Four large screens were arranged to surround the visitor in the exhibition space, projected onto each of which are video images of the modified game. Via computer mice and keyboards set up in front of the screens, visitors could create objects inside the game and control their positions, and furthermore, control the effect of gravity within the game setting.
In addition, three objects combining electrical tools and interfaces such as mouse and keyboard were installed around the visitor. Random operations of these objects triggered the input of various commands making the game characters move around freely.
The repeated synchronization and desynchronization of real and game environments around this arrangement of objects and terminals in the exhibition space upset notions of demolition and creation, sense and nonsense, to forge a unique new world in which the borderlines between man and machine, real and virtual have molten away.
The Game
Realized on the basis of the game engine of "Half-Life 2", a 3D shooting game developed by the American Valve Corporation and renowned for its high mod quality, and using free software for further modifying it into a new game called "Garry's Mod", was a new game world with perfectly unique objects, characters, interactions and physical laws.
Sceneries of the game as seen from the perspectives of its four characters - SORA (sky), JIMEN (ground), KEMONO (beast) and NINGEN (human) - were projected onto four large screens measuring 7.5 meters in width and 5.7 meters in height. The projection on the front screen represented the perspective of NINGEN, the only character that could be controlled by the visitor.