Sometime ago I pointed to the series "Gamers" by Todd Deutsch. Todd is the dialog partner in the latest conversation with a photographer, an ongoing series of talks initiated by Joerg Colberg of Conscientious.
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The games they play are typically first-person shooters and are extremely immersive. Much of the time is spent totally engaged in the game world, but it is a surprisingly social game world. Groups of players, called 'clans', interact in the game and communicate with each other using headsets. Every now and then when I am shooting I will hear someone say into the screen: "yeah, he's working on a documentary", or something like that. They are talking through the game with someone who is seated on the other side of the room. It is like neighborhood watch in there. It is very strange. The presence of another layer of connection becomes very clear. Much of the social interaction is immediately visible to anyone entering the building. It is no different than any other event. There is another social environment, though, that is only visible to those in the game. It is the tension between those two spaces, game space and real space, that I find very intriguing.
continue reading A Conversation with Todd Deutsch
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