Video Game Installation
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Tear Shaped Door is a video game and sculpture installation that examines the seductions of fascistic desire. Taking the so cial trope of boot licking as its launching point, Tear Shaped Door puts the player in a high stress game scenario in which they attempt to lick a boot as fast as possible in the presence of a roaming helicopter that shakes and distorts their view. Installed with two video channels on a wooden structure that echoes a guillotine, the player engages with a trackball to lick the boot on the front screen, while the rear screen displays a point-of-view of the tongue as it moves across the boot’s surface.
Unable to bring about any revolutionary potential, the static guillotine stands as a reminder of the complacency that emerges when military, para-military, and police forces become revered subjects that uphold masculinist values of dominance and control. While the sculpture and simulation might seem disturbing as a spectator, the easy understandability and playability of the boot licking simulation absorbs the player's attention as they attempt to optimize the tongue's path over the boot’s surface. Two speakers installed in the structure play blaring helicopter noises when the player’s screen begins to shake. The hope being that this loud sound and moment of uncontrollability shock the player out of their immersion into a space of critical reflection.
The following documentation includes installation photographs of the work at the New Wight Galley at the University of California, Los Angeles as well as screen captures of the work.