Pataphysical Salon (Ludibrium)

Background: According to Baudrillard (2007) the rules of the pataphysical game are far ‘more dastardly than any other.’ Drawing on this idea, the resulting artwork resists the need to craft an immersive experience for the audience and encourages a dissonant form of play by epitomising a cacophonous lucidity. Opening up regular states anticipated by the convention of a game pad, a unity game engine is modified for its operation to be driven by an accumulation of fine-grained errors and anomalies. Thus, the viewer is not able to lose themselves, but is instead constantly thrown back into the present salon where the work is installed.   Contribution: Pataphysical Salon is an installation featuring an eccentric videoscape activated via a Human Interface Device (HID) game pad. A HID is typically programmed for a tight temporal link between interface action and sound response. In this work, the HID is programmed in relation to the unscrupulous pataphysical principles. Errantly triggering sound FX, a full moon dances and flickers. Visual glitches are elicited in the perceivable lag in response as consequence HID control data scrambles the mise-en-scene. The work’s atmosphere adds to wider debates about data and the artistic treatment of nonhuman phenomena that increasingly shape globalised societies, adding new insight into 21C mediums as aesthetic process. Significance: Mauro-Flude was invited to show the work at the curated Ministry of Hacking group exhibition at ESC exhibition space, which was presented in partnership with ‘steirischer herbst,’ an esteemed international contemporary arts festival in Graz. This project received funding through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts and was selected for the competitive Alcorso International Fellowship.