An ethnographic exploration of the work and life realities of non-player characters, the digital extras in video games. Their labour loops, activity patterns as well as bugs and malfunctions paint a vivid analogy for work under capitalism.
Member of Total Refusal. Total Refusal is an open collective of artists that criticizes and artistically appropriates contemporary video games. However, as most mainstream game narratives employ the same infinite loops of reactionary tropes, the genre largely does not challenge the values of its players and instead asserts hegemonic moral concepts. Recognizing that this medium of communication is currently not realizing its cultural potential, we aim to appropriate the digital spaces of games and give them a new use. Moving within the games but leaving aside the intended game, we rededicate these resources to new activities and narratives, seeking to create "public" spaces with critical potential.
Member of Total Refusal
Leonhard Müllner, born in 1987 in Graz, lives and works in Vienna as a visual artist and media researcher.
Member of Total Refusal. It achieved several awards, such as the Vimeo Staff Pick Award, the "Best Austrian Film" award, as well as prices at the Vienna Short Film Festival, the Shortwaves Film Festival in Poznan and the AMaze Festival in Berlin.
Member of Total Refusal.
