The Other Monster

ARTICLE: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF ALIX DESAUBLIAUX’S MARCHE VERS L'EST

Alix Desaubliaux, Marche vers l’Est, 2016

FINDING JOY AT THE END OF THE WORLD

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Marche vers l'est (2016) is an improvised performance in search of the end of the world in Skyrim, in which the artist deliberately looks for ways to break the game in order to bring its sheer artificiality to the foreground. As Alix Desaubliaux explains,

I wanted to play with the very concept of role playing. The character discovers that he is trapped in an artificial setting, a constructed world, a very elaborate trap. I made March of the East by chance, because I got bored with the game’s quest — the assigned goal so to speak — and I wanted to explore further and discover the boundaries of the territory I was traversing. As I used a cheat code to cross the last frontier between the playable world and the Out of Bounds area, I kind of gave up on my character in my mind and I knew I was leading her to an inevitable end. I knew I wasn’t going to play anymore as I was supposed to. But the more I walked east, the more I was surprised about the indefiniteness of the world. I was expecting an abrupt end, a fall into the void or something. This experimental exploration ends after a day and a night of (in-game) walking. The game map becomes gradually distorted but outside, there is no difference at all, apart from the main island that is no longer viewable. It was largely sufficient for me: I didn't want to push until I maybe came across an invisible wall or something that could technically end the world.

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Matteo Bittanti

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ARTICLE: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF ALIX DESAUBLIAUX’S DOGMEAT

Alix Desaubliaux, L’Autre Monster (The Other Monster), 2021

MAN’S BEST VIRTUAL FRIEND

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Dogmeat is the name of the loyal, faithful dog that accompanies the player in the post-apocalyptic scenarios of Fallout 4. This virtual animal was originally baded on River, the German shepherd of two of the developers at Bethesda. Also titled Dogmeat, this 2016 machinima focuses on the virtual animal and the emotional bond he shares with the player. Dogmeat is the solution to the breakdown of the simulation: it draws the character into an awareness of the fiction and the artificiality that surrounds him, the virtual setting in which they both find themselves. Dogmeat comprises a series of vignette at time uncanny, tender, tragic. It is a reminder that we are replacing IRL nature with its simulation. And yes, in case you were wondering we are, indeed, living in Philip K. Dick’s world...

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Alix Desaubliaux

Dogmeat

digital video/machinina, color, sound, 16' 31', 2016, France

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ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT ALIX DESAUBLIAUX’S L’AUTRE MONSTRE

Alix Desaubliaux, L’Autre Monster (The Other Monster), 2021

WHY LOOK AT VIRTUAL ANIMALS?

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A hybrid of video essay, conceptual walkthrough, visual poem, and documentary, L’Autre Monster (The Other Monster) exemplifies the most experimental side of machinima. The French artist - who’s been working with video games for several years - uses Capcom’s Monster Hunter World (2018) to bring to the foreground the affective nature of playing, that it, the emotional, emphatic connections created by interaction design, and specifically, by the relationship between the player and her/his avatars, that is, alter egos and sidekicks. At the same time, Desaubliaux highlights the inner workings of the virtual world simulated in the game, flora and fauna. Specifically, she brings to the viewer’s attention the sheer contradictions between the pro-environmental message of the game and the reality of video game playing, as game-related technologies - including streaming - are extremely power hungry and thus their carbon footprint is far from negligible. It’s remarkable that the more we destroy the environment on a daily basis, the more we strive to reconstruct an idealized version of “nature” in video games and virtual worlds where there is no trash, litter, and microplastics. In a sense, we are replacing IRL nature with its simulation. We live in Philip K. Dick’s world.

The rationale is simple: economics. Virtual worlds are just products to be sold to the masses and there’s nothing that works better than a cute, smiling creature from across the screen to close the deal. Desaubliaux stresses that the appeal of these kinds of games is the liveness of the worlds they depict, their dynamics and their responsiveness. But she also emphasizes the artificially of such constructs with an insistent use of glitches throughout the video: a beetle breaks apart and a cascade of pixels take over the screen. A close up of branches and leaves show the highly geometric, polygonal-nature of this world. Still, the sunsets and sunrises are always perfect. Rivers and oceans are clean. Animals roam free instead of becoming either roadkill or fodder for industrial farming. Desaubliaux engages in critical play, to borrow Mary Flanagan’s expression. She is also an explorer (in Richard Bartle’s terms) and a documentary filmmaker.

She is also a geologist and an ethnographer. She uses the virtual camera to zoom in and out. Several sequences of her monumental documentary are reminiscent of the screensavers of AppleTV and of virtual aquariums: spectacular scenes shot by drones, up high in the sky so that the mess below is not visible, or simulations of microworlds, such as a fish tank in which entropic forces are kept at bay. She mentions the inherent tension between being a “tourist” in virtual worlds and a true resident, a “local”, which is how the game community perceives itself. It’s not just about aesthetics: to fully belong, one must be fluent in the language of the game and its creatures. One must be familiar with the lore, that is virtual folklore. She describes how players create this world by projecting their emotions onto the creatures that populate it, algorithms dressed up in fancy textures… 

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Alix Desaubliaux

L’Autre Monster (The Other Monster)

digital video/machinima (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 48’ 26”, 2021, France (in French with English subtitles)

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

EVENT: ALIX DESAUBLIAUX (OCTOBER 28 - NOVEMBER 10 2022, ONLINE)

L’AUTRE MONSTRE (THE OTHER MONSTER)

digital video/machinima (1920x1080), color, sound, 48’ 59”, 2021, France (in French with English subtitles)

Created by Alix Desaubliaux

L’Autre Monster (The Other Monster) is an experimental film created with/in Monster Hunter World (Capcom, 2018). A contemplative immersion in a fantasy universe, this machinima examines the affective nature of playing. The artist appropriated a popular Japanese RPG and hunting game to explore ecological issues related to the ongoing capitalist exploitation of nature, which are intimately linked to the affective positions of the players. This singular relationship is punctuated by questions about the ontology of the creatures that inhabit the world, their language and communication style, and the system of representation that informs their appearance and behavior. Part documentary, part visual poem, and part conceptual walk-through, The Other Monster was produced using in-game assets, environments, and 3D images generated by an application. From the Anjanath to the Deviljho and the Pukei-Pukei, from the director’s point of view to the players’ experiences with Serid and Unbot, accompanied by their palicos, the monster becomes a metaphor for Otherness: a tool to question one’s relationship to the Other and to the world as a whole.

French artist Alix Desaubliaux and has been an active member of the Vivarium workshop since January 2021. In addition to her artistic practice, she explores performative and experimental formats via online encounters with the collective 3G, featuring Annie Abrahams, Pascale Barret, and Alice Lenay. She is also involved with the research group WMAN, comprising six artists and curators working with video games. Desaubliaux teaches in several art schools including ENSAD Nancy, ESACM Clermont-Ferrand, ENSBA Lyon, ESAM Caen, ESBAN Nîmes, where she organizes workshops, interventions, conferences, and seminars. Her work has been presented in several exhibitions, events, and festivals including Jeune Création Fair in 2015 at the Thaddaeus Ropac gallery; Digital Arts Biennial at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Domaine Pommery; Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria; Mécènes du Sud Montpellier-Sète and Glassbox, among others. Desaubliaux lives and works in Rennes.

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