Artist Statement

[Filip Hauer is a digital artist and researcher whose work focuses on exploring the speculative potential of digital games. He is currently a PhD student at the New Media Studio I. at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. His projects deal with themes such as game exchange, ideology, allegorithms, labour and xeno-games. With a focus on critical play and player agency, he seeks to challenge and question the communicative practices commonly found in popular games.]

My focus is on critical games, installations, and research on the possibilities of critical speculation within the game medium. In my art practice, I explore the possibilities of the language since I believe it provides insights into the structures of contemporary society and individual and collective experiences. In recent years, I have mainly focused on digital games because of their increasing role in socio-economic politics. As such, I consider digital games as both material and cultural artefacts that enter lively dialogue with various players and audiences.

My games aim to highlight the forms of alienation encountered daily in capitalist economies, question the role of growth and improvement in speculation about the futures along with the stereotype of authoritarian power of single-player actor in game imagination, lastly, my games aim to question resource extractivism in the face of climate crisis. As such, their critical strategy is to reflect on the communication practices of popular digital games. In general, these games communicate values and beliefs by using algorithmic rules. In my games, fiction, and installations, I aim to question the rules and common practices of games to allow imagination for new and even futures.

I consider both art and games political. In turn, I pursue a political approach with speculative game mechanics and critical information that critically reflect on individual experiences and investigate collective situations.