Jodi in New York
EAI (Electronic Arts Intermix) and Rhizome present renowned digital artists JODI in a rare public demonstration of their latest video game modifications, Max Payne Cheats Only. The work is a series of “cheats”: alterations to the behavior of a video game that are often built in by the original programmers to help players who have reached an impasse. JODI has compiled cheats from the ultra-violent New York vigilante game, Max Payne. Their live demonstration will be followed by an in-depth discussion and question and answer session hosted by media art curator Caitlin Jones.
“Jodi have intervened in the programme structure in such a way that absurd perspectives and effects alter the game’s otherwise realistic graphics: we see the massive hero repeating idiotic movements; he dips his angular head into a virtual matrix; his body appears semitransparent. The re-processing can be read as a free interpretation of the bullet-time effect that distinguishes Max Payne from other games, by which the slow motion enables a new perception of space and time.”
-Transmediale Festival 2006
“We wanted to do something that was non-aesthetically ours. No scary black blobs on jumping white backgrounds, but trying to achieve the impossible – an abstraction within the aesthetic of a game which is already set.”
-JODI
