Friday August 7 – Monday August 10, 10:30pm PT
Nicholas O’Brien
The Last Survey
A video game release & performance with Lewis Kopenhafer
– online –
Microscope is very pleased to present the debut of The Last Survey, a narrative essay video game by New York-based artist Nicholas O’Brien, which will be released on August 7th at 7:30pm along with a live online play-through performance by O’Brien and Lewis Kopenhafer who collaborated on the sound.
The narrative of this interactive work — which presents the player with a series of alternative scenarios to choose from — concerns itself with human decision making that is put to test in the context of an international mining company dealing with uncomfortable truths. The game, which will be downloadable by attending the online event, is described by O’Brien as follows:
“The Last Survey is an interactive fiction video game that explores a speculative future where the metals we use for everyday electronics and green technology are in sudden short supply. Audiences play as a geologist contracted by a Brazilian mining company returning from a year-long research project across the globe. As they navigate the conversation with their CEO employer, they try to negotiate between reporting the dire truth and understanding systems of power beyond their control.
Will your choices help steer the direction of your employer away from global mineral fatigue? Or will the urgency of your research fall on unsympathetic ears?”
The artist juxtaposes suspenseful narration with animated illustrations — often composed by hand using graphite and charcoal — that seamlessly morph into each other. The measured and mood-shifting sound score by Kopenhafer provides atmospheres of uncertainty and expectation, and gives players “insight into how their choices might sway or perturb their interlocutor.”
A Q&A and live chat with the artists follows the performance at 8:30pm ET.
TO ATTEND:
Passes for viewing give full access to the performance, Q&A, and download of The Last Survey. General admission $10 (Valid through Monday August 10, 10:30pm ET)Member admission $8 (Valid through Monday August 10, 10:30pm ET)
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Nicholas O’Brien is an artist and researcher that makes video games, digital animations, and installations addressing civic history, urban infrastructure, and overlooked narratives of technology and labor. O’Brien has recently exhibited at Knockdown Center in Queens, LiMA Media Art Platform in Amsterdam, The Photographers Gallery in London as well as several online outlets like Keen On Magazine, Sedition, and The Creative Independent. As a past recipient of a Turbulence.org Commission funded by the NEA his work has also appeared or featured in ARTINFO, The Brooklyn Rail, DIS magazine, Frieze d/e, Art in America, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. He currently lives in Brooklyn and is Assistant Professor in 3D Design and Game Development at Stevens Institute of Technology.
Lewis Kopenhafer is a multi-instrumentalist living in Los Angeles.
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Microscope Gallery Event Series 2020 is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).