The Gameland series by multimedia artist Denis Davydov examines the turbulent period of the 1990s that followed the collapse of the Soviet project which he witnessed as a child. The digital video Artificial Intelligence Mental Disorder combines Stanley Kubrick’s unrealized fantasies of a cosmic future with the artist’s own experience of growing up in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) during the early post-Soviet era.

Placing the HAL 9000 artificial intelligence from Kubrick’s cult movie 2001: A Space Odyssey into an endless corridor decorated with recognizable motifs of Soviet modernism, Davydov creates his own version of 90’s metaverse. Architectural quotes and artifacts of the era are combined with replicas of USSR supercomputers creating a never-ending rabbit hole of a once proclaimed utopia.

Untitled 1 (Artificial Intelligence Mental Disorder), 2022
Computer graphics,
resolution: 3840*2160, duration: 9’
Courtesy of the Artist

Project team

Visualisation and Animation: Eugeniy Padalkin
Research and Coordination: Amalia Tumasova
Art Consulting: Andrey Misiano