2girls1comp

EVENT: THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S GUIDE TO LOS SANTOS (MAY 25 - JUNE 23 2024, LENZBURG, SWITZERLAND)

Image courtesy of Mattia Dagani Rio, 2023

What does it feel like being a photographer in Los Santos? A new group exhibition aptly titled The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos which will be featured at the Lenzburg Fotofestival in Lenzburg, Switzerland, from May 25 to June 23, 2024, tries to answer that very question. Turns out there are many answers.

The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos

May 25 - June 23 2024

Curated by Marco De Mutiis and Matteo Bittanti

Thu-Fri: 2-5 PM
Sat-Sun: 10 AM–5 PM

Dammweg 19
5600 Lenzburg
Switzerland

The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos interrogates the ontological boundaries between physical and virtual spaces through an examination of photographic practices within the context of Rockstar North’s record-breaking 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V. Situating Los Santos as a simulacrum of Los Angeles — the epicenter of global image production —, the exhibition explores the emergence of this fictional locale as a site of artistic experimentation and critical inquiry.

Curated by Marco De Mutiis, Digital Curator at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, and Matteo Bittanti, Associate Professor in Media Studies at IULM University in Milan, the exhibition explores the influence of video games — encompassing their aesthetics, logics, and tools — on photography, through the works by artists working at the intersection of post-photography, video games and art, including 2girls1comp, Raphael Brunk, Alan Butler, Mattia Dagani Rio, Elizabeth Desintaputri, Claire Hentschker, COLL.EO, and Georgie Roxby Smith.

Through meticulous in-game capture techniques and cunning manipulations of code, this cadre of international artists rupture the veneer of mimetic realism that shrouds Los Santos, opening fissures wherein the underlying algorithms and tacit ideological assumptions underpinning these contested spaces are hijacked. At once playful and critical, the featured projects — several of which have never been presented before — challenge the stability of categories such as the virtual, the real, and the hyperreal within an increasingly gamified culture.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an online resource and a database detailing significant post-photographic interventions within Grand Theft Auto V and, later on, a “how-to-photograph-the-virtual” critical guide.  

Read more about The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos

NEWS: 2GIRLS1COMP’S MEANWHILE IN LOS SANTOS (DISSOCIATION NATION)

The 2girls1comp collective strikes back with a new groundbreaking mod for Grand Theft Auto V titled Meanwhile in Los Santos.

Marco De Mutiis and Alexandra Pfammatter’s new mod utilizes GTA V’s expansive open world environment to spotlight the inner lives of NPCs that normally serve purely functional roles for the player. As the player drives or walks around Los Santos, the camera suddenly shifts perspectives, cutting away from the playable protagonist to focus instead on a random NPC. The player observes them frozen in place, trapped in an introspective moment as internal monologues and existential musings appear as subtitle text.

These inner dialogues touch on themes of free will, identity, purpose, and the NPCs’ perception of themselves as fictional entities within a simulated Grand Theft Auto world. The writings pull verbatim quotes from real world Twitter rants about simulation theory, giving the NPCs a meta awareness of their own artificial construct. This blurs the lines between the “real” physical realm we inhabit and Los Santos’ virtual reality. The project is somewhat reminiscent of Miranda July’s Extras and Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author.

From a gameplay perspective, Meanwhile in Los Santos adds unpredictable narrative texture to Rockstar Games’ open world, requiring players to patiently sit with and contemplate the inner turmoil of NPCs they would otherwise ignore. It also formally challenges the dominant and singular perspective players embody when controlling GTA’s violence-prone antihero protagonists. Losing control to focus on an NPC injects more humanity and plurality of experiences into Los Santos.

The mod also makes a sly sociopolitical statement, appropriating the controversial NPC meme that depicts people who lack autonomy of thought as scripted video game characters. Meanwhile in Los Santos suggests that dismissing others as mindless NPCs only serves to suppress legitimate interiority and different kinds of agency. It argues for more empathy, even for fictional denizens like those occupying the satirical world of GTA V.

