The
SimBee installation plays with the work of performance artist Vanessa
Beecroft within the Sims game space and in the real world exhibition
space as a projected performance and series of performance stills.
In
live performance Beecroft stages events in which similarly clothed
(or unclothed) models pose live in a gallery space (see www.vanessabeecroft.com
for images). In SimBee, we've crafted Sim replicas of Beecroft's
models, and let them loose to 'live' within a gallery space for
the duration of an exhibition.
The
SimBee installation functions on several levels. It parodies the
work of Vanessa Beecroft, and explores artistic practice that utilizes
off the shelf game software as its medium. SimBee encourages the
viewer to consider how the gaze, the nature of autonomy, and issues
of exploitation and voyeurism are shifted when filtered through
the lens of simulation. In keeping with our earlier Sims work, we
have set the parameters of the SimBee simulation in motion but donot
know the outcome prior to its unfolding in time and virtual space.
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