Response

CLUNKK



Response (2020) is a single-player videogame that describes a dissatisfaction to the current social climate of Covid-19. While we self congratulate on topics of care and community, we remain ambivalent to those who fall through the cracks of our system. Instead of envisioning and fighting for a future were everyone is cared for, posts circulate of pre-pandemic times that glorify the opulence that led to our state of divide. Scenes of the privileged whose right to congregate has largely excluded the disabled. Now the Internet homes and archives the opinions of those who decry their separation from the public sphere, forced to accept a broken welfare system and the risks of venturing out. In the three game modes solo, contact, and arena: cursors collide with one another, warping the progress of the screen to construct and weave a tangible image of personhood. Through a post-processing glitch, the screen-space draws lines that interlace a musculature that beats blood-red upon touch or centering oneself. Gameplay is formulated by the player, who imposes meaning onto their screen in an attempt to reconcile a growing sense of segregation – a need to be linked and felt.


About the Artist

CLUNKK is the pseudonym of Sophie Reid-Singer, an interdisciplinary artist based in Brisbane Australia whose playful exploration of the body and technology abstracts binary notions of self: f v m, 0 v 1, mind v body, disability v ability, lover v fighter. Through videogames, sculptural interfaces, and immersive soundscapes: CLUNKK describes themselves as somewhere between space-imp and takeaway container. The absurd avatars and digital environments immerse players into colourful sensorial experiences, where CLUNKK quietly mocks ableist narratives while providing tools for un-learning the dogma of the body; embracing multiplicity and difference.