Utopia Without You

This digital file was part of a larger exhibition, Utopia Without You at HOLDING Contemporary in Portland, Oregon, Sept 6th - Oct 13th 2018

The game depicts a strange isolated planetoid that the player can rotate. Over time the scene shifts into different geologic eras. Sometimes the long view is best. An ambiguous narrative emerges over the aeons.

You can view documentation of the complete project here:

https://tabithanikolai.com/Utopia-Without-You

Overall project statement:

Utopia Without You is an elegy for American liberalism using the novel and nested forms of insulation that have helped make its death so palatable. Fashioned as a kind of gamer den of the apocalypse it ruminates on trans-pessimism and isolation as a Pyrrhic survival technique. Nestled within the velvet trap of the den there is freedom from visibility: both the threat of violence, and the horrors of being consumed like so many ill-digested ally cookies. Conversely, the Skinner box of the digital attenuates one to some combination of viciousness and vapidity. This is the bind, finding human connection in a way that acknowledges and transcends the pain of the real while evading the hunter's snares.

Original score by Rook: https://adarook.bandcamp.com/