there are some things about places you just don’t realise until you leave them, 2024.

photo © Lea van Hall
interactive installation
sound by Éléa Brando
typography by Tigran Saakyan

Following my research on life simulation video games and their role as a place of self-reflection, exploration and projection of desire, this work consists of a video game set in my own apartment, with the avatar being me. Inspired by object-based video games like Pixel Chix or Tamagotchi, the game is framed by a ceramic object modelled after the façade of my apartment building. The viewer is invited to interact with the game, exploring different objects around the apartment and discovering animations and text fragments collected from different life simulation video games. The work captures the emotion felt by those who have spent hours and hours in front of their screens, immersing themselves in simulated realities, blurring the lines between digital and physical space.

“Real gamers don’t play video games.”
I first came across this phrase in January 2019, originally posted on tumblr by user conceptblogfromaconcepthuman with no further context provided. I’m assuming their intention was to point out how a lot of people passively participate in the gaming community by enjoying its aesthetics and culture through videos, cosplay, etc. without playing any of the games themselves. Calling yourself a „gamer“ ironically no longer involves the action of playing a game. This reminds me of being in elementary school and going over to my best friend’s house to sit next to her in her parents’ office and watch her play The Sims 2. Even though I wasn’t pressing the buttons myself, the game meant a lot to me. When I finally got my own computer, I started existing in Pleasantview on my own terms – that’s when I may have stopped being a „real gamer“, but the game became much more real to me. While the social interactions I had with the NPCs in the game were just a fantasy, an entirely preprogrammed simulation of emotions, the code of the game materialised through the real emotions it made me feel. The pixels on the screen became tangible in the form of butterflies in my stomach.

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lea van hall

selected works