VRAL SEASON FIVE

INTERVIEW: ALEXANDER BLEY ON PLATFORM

Alexander Bley is a visual artist and VFX supervisor based in Berlin. He is particularly driven by class consciousness, a theme that permeates his work, including projects like Platform, currently on display on VRAL.This film, co-directed by Steffen Köhn and Johannes Büttner, uses machinima techniques and classic CGI to explore the parallels between dystopian capitalist futures and current realities. We talked with Alexander about his machinima work for Steffen Köhn and Johannes Büttner’s groundbreaking Platform.

Matteo Bittanti: Could you begin by outlining your methodology and practices as a VFX and CGI specialist? What drives your creative and technical decisions? Can you share some information about your background and upbringing?

Alexander Bley: Generally, my methodology depends on the specific tasks and the suitability of my current toolset. If my tools are inadequate, I consider what additional tools could be used, whether it's feasible to incorporate them within a reasonable timeframe, or if additional support is necessary. This decision-making process starts with clear communication about the task, understanding the vision of the directors or clients. Moodboards are particularly helpful during this phase, and I enjoy collaborating with clients or directors to develop ideas further. Any medium that helps align everyone involved, such as music, movies, games, or other pop culture references, is welcome. When production begins, I strive to have a precise understanding of the project, making animatics and similar tools invaluable. Creatively, I prefer to produce work that is not overly polished, embracing technological limitations or even “mistakes” (such as stretched textures) as a counterpoint to the highly polished digital aesthetics prevalent in the 21st century.

So, my background, let’s see... I’ve always been into visual stuff - drawing, comics, movies, computer games — but I also had an interest in technical things. That led me to study audiovisual media at Beuth College in Berlin. The program mostly focused on lens-based picture making, which didn’t quite satisfy me. So, I spent my free time in front of a computer doing tutorials and experimenting with VFX software like After Effects. My twin brother and I were raised by a working-class single mom in a town near Dortmund. Back then, Dortmund was going through a rough time due to globalization, with a lot of steel and coal jobs disappearing. I’m also half Greek, and the Greek community is the largest immigrant group where I grew up. This mix of experiences and my background has given me a strong class sensitivity, which is a big part of why I’m motivated to work on projects like Platform…

(continues)

With a strong interest in both visual and technical aspects of media, Alexander Bley pursued audiovisual media studies at Beuth College. Dissatisfied with the lens-based focus of the program, he dedicated his free time to learning VFX software such as After Effects. Raised in a working-class family near Dortmund, Bley’s upbringing in a declining industrial town has significantly influenced his artistic motivation. Bley’s work spans various media, including immersive installations like Memoria, which combines ethnographic research with science fiction elements inspired by William Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic. He has also worked on music videos, such as Nanti-Hell, employing advanced VFX techniques and facial tracking. His diverse portfolio demonstrates his ability to merge creative and technical skills across multiple platforms and genres.

Alexander Bley’s personal website

This content is exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To gain full access, consider joining our vibrant community.

VIDEO ESSAY: THE ART OF VIRTUAL RESIDENCY

VRAL is currently presenting The Death Trilogy by Adonis Archontides, a triptych of works starring his ersatz Sim-clones. To better appreciate the breadth and scope of his work, we are discussing his Sims-based oeuvre. We continue our exploration with the in-game performance Adonis and the Labour of Artistic Production. This project stands out as one of the most inventive integrations of The Sims within an avant-garde context to date, where the processes of art-making and video game mechanics are seamlessly intertwined, creating a fruitful dialogue.

Adonis and the Labour of Artistic Production (2017-2018) centers on the personal and artistic journey of Adonis Archontides during his virtual art residency within The Sims 4, as captured through a series of Instagram posts. The project – which began in December 2017 and concluded in February 2018, in preparation of Archontides’ first solo exhibition, which opened on February 22nd, 2018 – explores themes of artistic creation, the transient nature of beauty and inspiration, and the interplay between personal life, gaming interactions, and creative expression. During his virtual residency, Adonis investigated the essence of artistic labor and the impact of the environment on creativity, sharing interesting insights into his artistic process. Like Marshall McLuhan, Adonis seems to share the idea that media – video games included – create environments, rather than just “content” or “messages”.

