Washko‘s work “At the Expense of Watching” is included in the exhibition “GameXCinema – Machinima” at the Korean Film Archive in Seoul. The exhibition, on view May 19 through June 9, explores how the relationship between movies and gaves has developed.
“At the Expense of Watching” is part of Washko’s “Free Will Mode” series of videos in which she uses “The Sims” to place human Artificial Intelligence into architectural situations that test the constraints of their ability to rethink the environments they’ve been placed in. Despite the absurdity of these built architectural anomalies, they expose a greater cultural phenomenon within people- the extent to which we accept the hand we’ve been dealt (architecturally, politically, socially, economically). When operating in free will mode, the AI in this strategic life simulation game eat when hungry, piss when necessary, sleep when tired, socialize when bored…..but they never alter the environment they’ve inherited, even if it kills them.