Waluigi's Purgatory (2024) is an interactive, simulation-based performance by artist duo dmstfctn with a specially composed soundtrack by musician Evita Manji. At the center is an AI that finds itself in a purgatory created specifically for AIs that have cheated during training. With memories of her past and doubts about her future, she wanders through this place, gets to know its inhabitants and encounters eerie stories. The audience controls the AI's path by moving individual light points in the 3D simulation via smartphone and making decisions. Characters are animated through facial motion capture and voice distortion, while the atmospheric layer of music responds to storyline and interaction between floating loops and intense bursts. The title refers to the theory of the "Waluigi effect", which attributes to AIs a tendency to imitate counter-player roles as they appear in internet texts. Inspired by Carl Jung's concept of the "shadow", this suggests the possibility that an AI can act as a helpful interface, but at the same time reveal a chaotic alter ego. Waluigi's Purgatory is the second part of dmstfctn's GOD MODE trilogy about AI anomalies and has been presented internationally since 2024, supported by Serpentine's Arts Technologies.

Duration: approx. 40 minutes

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