2020
During the pandemic when we are additionally directed to spend time in digital environment, I conducted interviews with former and current video game players, as well as professionals who work in fields connected with video games such as programming, marketing, design, medicine, esports tournament organization, esports analysis, new media research, and video game history. The activity of managing a character in the story that is set up in a digital interface, someone labels as entertainment, someone as sport, and someone as a medium of expression that, like a book or a picture, serves to mediate the experience. Whichever opinion one takes, data on the earnings of the video game industry (which surpasses the film and music industries combined) testify to their prevalence.
Live stream reading with Yellow python, 2020
As a result of the conducted conversations, text Filthy casual was created, which through its title refers to the derogatory naming of players who play only occasionally and undemanding video games.The assembled text follows the complexity of the media, and with its dramaturgy zooms out from the player towards the industry and contemporary society, and returns back to the player. It investigates how the transparency of system rules, investment of effort, immersion, sense of power, emotional intensity, socializing, industry, advances in technology, needs, and sensibility of new generations are being manifested within video games. The text is written through 1st and 3rd person, as an active exchange of views between players and researchers, which in reality rarely occurs, while in some parts it addresses directly to the reader.
Center for contemporary art Celje, SI, 2022/ Photo by: Ana Straže
Participants in the conversation: Ilija Barišić, Kristian Benić, Miroslav Bićanić, Zvonimir Burazin, Patrik Butorac, Dominik Delić, Matej Delic, Max Foretić, Marko Kršul, Srđan Laterza, R41N, Irena Rojnić Palavra and Jakob Vučić-Šenperger.
Design by: Niko Mihaljević
The text was made with the support of Creart #Ostanidoma residency, in collaboration with the Croatian Association of visual art (HDLU).
