Ip Yuk-Yiu | experimental cinema | media art

The title of the work is an inversion of "to call a deer a horse", a Chinese idiom that is used to describe the deliberate act of confusing truth with untruth. The idiom originates from a story in the Chinese classical text Shiji (The Records of Grand Historians) in which an ambitious Qin politician tried to identify adversaries and silence dissent by colluding others to confuse a deer with a horse.

This ancient tale resonates with our times in which truth-bending became an everyday political reality and tools of governance. The game, available in multiple languages, is both a mirror and a critique, a training simulator of truth-bending and its resistance.

Game rules

The player competes by answering rounds of “true or false” questions, following the instructions as given in the game.

The player will score 1 point by giving the CORRECT answer if he or she is instructed to LIE.
The player will score 1 point by giving the INCORRECT answer if he or she is instructed to TELL THE TRUTH.
An answer that does not conform to the given instruction will result in a deduction of 1 point.
The player can choose not to answer the question. In that case, no point will be added or deducted.

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

keywords: critical game, hand-eye coordination, truth-bending, complicity, binary game for a binary world