Cao Shu

Roam Simulator

2021

Interactive game and video installation

4K screen, raspberry pie, capacitive screen, metal bracket, handle, computer

5+1AP

This is a project of video game combined with photo taking function. The time in the game has stopped, and players can use the “Recall” button as “photo taking”action. Audience as player can recall the time in different family album, which were scattered in a real-time rendering desert world. It has been 15 years since I left the north, and my existing life has been divided into two almost equal parts. No matter how the city space is demolished and reconstructed, the original geographical structure and impression of hometown will always be stored in the depth of the brain.Some reduction and reorganization in deep dream. I follow the clues of the family album and return the location of it by 3D digital simulation. It was originally in a game, and the spatial combination continued the long-term recording of dream map. In the exhibition hall, scattered photos are also available.They are clues to the game. The game is about walking alone on the surface of a subconscious planet covered with a mental map. Dozens a moment of years ago, a few years ago and yesterday came at the same time. This work is a continuation of the self questioning of many years ago, Can people understand history with geography and time with space by means of changing technology? The work originated from my own thinking about Dyson Sphere. Under the Dyson Sphere’s train of thought, If everything can be regarded as pure quantitative resources and energy, what does the existence in memory mean to individuals?