NEWS: TURNING GTA V’S SAN ANDREAS INTO THE PLATFORM FORMERLY KNOWN AS “TWITTER”

In recent months, the modding community has been abuzz with the groundbreaking work of the elusive collective known as 2girls1comp. They have redefined the practice of altering, customizing, and reinventing Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), pushing the boundaries of what is possible at the crossroad of the avant-garde and the vernacular. In a manner reminiscent of the Situationist International, their work is both ironic and iconic, infused with elements of culture jamming and tactical media. Their approach to modding is simultaneously political and playful. 

Their latest mod, titled SANANDREAS.TXT , turns GTA V’s replica of California, i.e., San Andreas, into a social media platform. In other words — no pun intended — this modification allows players to write messages all over the map of GTA V, both literally and metaphorically. Those “captions” or “overlays” can be read by everyone who has the mod installed. To use the mod’s messaging system, player must simply hit the F10 key on their keyboard to open a text box, type messages of up to 94 characters, and press ENTER to share them with all mod users, making their messages visible at the specified location within the game world, enabling a collective and shared textual experience.

Possibilities are endless: San Andreas can be transformed into a poetic space. Haikus could be disseminated everywhere. Hints and tips. Casual observations. Instructions. Revelations. Meta play. However, early experiments with the mod have taken a more prosaic turn, with players dropping insults and expletives as they did in previous social media. “We welcome users leaving Twitter/X to SanAndreas.txt” the collective state with an (un)intentional dose of recklessness. By transforming GTA V’s game world into a platform for social commentary, 2girls1comp actively disrupted the prevailing norms and encouraged players to participate in virtual dialogue. The resulting (asynchronous) conversations, in turn, shed light on the key values, top priorities, and main interests of the GTA V community. As they state in their communiqué:

“we do moderate hate speech, but so far, we decided to leave everything in, because we are looking at the mirror of the GTA V gamer community […] we will post screenshots of the less offense and more creative ones on the mod site. the game is […] a messaging service for friends, a piece of concrete poetry, a meme.”

By now, the collective’s modus operandi is clear: their prankish attitude is loaded with social criticism. For instance, last Summer, 2girls1comp introduced a mod titled F*** the Policy. When the player’s avatars are being actively sought by the in-game cops, they are read their rights, which amusingly includes the verbose Rockstar Games End User License Agreement (EULA). This clever twist not only injects humor into the game but also serves as a satirical commentary on the often overlooked legalities in the gaming industry. 

2girls1comp’s repertoire extends beyond the realms of satire. Their modding experiments include titles like Towards and Philosophy of the Photo Daddy which combines Vilém Flusser’s theories on the medium of photography with the stereotypes surrounding the so called “photo fanatics”. Specifically, this mod challenges the dogmatic ideas of what constitutes a “good photograph” advanced by the infamous daddies. On the other end of the spectrum is The GTA V Piano of the Dead a more whimsical and zany creation that defies conventional gameplay norms. As of today, it’s the collective’s oldest and most popular mod, with approximately 800 downloads. All of their creations received 5 stars out of 5 and a variety of colorful comments.

In a prior modification, aptly named Every thing, 2girls1comp draws inspiration from the innovative concepts of game designers Keita Takahashi and David OReilly. This mod ambitiously transforms San Andreas into a boundless realm of possibilities. Its core function involves systematically spawning every object within the GTA V prop database, pushing the game to its limits until it inevitably succumbs under the sheer weight of “every thing,” resulting in a spectacular crash.

2girls1comp’s modding endeavors in GTA V represent a unique blend of artistic expression and sociopolitical commentary, deliberately disseminated within vernacular rather than avantgarde spaces, i.e., one of GTA V’s most popular modding sites. Their work challenges the conventional boundaries of gaming, inviting players to engage in critical discourse within the virtual world and the Artworld.

As they continue to push the envelope with their innovative creations, the modding community eagerly anticipates what 2girls1comp will offer next, bridging the gap between the virtual and the real in thought-provoking ways. Their upcoming creation (release date: “soon”) is titled “MEANWHILE IN LOS SANTOS (DISSOCIATION NATION)”.

Read more about 2 girls 1 computer, a force to be reckoned with in the modding-sphere.