Like the subsequent work, Adonis and Adonis and Adonis and Adonis and Adonis and Adonis and Adonis and Wade and the Effort of Consciousness, Adonis and the Labour of Artistic Production relies on digital platforms to chronicle the construction of identity and reality in virtual or digitally mediated environments. However, while the former focuses on the multiplicity of self and philosophical explorations within a simulated game world, the latter engages more with the physicality of the artistic process and its documentation in real-time, offering a more intimate look at the everyday life and productive cycles of an artist. Together, both projects showcase Adonis’s ongoing interest in merging life and art with digital means, continually pushing the boundaries on how art is created, experienced, and discussed in the age of video games. 

The residency was cleverly narrated through a series of posts on Instagram. Adonis and the Labour of Artistic Production developed in stages, from…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Adonis Archontides

Adonis and the Labour of Artistic Production

Performance documentation in The Sims 4, screenshots, Instagrams posts, 2017-2018

All images courtesy of Adonis Archontides

This content is exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To gain full access, consider joining our vibrant community.

ARTICLE: THE LOCKDOWNS NEVER ENDED

Adonis Archontides, Adonis and the Lockdown Tactics, digital video, sound, color, 4’ 05”, 2020, Cyprus.

VRAL is currently presenting The Death Trilogy by Adonis Archontides, a tryptic of works starring his ersatz Sim-clone. To better appreciate the breadth and scope of his video art, we will we will embark on a critical exploration, beginning with Adonis and the Lockdown Tactics.

Archontides’s Adonis and the Lockdown Tactics (2020) is an introspective short machinima created with/in The Sims 4 (2014). Originally developed as part of a broader cultural initiative by the Cypriot Cultural Services during the COVID-19 pandemic, this work was among fifty projects that received accolades for promoting audio-visual creativity in challenging times. This machinima leverages Will Wright’s popular simulation game to explore themes of repetition and monotony, resonating with the enforced isolation and government mandated "social distancing" experienced globally during a series of shelter-in-place initiatives. Watched in 2024, this work feels at once anachronistic and very timely, remote and fresh. 

The premise of Adonis and the Lockdown Tactics is deeply influenced by the Simulation Hypothesis, a concept prevalent in science fiction - and particularly loved by Silicon Valley’s edgelords - where reality as we know it is posited as an elaborate artifice, a cruel joke concocted by a superior, likely malevolent, intelligence. In Archontides’ piece, this “theory” is subtly referenced through the repetitive, looped nature of the Sims’ existence, mirroring the monotony of lockdown life, which seems to have lost its sense of progression, its teleology. The protagonist, a Sim replica of Adonis himself, navigates the so-called daily life in a state of perpetual loop, echoing the equally apathetic anti-hero of…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Works cited 

Adonis Archontides

Adonis and the Lockdown Tactics

machinima/digital video, color, sound, 4’ 05”, 2020. Cyprus.

This content is exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To gain full access, consider joining our vibrant community.

EVENT: ADONIS ARCHONTIDES (APRIL 26 - MAY 9 2024, ONLINE)

The Death Trilogy

performance documentation, digital video and audio recorded in The Sims 4, 33’ 05”, 2024, Cyprus

Created by Adonis Archontides

Za woka genava (I think you are hot), Ya gotta wob’ere! Ya gotta wob’ere! (Don’t give up! Keep trying!) and Za woka genava (I think you are hot) form a trilogy in which Archontides delves into the use of video games as a platform for documenting dual performances, those of himself and his avatar, Adonis (Sim), created within the popular simulation game, The Sims 4. This unique collaboration highlights a peculiar interdependence: although Archontides controls the outcomes of their joint endeavors, both entities contribute essential roles to their creative process. These performances unfold under the passive gaze of an audience, drawn into a somewhat sadistic voyeurism. Yet, crucially, Adonis (Sim) remains unaware of his reality as a digital construct, performing actions dictated by Archontides that, while impossible in the real world, are completely feasible within the game’s algorithmic constraints. The Death Trilogy pushes the boundaries of digital life and death, as evidenced in the final moments of each piece. Here, viewers witness Adonis’s resurrection, a thematic echo of the limitless possibilities afforded by simulated environments.

Adonis Archontides is a multidisciplinary artist who studied Illustration & Visual Media at the University of the Arts in London. His works are satirical and introspective; they often investigate the production of identity as a conscious or subconscious process, and the porosity between fiction, reality, and simulation. Part of his research focusing on his namesake Adonis, an ancient Greek nature deity, revolves around the effects of time on the interpretation of myths. An avid gamer, Archontides believes in the artistic potential of video games which often uses as raw material in his artistic practice. He has been collaborating with an avatar of himself created in the popular simulation game The Sims 4, juxtaposing Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey with an artist’s career trajectory through an episodic narrative. Archontides lives and works in Limassol, Cyprus.