Hugo Arcier Archives - Kill Screen

Artist turns Grand Theft Auto V into a ghost city

Three years on and people are still finding new ways to look at Grand Theft Auto V (2013). This time its French digital artist Hugo Arcier who has reinterpreted the game’s world without a population. He calls it GHOST CITY—a video installation that was first shown at his exhibition “Fantômes numériques” at Lux Scène Nationale from April 29th to July 9th earlier this year. “The focus is put on architectural and graphic elements. It is a meditative and captivating experience,” writes Arcier about GHOST CITY. “This virtual universe solicits both the present (the experience of the artwork) and the memory.”…

News

FPS has something to say about videogames and guns. But what?

Hugo Arcier’s FPS is about last year’s attacks in Paris, though it is not immediately clear in precisely what way. We know this because the artist says as much on his website: “FPS is a post November 2015 Paris attacks art piece. The artist deals with blindness hijacking video game codes, in particular of first person shooter game. The only visible elements are pyrotechnic effects, gunshots, muzzles flashes, sparks, impacts, smokes.” In practice, what that means is that a black space is lit up by flares from something vaguely resembling a videogame gun. They linger in the air, like lasers at…