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Lawrence Lek, Unreal Estate (The Royal Academy is Yours) (2015), still from video.
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The Chinese Room, Dear Esther (2012), still from video game.
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Serafín Álvarez, Maze Walkthrough (2014), still from real time 3D game.
Exhibition
3Drifts
10 Jul 2017 – 7 Aug 2017
Event times
12:00 - 19:00, 10 July - 7 August, 2017 *Open Sat. Sun. Mon.
Cost of entry
Free
Address
- 1-6-16 Nishi-Asakusa, Taito
- Tokyo
Tokyo - 111-0035
- Japan
Travel Information
- 1 minute walk from Tawaramachi St. on Ginza Line
The exhibition "3Drifts" presents three interactive works realised with video game software by artists Serafín Álvarez, Lawrence Lek and the game development studio The Chinese Room.
About
Using virtual space as a stage for social, political and ethical critique, these works explore narrative potentials of speculative architectures and landscapes.
Investigating the relationship between utopia and science fiction, literary critic Fredric Jameson describes the social and political enclave as the imaginary space where utopian thoughts can be elaborated and experimented. Gaming space is one such enclave in which to perceive the contradictions of the real and to imagine alternative scenarios. As Jameson puts it: "Ontologies of the present demand archeologies of the future, not forecasts of the past".
From a bleak stranded island, to a barren luxury estate and an infinite maze of sci-fi corridors, the selected works invite an endless drift in spaces devoid of human presence. These presentations of digital realms encourage reflection on real and fictional worlds, at a time when the hierarchy and difference between them seem on the verge of breaking down.
"3Drifts" is curated Asakusa and Federica Buzzi, Asakusa's resident curator 2017 with support by HIGURE 17-15 cas, and ACTIVE GAMING MEDIA.
