Capitalism and Schizophrenia - The Game (Grand Theft Auto Edition)

This is an experimental film made from suicide leaps from Grand Theft Auto 4, based on a video work by Tao Wells called "A View To A Kill" I saw a few years back. Tao's film consisted of a split screen video recording of him playing a two player first person shooter. In the top screen Player 1 stood not moving. In the bottom half of the screen Player 2 started searching for Player 1 obviously controlled by Tao). When Player 2 found Player 1 they shoot him in the head. Cut. Repeat. Player 1 is still motionless in the top half of the screen Player 2 starts the hunt again. When he finds Player 1 he slits their throat. Cut, Repeat. And so on.

The film lasted for about 15m and had a massive effect on me. It was brutal and yet banal. It didn't make any judgments on the game playing - because it was obvious the artist was the one playing it. It engaged with the complexity of virtual death in a way I hadn't seen before. So when I chanced upon a whole whack of suicide jump videos on YouTube from GTA4 (Grand Theft Auto 4) I had the idea to add to the discourse. In Tao's film we have an exploration of the love of killing others in virtual worlds. Here we have the natural conclusion - when we kill ourselves over and over again. Not actually, but virtually, though no less really.

So often the virtual is opposed to the real - as if that which is "virtual" has no baring on the "real" world (ie. the virtual is false, not true, a lie, etc.). Philosopher Gilles Deleuze does not oppose the virtual to the real, he opposes it to the actual. This is similar to the way in which quantum theory describes the difference between the world of atoms and the world of matter. Photons of light, for instance, exist in a "virtual reality" where all possibilities are still open to them. Where nothing has been decided for certain. it is only when they are looked at that they collapse into an "actual reality." Hence, the virtual is that place where decisions are still pending, where we are able to reflect upon and consider the grounds for action (before committing them to the "actual world"). Hence, the virtual is just as real as the actual. They are two layers, two membranes, which have multiple points of contact between them.

My Art Blog: http://www.wayfarergallery.net/artdick

Film by Dick Whyte (2010)

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• jumping
• airplanes
• extreme driving
• video game
• experimental film
• postmodern
• video art
• avant-garde film
• film aesthetics
• Gilles Deleuze
• Capitalism and Schizophrenia
• Grand Theft Auto 4
• GTA4
• GTA 4
• Suicide Leap
• Massive Leap
• Big Jump
• Big Fall
• Falling
• Jumping
• Leaping
• Suicide
• Metaphysics
• Philosophy

[AntonioDR88]

when he hits the floor... it doesnt move around the map da much it just stays there... and the way he falls it the most realistic 1

[hotlinkcinema]

@AntonioDR88 What about this one makes it the best for you? Just curious. All the best - Dick Whyte

[AntonioDR88]

2 08*

[AntonioDR88]

2 29 the best one