Digital Memory in WRONG BOX (2019)

Dunja Nešović Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Horstenberg 196 Faculty of Humanities

1102CZ Amsterdam Comparative Arts and Media Studies

Tel.: 0687131968 Media Art History

Student number: 2659422 prof. dr. Katja Kwastek

E-mail address: d.nesovic@student.vu.nl 31 January 2020

Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
GAME ART OR ART GAME...........................................................................................................................3
MEMORY.....................................................................................................................................................4
AUTOBIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................................5
INDEXICAL MEMORY AND POSTPRODUCTION OF DIGITAL FOLKLORE........................................................5
RE-ENACTMENT AND GAME AS A SPATIAL NARRATIVE..............................................................................7
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................8
BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................................................................8
INTRODUCTION

In this paper I will analyse main aesthetic and contextual aspects that deal with memory and nostalgia in
artist Molly Soda’s and game designer Aquma’s game WRONG BOX. WRONG BOX presents a stroll within
virtual landscapes of the early 2000s Internet, accessed through a teenager's computer. It is reminiscent
of a specific period in Internet’s history, marked by users making "a concerted effort to surf the web, as
opposed to the endless scroll of our feeds we're accustomed to now." 1. It is temporally located in the
moment when social media paradigm shift happened with rise of FACEBOOK and decline of MYSPACE.
FACEBOOK introduced the fixed design interface that further enabled endless scroll, as opposed to the

surfing that was dominant in the age of MYSPACE when its users also had much more freedom in
interfering with the design and visuality and sound of their profiles and home pages. 2

The game starts in a teenage bedroom, decorated with pixelated posters of musicians of that
era, charm bracelets, diaries and (now obsolete) technology such as iPod and CD player that indicate the
time frame and the assumed identity of the first-person player. When the player turns on the PC in the
room, the animation from the desktop starts to overflow into the space of the bedroom and the player
finds themselves in the 3D space of the early 2000s Internet. The rest of the game is imagined as an
exploration of social media digital spaces and interfaces of that era, that is manifested through chatting
via obsolete instant messaging platforms (fig. 1); customizing a MYSPACE page with HTML code (fig. 2) or
taking a quiz on “How random r u?” (fig. 3)

GAME ART OR ART GAME

Before getting into content analysis, I want to devote some attention to discussing the formal
characteristics of this game that further determine its placement within contemporary media art
context. This work of art belongs to genre of Internet art, and its deriving category of games. 3 More
specifically, it borders between two aesthetic categories made by John Sharp – game art and artgames.
Game art is characterized by usage of game medium which doesn’t ultimately produce a gaming

1
Molly Soda, 2019.
2
Ibid.
3
Greene 2004, p. 144.

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experience, but rather questions and plays with games as tool sets and cultural tropes. 4 On the other
hand, artgame incorporates all the innate properties of the game – such as interactivity, game
mechanics and player goals – that do produce a somewhat traditional gaming experience, but unlike
mainstream games, artgame deals with exploring “metaphysical questions around life, ethics and
aspects of the human condition”.5

WRONG BOX incorporates points of interaction for the player that further enable progression of

the game narrative, which could qualify this game as an artgame. On the other hand, they are very
minimal and simple, serving mainly to maintain the simulation and enable the representation of the
processes of the interface player is meant to experience. In addition to that, some scenes are created
more abstractly than others. For example, in the third scene that resembles a 3D Windows XP
background (fig. 4), there are no clear player goals or development of narrative. Player is meant to click
on appearing pop-up ads that with each click multiply and sometimes distort the image, until eventually
a NEOPET avatar appears to take the player onto the next level. For those reasons, WRONG BOX doesn’t
fully belong in either of those categories, but rather oscillates between them.

MEMORY

As the main focus of my analysis is oriented towards inspecting the elements that relate to memory, I
will use the theories presented by Joan Gibbons in her book Contemporary Art and Memory as a general
framework through which I will address the chosen aspects of the game. In the introduction, she
discussed memory as a fruit of imagination, as opposed to “its traditional function as a means of
accurate recall“.6 Gibbons connected the notion of memory as imagination to Proust’s division of
voluntary and involuntary memory, where voluntary memory comprises of “production of images which
convey the outer appearance of things, events or experiences“. 7 Works of art that deal with memory
are based on voluntary memory and can likewise take a shape of autobiography, indexical memory, re-
enactment, archive or revision. WRONG BOX encompasses autobiography, indexical memory and re-
enactment in the ways it approaches memory. Rest of this paper will be divided in segments that
analyse each of these approaches and how they relate to respective aesthetic components of the game.

