Animal Crossing: New Horizons

ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT ALEKSANDAR RADAN’S THIS WATER GIVES BACK NO IMAGES

VRAL is currently exhibiting Aleksandar Radan’s This water giver back no Images. To better contextualize this exhibition, we will be discussing some highlights from Radan’s eclectic oeuvre. Today we take a closer look at this remarkable video installation.

Produced in 2017, Aleksandar Radan’s This water giver back no Images is a 6-minute video work exploring the boundary between reality and simulation in digital worlds, created by manipulating landscapes and characters from Grand Theft Auto V. This work is strictly connected to the poem “No Images” (1922) by William Waring Cuney and Nina Simone’s song “Images” (1964), which address the inability of marginalized groups to see positive reflections of themselves mirrored back from society.

Radan incorporated an excerpt of Simone’s live 1964 recording of “Images” in his video. As her vocals play, the GTA-derived visuals distort – palm trees warp, avatars phase in and out of being. The looping images center on a mysterious, uncanny, pale gray avatar seated numbly in a room, lying outside by palm trees, and watching Simone sing on a television nested incongruously among levitating flora...

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Aleksandar Radan

This water gives back no Images

3-channel video installation, 6:12 min, loop, 2017, Germany; hereby presented as a single-channel digital video

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ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT LARS PREISSER’S HOME/NOME

VRAL is currently showcasing Lars Preisser’s HOME/NOME. Today we take a deep dive into this fascinating installation by discussing its unintended relation to Fumi Omori's equally mesmerizing Home Sweet Home.

Both featured in Season 4 of VRAL, Fumi Omori’s Home Sweet Home and Lars Preisser’s HOME/NOME are two installations that leverage video games to explore themes of domesticity, memory, and the concept of “home”. Despite their shared conceptual interests, the projects differ significantly in their artistic approaches and techniques.

A key distinction lies in the artists’ choice and use of the video game medium. Both appropriate and decontextualize Nintendo's product, but their approach and outcome are considerably different. Omori employs Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020), a contemporary social simulation game, as the primary artistic material. By contrast, Preisser resurrects the vintage Super Nintendo title Mario Paint (1992). Omori’s adoption of Animal Crossing reflects her personal connection to the game as a source of escapism during the Covid-19 pandemic. The resulting machinima takes advantage of the game’s customizable architecture and interior design features. Preisser’s selection of Mario Paint stems from his childhood memories of using the game in the original apartment depicted in HOME/NOME. The retro aesthetic becomes a temporal bridge to the past.

Their divergent game texts contribute to major technical differences between the artworks. Home Sweet Home consists of digital video incorporating photogrammetry and impossible architecture constructed within Animal Crossing’s virtual world. The immersive 3D environment allows Omori to translate real memories into imaginative spaces unbound by physical constraints. On the other hand, HOME/NOME relies on lo-fi pixel art animation created through Mario Paint’s limited 2D drawing tools. Preisser opts for a…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Lars Preisser, HOME/NOME, video installation, SNES game consoles, animation, video, Hi8, miniDV, Bang & Olufsen 90s TV sets, hereby presented as digital video, color, sound, 4’ 16, 2021-2022, Germany

Fumi Omori, Home Sweet Home, machinima/digital video, color, sound, 2’ 35”, 2023, Japan

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VIDEO: THE POETICS OF GAME SPACES

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The poetics of video game spaces: On Fumi Omori’s Home Sweet Home

A video essay by Matteo Bittanti 


PART ONE

Fumi Omori’s latest project Home Sweet Home delves into the young Japanese artist’s intimate tapestry of personal recollections and her playful documentation of frequent relocations both IRL and within the virtual environments of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. 

Her nomadic history, characterized by a succession of relocations around the world in the past few years, finds solace in the poignant stillness of captured photographs, a portal to the emotional entanglements woven into past physical spaces. Nestled within the cherished folds of this beloved game, Nintendo’s Animal Crossing, which emerged as a sanctuary amidst the disquietude of the 2020-2021 Covid-19 pandemic, the artist crafts bespoke chambers that bear testament to their very essence.

