2022
documentary film, 20 min, HD, color and sound
After books, comics, music, and movies, video games joined other mass media formats that influence youths’ growing up. In Health 90 Mrša invites six gamers (three girls and three boys) to meet for the first time in the sandbox video game Garry’s Mod. While playing, they answer questions about the medium of video games, about the freedom that this medium offers, about the needs it satisfies. After that they meet in person and continue to deepen the conversation about the importance of this medium for their identity, for social relationships and for understanding what makes them happy.
The space where the players physically meet is related to the video game they are playing. In Garry’s Mod, players can build bridges, buildings, furniture, and in a similar way, the place where they physically meet and talk, the Faculty of Civil Engineering’s Materials Lab, houses building materials, tools and simulators for students to learn how to build with them. This location points to the simulation aspect of video games in which the ideas and reasoning from the physical world are being employed. Sharing visions of an imaginary world in which they would like to live in, which is influenced by experiences lived in the digital space, the protagonists discover the opposite direction of influence: the influence of video games on the physical world. Consequently “Health 90” stages a space and time to reflect upon the interconnectivity between popular video games and gamer’s subjectivity.
Museum of fine arts, Osijek, HR, 2022/ by Ana Petrović
Collaborators: protagonists Lorena Brnica, lucebend, Patrik Butorac, R41N, Scottnervozni, Jakob Vučić-Šenperger, director of photography Tomislav Sutlar, editor Denis Golenja, sound recorder Ana Jurčić, and sound designer Luka Gamulin.
The work was made with the support of Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the Department for Culture of the City of Rijeka and the Croatian Audiovisual Center.
