Description
The Internet & Gaming Culture – The Cheat & Password Paintings
For his solo exhibition at Dallas Contemporary, Jeff Zilm exhibits two bodies of work alongside his abstract filmic paintings—works that he refers to as the Cheat and Password Paintings. In these pieces, Zilm samples text from both video game cheat codes and an automatic password generator. Once the content is removed from its original source, the resulting text-based artworks create ambiguous narratives with deadpan, existentialist undertones. The Cheat and Password paintings not only call into question notions of authorship but also the personal and political discourse of gaming culture and our rising concerns with online security.
Initially created to aid the production phase of game development, cheat codes allowed testers to quickly navigate through various parts of the game. “Such codes were primarily there to aid developers rather than benefit the player”, says Chris Sorrell, the man behind the acclaimed titles James Pond and Robocod (Red Bull, 2014). There is however, an ethical discourse surrounding the use of cheat codes in gameplay. Similar to artists working with readymade objects, gamers are clearly divided when it comes to using codes. Game makers suggest that cheat codes are a way for the player to further engage with the developer, while many feel that cheat codes remove the challenge and eschew the purpose of an otherwise expensive investment.
Talk to Us:
Do you use cheat codes when you play video games? Why or why not?
Should your password be something important or random?
How else are artists using technology in art today?
Jeff Zilm was born in 1958 in Iowa City, Iowa. He studied at the University of North Texas before receiving his MFA at Southern Methodist University. Solo exhibitions include Oliver Francis Gallery (Dallas), AND NOW (Dallas), The Journal Gallery (Brooklyn), and Preteen Gallery (Mexico City). He has taken part in group shows at the Contemporary Arts Museum (Houston) and The Jewish Museum (New York). Zilm lives and works in Dallas, Texas. LOSSLESS FORMS FOR PICTURE PLANE is his first museum solo exhibition.
Sources:
McFerran, Damien. "Code Red: The History of the Cheat." Red Bull. Red Bull, 24 June 2014. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.