404 recurring

'not seeing anything intelligible is the new normal'

- Hito Steyerl

404 recurring is a digital installation designed to accompany a performance held at the Horse Hospital, London, on 15 january 2017. The accompanying audio and text performance explored the impact of censorship and redaction on textual culture.

the installation - a non-referential, redacted, and ultimately 'difficult' space - imagines an impossible environment in which the negative imprint left by what is removed is given form. We do not see what is taken away; instead, we are lacerated and intercut by the invisibility of its absence. Some cases of censorship become public record; others are never vocalized. The title - 404 - refers to the Not Found error message used in Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), as a standard response code used to indicate that the client was unable to communicate with the specified server. It indicates, negatively, an absence; the presence of a withdrawal.

the space is not simply visible; what is seen is accompanied by unseen structural components, objects, and game assets. Deactivated meshes, light probes, and objects intercut and compose the space. The visitor is unaware of these - visually - , yet they comprise a major part of the digital environment that is rendered and executed around them, thus confirming both Steyerl's interest in the unintelligible and Trevor Paglen's concern with machine-to-machine (human-less) speaking, as a language which excludes and yet impacts upon the subject. it's supposed to be difficult to navigate. sorry!

the accompanying screenshots reveal the 'hidden' architecture - of objects and assets - which exist, deactivated, within the installation space.

* INSTRUCTIONS *

use W, A, S, D to move and SPACE to jump.

hold SHIFT to run.

more information and accompanying development screens can be found HERE.