4
Sharp 2015, p. 14.
5
Ibid, 49.
6
Gibbons 2007, p. 2.
7
Ibid, p. 3.

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY

“Media products have become the object of nostalgia because they are linked to so many personal
memories and biographies or, more precisely, to individuals’ constructions of their personal
biographies.“8

Artist modelled the game according to her own memory of the digital landscapes and “how it
felt to be online then”. 9 She curated the game to evoke the spaces and activities that marked her online
experience as a teenager, which included platforms like NEOPETS, AOL Instant messaging platform and
MYSPACE. Social media, from their very beginnings, influenced the ways in which we construct our
identities and approach memory by representing personal online archives of our experience (of
ourselves, daily lives, online world itself). Molly Soda wanted to capture the impact of changing digital
landscape on remembrance, as the social media she used - once outsourced memory containers -
became obsolete and non-accessible, hence themselves turning into objects of memory (or oblivion).
Ever-present glitching in the game, paired with broken links and images, not only represent the actual
disappearance of these digital artefacts from the virtual space, but also from artist’s memory. To further
emphasize the autobiographical aspect of this game, the artist designed the bedroom in the game after
her own teenage bedroom (fig. 5), in which she included pages from her actual diary as one of the
artefacts found in that space. (fig. 6)

INDEXICAL MEMORY AND POSTPRODUCTION OF DIGITAL FOLKLORE

Artworks that use indexical memory are the ones “that constitute memory traces and involve the use of
objects, photographs and sounds that were part of or link to the original memory”. 10 In the context of

8
Bohn 2007, p. 146.
9
Molly Soda, 2019.
10
Gibbons 2007, p. 8.

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WRONG BOX, indexicality is reflected through uses of digital artefacts of that era, which were made into

objects with emphasized embodiment, presented as physical objects (at least in the space of the game)
which you can touch with the click of the mouse and must walk around to continue with your path. “The
indexical sign may involve abstraction or, indeed, may be heavily mimetic, but it is distinguished by the
fact that the signifier retains at least something of the existential ‘having been thereness’ of that which
is signified.”11 By using actual artefacts, such as blingees, dollz, gifs, icons and animations and making
them into sort of virtual sculptures, Molly Soda is tracing of the reality of internet of that era. One could
argue that these objects can bear iconic signification, because of their strong mimetic character, but
what makes them indexical is that they are not mimed and replicated, but rather used as is. Also, the
fact that they trace the virtual world within virtual world makes them more indexical, than iconic, and
includes the ‘having been thereness’ aspect.

Objects that are used as such can be characterized in the Olia Lialina’s term of digital folklore,
that “encompasses the customs, traditions and elements of visual, textual and audio culture that
emerged from users’ engagement with personal computer applications during the last decade of the
20th and the first decade of the 21st century.“ 12 As WRONG BOX depicts the culture of customization that
was prevalent in that time of Internet, it is logical that majority of its iconography was constituted of
visual elements that were actually once used as means of customization of personal web pages and
social media profiles. Second scene in the game is a rainbow checkered corridor that is filled with what
can be characterized as a free collection of gifs, blingees and banners. (fig. 7) In words of Olia Lialina,
free collections were “the soul of vernacular web”, since many of internet users were creating their own
collections while building their web spaces and distributing the graphical elements was as important as
creating them.13

Some of the other common tropes of 2000s Internet that appear in the game are starry backgrounds,
which represented a sci-fi feel of internet, glitter – a graphic element that became prevalent in early
2000s, as well as dollz and blingees.14 Apart from evoking elements that were susceptible for user
manipulation and utilisation, WRONG BOX addresses the parts of digital landscape that existed

11
Ibid, p. 30.
12
Lialina 2009, p. 10.
13
Ibid, p. 24.
14
Ibid, p. 67.

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independently of those functions – such as flashy pop-up ads that either inform you that you are the
millionth visitor, that there are hot singles in your area, or that your computer has viruses.

Through its indexical character, WRONG BOX also displays what Nicholas Bourriaud termed as
postproduction – that is, use and remix of already available data. 15 With postproduction, artists make
use of already existing objects, cultural forms and the world itself. It is emblematic to the appearance of
web (although there are artists that engaged in Postproduction before its genesis – such as New Realists
and Pop Artists for example), since “the activities of DJs, Web surfers, and postproduction artists imply a
similar configuration of knowledge, which is characterized by the invention of paths through culture.“ 16
He also notes that in that sense “the artwork functions as the temporary terminal of a network of
interconnected elements, like a narrative that extends and reinterprets preceding narratives.“ 17 WRONG
BOX not only represents a postproduction in its re-use of already existing digital objects and imagery, but

as it is created as a game that simulates the experience of “being online”, it reproduces cultural forms
tied to digital presence.