Home Sweet Home is an investigation into the ramifications of transposing corporeal abodes into the virtual landscapes of video game spaces, which are “inhabited” by around two billion people as we speak, at least according to the latest statistics. Employing the technique of photogrammetry, Omori undertook the playful reconstruction of her former dwellings within the game, thereby obfuscating the demarcations between reality and imagination, leaving the viewer awash in a sea of architectural reverie, both deeply personal and utterly generic, as these apartments evoke the classic IKEA principles of impermanence, interchangeability, and transience. The interplay that ensues between these competing ideas of domesticity but also between these planes of reality — one corporeal, the other intangible — affords a tantalizing glimpse into a distinct visual hacking methodology, a véritable trompe-l’oeil.

In an extensive interview, the artist mentioned that the genesis of this project took root at ECAL the prestigious École cantonale d’art de Lausanne, and was set into motion by the visionary digital curator Marco De Mutiis of Fotomuseum Winterthur as part of a workshop on Automated Photography. Notably, this marks the third installment - following the lauded contributions of Benjamin Freedman and Moritz Jekat, to grace the fourth season of VRAL — a testament to the platform’s unwavering commitment to championing burgeoning talents alongside their venerable counterparts, an approach advocated by both Bittanti and the discerning Italian emigré, De Mutiis. It is not by chance, then, that these three works share common concerns for such issues as memory, belonging, and loss.

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Matteo Bittanti

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ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT FUMI OMORI’S HOME SWEET HOME (2 OF 2)

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“Now that she knows that she is herself, will she resume her game of ‘playing houses,’ will she return home, in other words, withdraw again into herself?”

(Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, 1958)

VRAL is currently showcasing Fumi Omori’s latest project Home Sweet Home, which delves into the young Japanese artist’s intimate tapestry of personal recollections and her playful documentation of frequent relocations both IRL and within the virtual realm of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

In our preceding exploration, we delved into the intricate interplay between the digital realm and its tangible manifestations, exemplified by the artist’s clever utilization of photogrammetry — a technique that involves capturing and measuring physical objects or environments through the analysis of photographs or digital images — in visualizing the meticulously reconstructed apartments within the landscape of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. With a process that dances harmoniously between simplicity and intricate complexity, Home Sweet Home's essence gradually reveals itself.

In the second part of our deep dive, our focus shifts toward Omori’s ingenious employment of Animal Crossing: New Horizons itself, which serves as both a tool for reconstructing fragmented memories and an archival repository of lived experiences, deftly mediated through the artist's lens. The accompanying images presented in this page poignantly showcase Omori's recreated apartments within the realm of Nintendo’s 2020 best selling game. Reminiscent of The Sims, Animal Crossing: New Horizons provides a captivating interplay that merges the practice of dollhouse playing with the art of crafting personalized living spaces. Here, players become architects of their own imaginative interiors, meticulously curating furniture, decor, and layout to reflect their sense of style and self expression. With a plethora of design options and customizable elements at their disposal, players can explore various aesthetics, experiment with spatial arrangements, and create harmonious environments that evoke a sense of comfort, cuteness, and personalization.

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Matteo Bittanti

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ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT BRENT WATANABE’S MINE

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Brent Watanabe’s MINE (2023) was featured on VRAL between May 19 and June 1 2023 as a single channel video. It is now available on the artist’s website as a collection videos. In this deep dive, we discuss the artwork’s main themes, its relation with previous projects, and the role of the artist walkthrough as documentation.

