Cockaigne
A three-channel video installation exploring virtual navigation, political reality, and the logic of digital game worlds
Conceptual Framework
Land of Cakes (Cockaigne) is an ambitious three-channel video installation that challenges conventional narrative through the lens of digital game logic. A familiar fringe landscape on the city's outskirts is filmed as if it were a quest world: the camera scans, searches, advances—driven by curiosity but without a clear objective. The work stages an uneasy overlap between virtual navigation and political / cultural reality, where representation begins to feel more "operational" than the place itself.
Installation Elements:
- 📺 Three synchronized video channels
- 🎮 Game-like camera behavior (quest / FPS-style scanning and roaming)
- 🔄 Figures performing repetitive, predetermined actions (NPC-like loops)
- 🎭 Shifting narrative perspective across screens and time
Three-Channel Video Installation
A single "world" unfolds across three screens. Each channel carries its own slice of the same terrain, while rhythm, motion, and spatial continuity stitch the piece into one navigable space rather than three separate videos.
Production Note
A core challenge of the project was creating perfect seamless loops across all three videos—so actions and camera movement restart invisibly, like in a game state you can enter at any moment. Timing, choreography, and editorial precision were developed to remove the sense of "cut" and replace it with continuous, playable repetition.
Credits
- Video production: T-nua Studio (for Tal Alterstein)
- Videography: Tom Goldwasser
- Producer: Royi Rozen
Technical Specifications
Multi-Channel Display
Three synchronized videos with custom video mapping.
Spatial Audio
Immersive surround sound creates an enveloping audiovisual experience.
Exhibition History
Digital Arts Festival 2024
Featured installation exploring digital narrative