My Life as a Sim (2005 - 2007)
My Life as a Sim (2005 - 2007)
This transmedia project uses the simulated-reality computer game The Sims 2™ as a medium in making art. In playing the game, I explore the multiplicity of meanings that can be made from a single cultural product. Each piece in the project is a work unto itself and also refers to the lived performance of playing the game.
My initial interest stemmed from the nature of the game, in which players pursue their own purposes and perform their own subjectivity by using their avatars (Sims) as an extensions of themselves. Gameplay becomes an ongoing negotiation of the self. There's no way to win the game, unless you perceive that you've won. Players don't all play for the same reasons or make the same meanings from the practice of playing.
Work from this project is contained in MP3: Volume II, the second installment of the Midwest Photographers Publication Project.