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THE CASTLEINTERACTIVE VIDEO GAME,2024
The Castle casts the player into a world where bugs, glitches and loading screens permeate and, eventually, break down any sense of smooth gameplay, propelling the player around in a multitude of random, chaotic levels.
The piece considers moments when frictionless digital technologies become stuck, broken, or misused, viewing these as simultaneously paralysing and liberating experiences which challenge cultural obsessions with engagement, productivity, and optimisation.
It is set within a 3D reconstruction of a real-world castle in North East England, built by a medieval lord as a display of power and wealth despite holding little strategic value in its location. This fortification never saw a day of battle, its ruined appearance due to gradual erosion by sea and rain. In the work, the player’s agency and the game’s own stability are gradually eroded in turn.