Free Will Mode
Exhibited/Screened:
-XXI Triennale International Exhibition: 21st Century Design After Design, GAME VIDEO/ART: A SURVEY, Contemporary Hall Gallery, IULM University (Milan, Italy)
-Memory Burn, bitforms gallery (New York, NY)
-Captive Portal - organized by Kristoffer Ørum, Mjølnerparken (Copenhagen, Denmark)
-Injecting Alterity: Angela Washko, Visual Arts Gallery, UC San Diego (San Diego, CA)
"Free Will Mode" is a series of videos in which the artist uses The Sims to place human Artificial Intelligence into architectural situations which 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.