Brent Watanabe’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons All Mine (2020) and MINE (2021-2022), are intricately connected. The shared presence of the possessive pronoun “mine” in both titles serves as a manifest thread, while the thematic affinities evoke the practice of consumption, accumulation, and hoarding.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons All Mine made its debut during the inaugural season of VRAL in 2020 (e9), in the format of a video walkthrough encapsulating Watanabe’s astute intervention within the popular Nintendo cozy game.In his accompanying statement, the artist divulged his solace-seeking escapades within the realm of ludic escapades during the mandated domestic quarantine, with Animal Crossing emerging as a popular destination and source of refuge for the masses enduring “house arrest”. However, his initial enthusiasm rapidly devolved into disillusionment as he became acutely aware of the game’s real values and prerogatives, goals and mechanics fostering an insidious consumerist ethos. In fact, Watanabe expressed being “taken aback by the endless cycle of purgatory-like existence: waking up, completing rote tasks, consuming, upgrading, discarding, repeating.” In other words, the purported “new horizons” of Animal Crossing lack… novelty. Furthermore, they do not encompass a multitude of possibilities. Instead, a singular horizon emerges, and it is none other than the horizon of consumption.

Instead of shunning the mind-numbing ordeal concocted by the Japanese mega-brand, Watanabe embarked on an acceleratepursuit of hyper-capitalist imperatives, fully immersing himself in the most extravagant and hyperbolic forms of simulated consumption. Over the course of 150+ hours of gameplay, he thoroughly paved the entirety of the virtual island with digital asphalt, while ceaselessly accumulating a vast array of consumer goods, meticulously displaying and piling them upon every available pixel of the landscape. A special kind of window shopping. Remarkably, Watanabe accomplished this impressive feat without resorting to gameplay modifications, in order to bring to the surface the game’s inherent ideological underpinnings. This captivating experience was conscientiously documented as a walkthrough, hereby elevated to the status of video art. Notably, the artwork also exists as a virtual island, accessible to anyone armed with the appropriate codes, and conveniently accessible through the dedicated artwork page. In short, the work can be experienced on multiple levels.

For instance,

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Matteo Bittanti

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ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT FUMI OMORI’S HOME SWEET HOME (1 of 2)

Fumi Omori, Home Sweet Home, Photomechanical prints, 8.3 x 14.0 cm (3 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. ), installation view, ECAL, 2022

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VRAL is currently showcasing Fumi Omori’s latest project Home Sweet Home, which delves into the young Japanese artist’s intimate tapestry of personal recollections and her playful documentation of frequent relocations both IRL and within the virtual realm of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Her nomadic history, characterized by a succession of relocations around the world in the past few years, finds solace in the poignant stillness of captured photographs, a portal to the emotional entanglements woven into past physical spaces. Nestled within the cherished folds of this popular video game, Animal Crossing, which emerged as a sanctuary amidst the disquietude of the 2020-2021 Covid-19 pandemic, the artist crafts bespoke chambers that bear testament to their very essence.

Home Sweet Home raises a fundamental inquiry into the ramifications of transposing corporeal abodes into the virtual landscapes of video game spaces, which are “inhabited” by around two billion people as we speak, according to the latest statistics. Employing the meticulous technique of photogrammetry, Omori undertook the playful reconstruction of her former dwellings within the game, thereby obfuscating the demarcations between reality and imagination, leaving the viewer awash in a sea of architectural reverie, both deeply personal and utterly generic, as these apartments evoke the classic IKEA principles of impermanence, interchangeability, and transience. The interplay that ensues between these competing ideas of domesticity but also between these planes of reality — one corporeal and the other intangible — affords a tantalizing glimpse into a distinct visual hacking methodology, a véritable trompe-l’oeil.

In an extensive interview with the curator, the artist mentioned that the genesis of this project took root at ECAL, the prestigious École cantonale d’art de Lausanne, and was set into motion by the visionary digital curator Marco De Mutiis of Fotomuseum Winterthur as part of a workshop on Automated Photography. Notably, this marks the third installment — following Benjamin Freedman and Moritz Jekatrecent shows, to grace the fourth season of VRAL — a testament to the platform’s unwavering commitment to championing burgeoning talents alongside their venerable counterparts, an approach ardently advocated by the discerning Italian emigré, De Mutiis.

It is not by chance, then, that these three works share common concerns about memory, belonging, and loss.

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

This is a Patreon exclusive article. To access the full content consider joining our growing community.

