Video > Free Will Mode

Free Will Mode is a series of videos during which artist Angela Washko used the late 1990s computer game “The Sims” to place human Artificial Intelligence into architectural situations which test the constraints of how they have been designed. Despite the absurdity of these built architectural anomalies, they expose a greater cultural phenomenon within people- the extent to which we accept the structures we are placed within. When a user of “The Sims” selects the free will mode game option, the AI in this strategic life simulation game eat when hungry, urinate when necessary, sleep when tired, socialize when bored....but they never alter the environment they've inherited, even if it kills them. Throughout these performative software experiments, the artificially intelligent human Sims increasingly show signs of exhaustion and frustration at the user – as they hope in vain for human intervention.