Freddie Sanders Announces Seeder Solo Show at arebyte

Freddie Sanders has begun production and field research for Seeder, a solo exhibition at the London digital art center arebyte that runs from February to June 2027, according to Sanders' Instagram profile. The show combines an asynchronous multiplayer video game with a series of large-scale installations. Sanders announced it in an Oct. 2 post with footage from the research. Watch a clip below.

The game is set in what Sanders calls "a dark, archetypal fantasy forest," where sites of abandoned infrastructure prompt dialogue. Players' interactions with those sites train an AI model in the background, building what the caption describes as "a collective and intimate dataset of our anxieties." Those inputs change the game's environment over time and will decide the nature of a closing event for the exhibition. According to Sanders, the project explores "collective mythmaking, re-enchantment and conspiracy."

The footage shows hands plastering a round opening into a concrete surface and a walk through a forest hung with lichen. The post's last two images are credited to Vadimovna Studio.

Sanders is a London-based artist who works in game engines, with a focus on masculinity, nihilism and labor, according to a 2024 Der Greif profile. An earlier game, The Castle, is set at a castle in North East England that is eroding into the sea and interrupts play with glitches, loading screens and the gradual removal of player control. Sanders' profile lists a residency at Medialab Matadero and a lecturing post at Goldsmiths.

For more reading, see arebyte Shows Wendi Yan and Skawennati in SLIPSTREAM, The Endless Forest's playful online world could get a remake and Der Greif's profile of Freddie Sanders.