RE-ENACTMENT AND GAME AS A SPATIAL NARRATIVE

WRONG BOX could be interpreted as almost a literal re-enactment of surfing of 2000s Internet, since the

player is engaged in a recreation of a certain historical period of Internet that is manifested through
visual imagery and activities it encompassed.

Gibbons marks episodic memory (knowledge that is acquired experientially) and relation to
place (whether physical, virtual or imaginary) as two main characteristics of re-enactment. 18 Re-
enactment emphasizes experience as the basis for memory, which is dependant of relation and
interaction a work has with the audience. On the other hand, Gibbons reflects on Edward Casey’s quote
that all memories have to ‘take place in a place’, as well as Pierre Nora’s notion of lieux of memoire (a
15
Bourriaud 2007, p. 17.
16
Ibidm p. 18.
17
Ibid, p. 19.
18
Gibbons 2007, p. 97.

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place of memory, that doesn’t necessarily has to be a place, but a site of memory – object, experience),
which contextualizes memory as always forming at specific places and at specific times. 19

As a game, WRONG BOX is meant to produce an experience. It is also interactive and dependant
on the relation player has with it, in order to work and as a game. "The Internet is no longer a special
place away from the world, but instead a tool for navigating the world" 20, notes the artist, which
perfectly reflects the architecture of the game, designed to present the Internet of once-upon-a-time as
a secluded space with corridors and rooms. Choosing a game medium to reflect on the memory is also
linked to the spatial oriented narrative games imply. Rachel Greene, in her book Internet Art, references
Lev Manovich in stating that games resemble most of the online experiences because of their
spatiality.21 Spatiality of WRONG BOX is further accentuated by the player’s movement through virtual
space, that reflects the feeling of surfing the web, which is “like taking a walk with no destination in
mind”.22 This sort of intellection could be linked to Situationist psychogeography key concepts which
Gibbons also refers to while talking about re-enactment and spatial relations in contemporary art;
dérive (drift) – marking the unplanned journey; and détournement (diversion/re-routing) – marking the
unexpected occurrences the unplanned might entail. 23

CONCLUSION

By conveying this research, I wanted to inspect the ways in which memory was presented and
experienced in WRONG BOX. Since the artwork dealt with commemorating a certain era of Internet, one
that was formative for artist’s identity as well, it drew back on several perspectives that memory entails.
Through the perspective of the artist, game encompassed certain autobiographic elements that are
directly tied to her life experience. But since the chosen topic wasn’t purely personal, but rather
something that has certain cultural implications in the real world, digital objects and iconic properties
were reproduced and post-produced in order to evoke the reality of 2000s Internet. The fact that game
medium was chosen implies the importance of the recipient/player’s relation to it. Through interaction,
which isn’t solely tied to player goals, but also to the act of walking and exploring digital spaces, the
player participates in, as well as enable, the re-enactment of this type of digital memory.

19
Ibid, p. 98.
20
Molly Soda 2019.
21
Greene 2004, 145.
22
Molly Soda 2019.
23
Gibbons 2007, p. 98.

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7
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary sources:

Molly Soda and Aquma, WRONG BOX, 2019.

Secondary sources:

 Bohn, Andreas, ‘Nostalgia of the media / in the media’ in Winfried N, Bishara N (Eds) Self-
Reference in the Media eds Berlin, New York (Mouton de Gruyter) 2007, pp. 143-153.
 Bourriaud, Nicolas, Postproduction, New York (Lukas & Sternberg), 2007.
 Gibbons, Joan, Contemporary Art and Memory: Images of Recollection and Remembrance,
London (I.B. Tauris), 2007.
 Lialina, Olia, Espenschied, Dragan, Digital folklore, Stuttgart (Merz & Solitude), 2009.
 Molly Soda, Wrong Box Zine, 2019.
 Greene, Rachel, Internet Art, London (Thames & Hudson) 2004.
 Sharp, John, Works of Game: On the Aesthetics of Games and Art, Cambridge (MIT Press), 2015.

Illustrations:

Figure 1

Screenshot of WRONG BOX (2019) by Molly Soda and Aquma

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Figure 2

Screenshot of WRONG BOX (2019) by Molly Soda and Aquma

Figure 3

Screenshot of WRONG BOX (2019) by Molly Soda and Aquma

9
Figure 4

Screenshot of WRONG BOX (2019) by Molly Soda and Aquma

Figure 5

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Screenshot of WRONG BOX Zine

Figure 6

Screenshot of WRONG BOX (2019) by Molly Soda and Aquma

Figure 7

Screenshot of WRONG BOX (2019) by Molly Soda and Aquma

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