godmode on

Fear is one of the oldest human emotions. All visions of fear are better than the absolute unknown, every primitive shape is better than none. Primal fear has always provoked humans to create images of the unknown. Already in the Middle Ages the amalgamation of imagination with fear stretched through the vision of religious afterlife, as for example the imagination of hell and heaven. Nowadays virtual computer game worlds create a new vision of afterlife. Virtual reality offers a playground, where humans are able to get in touch with and fight against their darkest nightmares knowing for sure that they get off inviolate.
The video installation godmode_on shows 5 cyborgs from known ego shooter games. The so-called ‘opponents’ turn in colossal size (as large as a person) on an invisible stage. In the “God’s mode” the recipient has the opportunity to face these composite beings between person, animal and machine, which usually cannot be seen in the game. Lifted out almost scientifically from their accustomed play world, the observer is confronted with the modern imagination of primal fear. After the intense reception we almost sympathize with these monsters, which seem to be quite lost in the virtual darkness.