opera

ONLY SLIME rebuilt their computer-game opera as AFTERLIFE,

Visitors are so far inside the game they're asking for a reset button.

Kill Screen Staff

— 1 min read
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Two visitors stand before a large projection of a red desert game world with creatures
Visitors steering AFTERLIFE at FACT Liverpool, from the gallery’s how-to-play reel

My favorite review of AFTERLIFE, ONLY SLIME's exhibition at FACT Liverpool, sits in the comments under the gallery's how-to-play reel: two visitors got "stuck in some meditating cutscene for ages" and would very much like a reset button. When a gallery show needs a reset button, the games have stopped being decoration.

ONLY SLIME is Toby Pfeil and Claudia Cox, and AFTERLIFE rebuilds their 2023 computer-game opera as a walk-in installation. Two 3D characters, Axi and Zi, drift through fantasy underworlds assembled from Greek mythology and contemporary internet culture, and the room's motion-tracking sensors pull visitors into the story—you steer the pair, trigger mini-games, and nudge which paths they take through a world between life and death. FACT posted an explainer because the show honestly needs one: the games are the exhibition, not the interactive garnish next to it.

Two artists in costume at a CRT computer in pink gaming chairs on a checkered floor
ONLY SLIME walk through the games in FACT's explainer reel

Opera and games keep circling each other—we noted a Minecraft opera a decade ago—but the traffic usually runs one way, with games borrowing opera's staging for a boss reveal. ONLY SLIME wrote the opera inside the game first and then let the game swallow the opera house.

AFTERLIFE runs through Sunday, Aug. 16 at FACT, 88 Wood Street, Liverpool—Wednesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., free. This week is the last call.

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