What Is Your Truth? is a video game by Sara Bezovšek and Dorijan Šiško in which the artists explore the ideas of modern internet society and the stereotypical logic of video games. Through the virtual world the players embark on an information oriented ideological path where he or she reveals his or her unique personality profile by visiting thematic locations and choosing the so called »truths«.

The spatial-conceptual design follows the classic iceberg analogy that concurrently alludes to the obscurity and the cultural-ideological logic of »truths« from which the players can choose. The design is divided into two segments: Light Mode, takes place on the surface, and Dark Mode, takes place underwater; this is also where all the darkest »truths« can be found. The players follow the so called “Yellow Brick Road” (the road to success and wealth), which is actually a reference from the Wizard of Oz, and embark on a virtual path from the tip of the iceberg into the depths of various ideologies and confront them primarily visually. Throughout the path, players are accompanied by méms which serve as a sort of road signs while at the same time further contextualizing locations and »truths«. Centred on the choices and decisions that the player makes on his or her path, a personalised »profile« is being created. Consequently, based on the individual’s acting experience, a personalized »end« is generated for the user which is shaped by the archetypes of various public personalities of the 21st century and is an ironic reflection of today’s society.

The project flirts with the philosophical implications of the existence of various »truths« in the media-social landscape of a post-virtual, post-internet society. Metaphysical relativism, diagnosed by French poststructuralists in the second half of the 20th century, is now established in the practical sphere. But the project in question does not merely toy with this situation, but rather problematizes it: when the players move between individual »truths« and select/accumulate them, he or she also participates in their formation, preservation and dissemination and is thus part of a different, mutually exclusive reality. In Hegel’s sense, the concept of each of the offered ideologies as a federal assumption, paired with other »truths«, is thus »abolished«.

Photo: Damjan Švarc © ACE KIBLA.

Production: Association for Contemporary Art X-OP
Financial support: Municipality of Maribor