SITUATION #91

Video games carry us off into a simulated, parallel world by engaging us with their interactive picture stories. With mobile devices and faster connectivity, such immersion in mediatized parallel worlds has become an integral part of our experience of reality, which is increasingly informed by images and screens. The smartphone screen, in particular, draws us into other worlds within seconds, and today we navigate between them as a matter of course. Aram Bartholl’s series Unknown Gamer shows people in the train or on airplanes, staring incessantly into their screens, so deeply immersed in their video games that they don’t even notice the outside observer watching and recording them. More than just merging private and public spaces, the gaze at our smartphone screens becomes one of the significant expressions of our time.

More by Aram Bartholl: arambartholl.com