EVENT: FUMI OMORI (JUNE 2 - 15 2023, ONLINE)

HOME SWEET HOME

machinima/digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 2’ 35”, Japan, 2023

Created by Fumi Omori

Home Sweet Home explores personal memories and their translation into physical architecture through Animal Crossing: New Horizons. With a history of frequent relocations, the artist captured their rooms in photographs, preserving emotional connections to past spaces. Animal Crossing, a beloved game providing an idyllic refuge during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowed the artist to craft personalized rooms reflecting their personality. This project questions the impact of translating real-life spaces into the virtual realm. Employing photogrammetry, the artist reconstructs their past homes in the game, blurring boundaries with imaginative architecture. The interplay between virtual and physical layers offers a fresh perspective, showcasing a unique visual hacking method. Automating realities on the virtual plane reveals the intricate relationship between our fragile understanding of reality and memories. Digital reverie becomes an avenue for escapism, confronting the present, future, nostalgia, and denial.

Fumi Omori navigates the crossroads of the cultural diaspora with her transcendent visual language. Currently nearing the culmination of her master’s degree in photography at the esteemed École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) in Switzerland, Omori’s diverse experiences serve as a potent source of inspiration. Born and raised in Japan, the artist spent over a decade living in prominent American coastal cities (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco) before gravitating towards the medium of photography. Her previous stints as a perceptive graphic designer and discerning art director have indubitably permeated her artistic vision.

EVENT: VRAL #9_BRENT WATANABE (SEPTEMBER 18 - OCTOBER 1 2020)

ANIMAL CROSSING: ALL MINE

digital video, color, sound, 7’ 05”, 2020 (United States)

Created by Brent Watanabe

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti 

Conspicuous consumption is the implicit goal of innumerable video games, but Animal Crossing: New Horizons is, by far, the most shameless celebration of capitalism. Released in March 2020, the latest installment of the popular series became the most popular video game during the most intense months of the Covid-19 lockdown in Europe and the United States. A commercial triumph – more than twenty two million copies sold in four months – New Horizons gave players the possibility to escape from their brick-and-mortar homes and relocate to a minuscole island in the middle of the ocean. All they had to do was to purchase the innocent sounding “Deserted Island Getaway Package” from a development company called Nook Inc. Lured by the promise of playful evasion and endless growth, American artist Brent Watanabe soon found himself enslaved by perpetual debt, surrounded by a mountain of waste, and forced to compulsively perform bullshit jobs. An unofficial adaptation of Maurizio Lazzarato’s The Making of the Indebted Man, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the most sophisticated simulation of neoliberalism ever concocted: suffice to say that players must take a mortgage on their virtual houses to start “playing”. Assuming the role of a modern day Robinson Crusoe with entrepreneurial skills, Watanabe spent more than one hundred fifty hours hoarding as many consumer goods as possible and displaying them on his island. He documented his performance with a machinima.

Brent Watanabe is an artist combining a background in traditional materials and practices (drawing, sculpture) with emerging technologies (computer programming, electronics), exploring an artistic field still uncharted. For over a decade, Watanabe has been creating computer-controlled gallery installations populated by kinetic sculpture, drawing, projection, and sound. His 2016 project, San Andreas Deer Cam was streamed live on the internet, had over 800,000 visitors in the first three months, and was mentioned in several international publications, including New York Magazine, the BBC, and WIRED. Watanabe has participated in several group shows and screenings nationally and internationally, including Through Machine Eyes curated by James Bridle at the NeMe Arts Center, in Limassol, Cyprus, Game Changers at MassArt Art Museum, in Boston and Playmode at the MATT Museum, in Lisbon, Portugal. He has had recent solo exhibitions at SOIL Art Gallery (Seattle, 2006), McLeod Residency (Seattle, 2008), Jack Straw New Media Gallery (Seattle, 2009), Gallery 4Culture (Seattle, 2011), Anchor Art Space (Anacortes, Washington State, 2013), and Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival (Seattle, 2016).

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Media coverage: Matteo Lupetti, ArtTribune (in Italian)