Cauchemar, le jeu, 2015
Cauchemar, le jeu (Nightmare, the game) is a personal project that deals with the concept of nightmares, as created by the Jungian Shadow. In the virtual world a mirror reflects an obscure representation of the player. The mirror starts talking to him, eventually asking questions. Depending on the answers, different nightmares will visit him.
The project investigates a possible way to merge the virtual with the physical by introducing another person in both virtual and physical space, who impersonates the player’s Shadow. The Shadow, the archetype that incarnates the darkest parts of the unconscious, drives the narrative. “Hell is the others”, as Sartre writes in his play No Exit, when his protagonists experience hell through their everlasting dialogues, only to realize that it is due to their own reflection on the others that they eternally suffer. The actual nightmare is the dialogue of the player/dreamer with the Shadow, and most importantly the control of the latter on the former, as the Shadow gets manifested through a familiar presence in nightmares, and is tied with regret, repentance and, in the best case scenario, relief.
Cauchemar, le jeu has been exhibited at the Lumen Online Gallery, the Paris 8 Campus Exhibtion at Ars Electronica 2015, and the metamatic taf gallery Athens in 2016.
The project investigates a possible way to merge the virtual with the physical by introducing another person in both virtual and physical space, who impersonates the player’s Shadow. The Shadow, the archetype that incarnates the darkest parts of the unconscious, drives the narrative. “Hell is the others”, as Sartre writes in his play No Exit, when his protagonists experience hell through their everlasting dialogues, only to realize that it is due to their own reflection on the others that they eternally suffer. The actual nightmare is the dialogue of the player/dreamer with the Shadow, and most importantly the control of the latter on the former, as the Shadow gets manifested through a familiar presence in nightmares, and is tied with regret, repentance and, in the best case scenario, relief.
Cauchemar, le jeu has been exhibited at the Lumen Online Gallery, the Paris 8 Campus Exhibtion at Ars Electronica 2015, and the metamatic taf gallery Athens in 2016.
