author: matteo bittanti (concept, text, gameplay, execution) year: 2009 media: excerpt
media: screenshots
title: slow fighter I-III
format: three digital videos: "Slow Fighter I" (3 hours and 44 minutes); "Slow Fighter II" (3 hours and 23 minutes); "Slow Fighter III" (3 hours and 11 minutes).
Matteo Bittanti, "Slow Fighter I, 2009
Description
Digital video: Appropriated gameplay of Street Fighter IV (Capcom, 2008), slowed down to show one frame per second (instead of the regular 60). Specifically, the three videos illustrate the grotesque and exaggerated fighting moves of various computer controlled characters - two males (Rufus vs. Mr. Bison) and two females (Chun-Li vs. C. Viper) in the first two rounds, a male (Mr. Bison) and a female character (Chun-Li) in the last one. Instructions:
The three "Slow Fighter" videos are to be shown on a see-through screen, next to each other, in a dark, empty room.
Artist statement
When I was seven or eight years old, I played old fighting games. I didn’t play Street Fighter until I was older, but I already knew quite a few things about the game by then. I recall that my mother would always say: "You shouldn’t be playing that, you’re too young for it".
"Slow Fighter", as I see it, is not a simply a work of appropriation. it is more like an act of affiliation... It wasn't a straightforward case of abduction. The original game is a masterpiece in it own right, and I've always loved to play it... I wanted to maintain the authorship of the Capcom's designer, Yoshinori Ono so that when an audience would see my "Slow Fighter" they would think more about Ono and much less, or not at all, about me.
To me the point of "Slow Fighter" is that the gameplay takes place so slowly that you can never anticipate what happens next. Because the images follow one another at such a slow rate, you cannot possibly remember them. The past continues, and the future never happens, so everything remains in the present. The present is where the future and the past converge continuously. As Heidegger said: It doesn’t really exist.
San Francisco, December 29 2009
Matteo Bittanti
Post Scriptum
Modifying the speed of appropriated gameplay is an act of cultural resistance. A deliberate, somehow blasphemous practice perpetrated against a sacrosanct artifact that is revered and idolized by legions of gamers around the world. The hegemonic imperatives of Capcom are hereby subverted: a short simulated fight which usually lasts no more than 99 seconds is extended to three hours, making its fruition almost intolerable. Moving at a glacial pace, eachvideo becomes a commentary on time itself. While the viewer can still understand the dynamics of the fight and decipher the various moves performed by the virtual combatants, the unbearable slowness of their movements produces an uncanny feeling. Dilating the duration of the machinic combat is meant to raise questions about such notions as "real time", "game time" and "gamer time". It also forces the viewer to rethink the very concept of "realism". Rather than being a degraded version of the original experience, the slowed down game intensifies it, or, at least, attracts the attention of a viewer trying to capture even the slightest movement on the screen. While professional gamers rely on replay videos of matches to hone their skills, learn new techniques, and study their adversaries' tactics, "Slow Fighter" deliberately exacerbates this practice for no practical reason at all. In an age of pervasive ADD, the extreme slow motion becomes a visual torture. Gameplay is reduced to a sequence of screenshots. The game itself becomes an electronic painting. Game Over lasts forever.
Background info
"Slow Fighter" was inspired, among the other by:
- Jason Begy's compelling essay "Communal Growing Pains: Fandom and the Evolution of Street Fighter" (published on Henry Jenkins' blog, "Confessions of an Aca/Fan")
- Justin Wong's blog - and this amazing video
- Jon Rafman's "Arcade Hustler" (2009) project
- "I Got Next" documentary [excerpt]
- Meet The Artist: Douglas Gordon interview (part one; part two)
