Unknown Gamer gamer is a series of vertical videos of phone screens in public taken with a mobile phone. Today people in public space, especially during travel make extensive use of smart phones. The gaze at the smart phone became the epochal gesture of our decade. The series Unknown Gamer in particular portraits users playing computer games on their touch screen devices. The attention to the screen seems unbreakable, to an extend the gamer doesn’t realize he/she is being recorded from a very close distance. Phone screens in public generate a semi private private space which corresponds vrey much with the impact of digital communication on the private/public social life in today’s society.
“During my travels I started to film seat neighbors in trains or planes while they play computer games on their smart phones. The growing attention to the handheld private screen in public is a typical phenomenon of the last 5-8 years. Especially with computer games the player is very much bound to the screen. The attention is so strong the player doesn t even realize he/she is being filmed from a very close distance.” Aram Bartholl 2014
Shown at „Hurt me plenty“ solo show at DAM gallery 2014.
