Chain–link is a 90 minute video work filmed by Steven Cottingham inside the virtual world of Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar Games, 2013). Manipulating the system of the video game, the film makes use of hacks and mods to stage scenes in existing environments, subverting the game’s own camera and narrative to produce a story of liberation.
In order to escape a prison under constant and total surveillance—Copy, a jaded clone, and Matisse, a sensitive art forger—must strike an uneasy alliance with their malevolent AI surveiller. Along the way they encounter a sentient program operating the penitentiary’s lab-grown meat farm, a tormented being who may hold the key to their escape.
“Despite beginning as an exploration of surveillance systems and the use of AI in prisons, Chain–link, for me, is primarily concerned with the dialectic of creativity and constraint. This tension drives the narrative as characters grapple with their own limitations and desires, and it also describes the very craft of machinima, where restrictions in the mode of production constantly necessitate creative workarounds.” –From an interview with Matteo Bittanti.
Steven Cottingham is a visual artist and filmmaker working in Vancouver, Canada. His practice makes use of “virtual realism” to critically examine the use of photoreal and simulation softwares in the domains of policing, entertainment, and news media. Recent exhibitions include ENTRE, Vienna (2023); VRAL, Milan (2022); Natalia Hug Galerie, Cologne (2022); Artists Space, New York (2022); The Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver (2021); Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, Kelowna (2020); and Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver (2020). From 2021 to 2022 he participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program. Chain–link is his first feature-length film, premiering internationally in 2022.
