top of page

IN THE LONG RUN // WE ARE ALL DEAD

video / HD / color / stereo / 11:30  / 16:9 / 2023

Repurposing the popular video game Sleeping Dogs (2012), IN THE LONG RUN//WE ARE ALL DEAD is a single-take experimental machinima that unfolds within the rain-soaked, neon-lit streets of a virtual Hong Kong.  Operating within the aesthetics of neo-noir, the work constructs a relentless pursuit, an enigmatic chase where the identities of both the pursuer and the pursued remain ambiguous. Sirens wail, bullets ricochet, and rain distorts the cityscape, reinforcing the sense of perpetual movement and existential uncertainty. Who is the runner? What is the nature of their escape? Is there an endpoint, or is the pursuit itself the defining condition of this digital existence? Offering no resolution, the machinima foregrounds the mechanics of pursuit as a metaphor for the relentless temporality of virtual worlds and the cyclical nature of digital violence.

keywords: experimental cinema, machinima, virtual performance, media hacking, game art, appropriation, Sleeping Dogs, Hong Kong

bottom of page