Lurker1 (excerpt) - 2023, 31 min 53 sec. video.

The video begins with a statement: "This is an edited version of the last three nights of twitch user Lurker1’s stream made from recordings sent to me by user creep_by_radiohead in late 2019. Both users have since been deactivated. For the full unedited stream, please contact me."
What follows is a documentation of Lurker1 as he practices the any% speedrun of the game Dark Souls III and talks to the sole chat participant creep_by_radiohead.

Elegiac Video Essay for Ten Images (excerpt) - 2023, 16 min 15 sec. video, collaged/altered appropriated imagery, original audio by the artist.

"None of these visions ever quite deluded him. At any moment, by an effort of his will, he could discern substances through their misty lack of substance, and convince himself that they were not solid in their nature, like yonder table of carved oak, or that big, square, leathern-bound and brazen-clasped volume of divinity. But, for all that, they were, in one sense, the truest and most substantial things which he now dealt with."

Hurt/Comfort (excerpt) - 2022, 11 min 34 sec. video, recorded gameplay, original audio by the artist.

Hurt/Comfort is a series of confessional vignettes: The Character, The Camera, Fandom, and To Trade Places. The video imagines the live-stream as the contemporary confession booth. The streamer, while playing Elden Ring, attempts to speak to an invisible audience, however, something has gone wrong; the streamer’s image has been distorted. The confessions are spoken from a place of subconsciousness as the streamer watches helplessly, frozen behind a gaussian blur. A chat dialogue comforts the streamer during the ordeal, appearing to sympathize with her condition. Eventually, the chat dialogue manifests as a second avatar in the game, and the two “trade places.” On the opposite screen is a written account of the events, synced to the moment they occur. Originally, “Hurt/comfort” is a genre of fanfiction in which pain is inflicted on a character so that they might be rehabilitated, usually by their counterpart or romantic partner. In the interest of deconstructing the self, the chat and livestreamer relationship stands as a sort of mix between socratic dialogue and hurt/comfort fanfiction.

Self Portrait as the Final Boss - 2022, 5 min 50 sec. excerpt from performance within Second Life.

How to go Full Body (excerpt) - 2022, 8 min 7 sec. video, screen recording, collaged appropriated footage and stock video footage, original audio by the artist.

The perfect digital being is mass ornament within one single body, exponentially spawning new image-representations, functioning as a constantly renewed constellation of spectacles.

Devotional to a Metaverse - 2021, 7 min 24 sec. collaged appropriated imagery and video footage, stock video footage.

“A devotional is not meant to change your mind, it’s meant to change your heart.” -faithlife.com

This video follows the experiences of two subjects, the Indeterminate Being, and the Demediator. The video makes a case for each subject’s point of view, for instance, the Indeterminate Being claims, “mediation was my first protector,” while someone speaking on behalf of the Demediator states, “look how his actions have an observable impact on his world…he is the ideal, he is perfect.” The video uses multiple text-to-speech voices that claim authority, when in truth, there are no certain answers or obvious conclusions. Both the Indeterminate Being and the Demediator exist as contradictions, as precarious figures. Both hold a definitive opinion of our current contemporary existence, but both cave to its whims, immediately compromising their worldviews in service of the metaverse.

Three Manipulations - 2020, 9 min 38 sec. video, collaged appropriated footage and stock video footage, original audio by the artist, intro chimes sampled from "(Just Like) Starting Over" by John Lennon. Two anonymous entities meet over three different engagements, each more apathetic, desperate, or coded than the last. The three interactions contain a bleak digital foreplay, exposing the chasm between self and other, original and copy, real and fantasy.

The Last Chainmail Video - 2020, 11 min 38 sec. video, collaged appropriated imagery and video footage, stock video footage. A Powerpoint presentation about my last chainmail video.

Intimacy Mod II (variations on a theme) - 2020, 8 min 32 sec. video, mod by "flexcreator", original audio by the artist. The latest iteration of Intimacy Mod as supercut compilation. Part of Daily Rush Season 3 at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit http://dailyrush.us/proxy/kara-gut

songs of innocence and experience - 2020, 3 min 17 sec. video, collaged appropriated footage, original audio by the artist, interpolation of "Nude" by Radiohead.

Defense Formation AU- 2019, 8 min 22 sec. video, collaged appropriated footage and stock video footage, original audio by the artist, Locus Iste performed by Chœur des Marais. “Isn’t it funny? You can use it to escape reality, but in the end, you need reality to destroy it.” A digitized voice guides you through the alternate universe you crafted around yourself for many years as an escape, a respite, a defense against reality. Now, the walls are closing in. Will you embrace a life of fantasy or will you fully accept “the real”, using it as the antidote for your carefully constructed imaginary world?

Nonspace Canon - beta - 2019, 12 min 30 sec. video, recorded gameplay, collaged appropriated footage and stock video footage, original audio by Majetic. Follow spiritual guide Lady Ophelia as she takes you on an existential journey through “the nonspace” and into realms of the unknown. This mini-drama takes on what it means to live a digital life, combining religious and absurdist metaphors to comment on the contradictory existence of our place within the nonspace.

Intimacy Mod SuperCut - 2018, 9 min 20 sec. video. Using the mod “Immersive Lover’s Comfort” by flexcreator, “Intimacy Mod” distorts the intended narrative and replaces it with an in-game performance carried out by the player-character and an npc. Locations for each performance depend on precariousness, visibility, and absurdity, allowing two characters to obstruct the normal ebb and flow of life in the action role-playing game Skyrim.

Simple Blade - 2018, 3 min 38 sec. video, recorded gameplay, collaged appropriated footage and stock video footage, original audio by Majetic. Simple Blade is a music video for a song by the same name. It was commissioned by Justin Majetich for their music project “Majetic” in 2018. I used the framework of a music video to continue my mode of storytelling through video and appropriated footage. The video layers real and digital found-footage of fantasy and cosplay weaponry and digital depictions of violence.

Resonant Flesh - 2018, 8 min 20 sec. recorded gameplay, collaged appropriated footage and stock video footage, original audio by Majetic. “Resonant Flesh” is an audio-visual collaboration between Kara Gut and Justin Majetich (Brooklyn, NY). The video was made using a back-and-forth correspondence that involved adding 1-minute increments of either audio or visual material to the video at a time. The video uses video game footage and appropriated youtube and stock video to ruminate on the condition of the digital avatar as a resonance chamber for our manipulations, intimacy, and distorted power structures.

Divine Mediation - 2017, 4 min 54 sec. recorded gameplay, collaged appropriated footage. The video “Divine Mediation” is a play on Divine Meditation 14, one of John Donne’s holy sonnets. The video is narrated by a computer generated voice who speaks the entirety of the poem. The work conflates the peculiar violence and erotic love Donne expresses to his God with our constant struggle for control over our mediated lives.

he wishes for the cloths of heaven - 2017, 6 min 6 sec. recorded gameplay, collaged appropriated footage, original audio by Rose Pierce. “he wishes for the cloths of heaven” is a video consisting of appropriated footage of fan experiences with video game weaponry. The footage floats atop imagery from an RPG video game, and is narrated by a computer generated voice. The narrator reads the poem, “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” by W.B Yeats. The character of Aedh was a creation of Yeats to embody the stereotypical hopeless romantic Yeats felt he contained. The intended violence of the fan weapons video contrasts with the romantic sentiments of the poem, however softer moments with each weapon (a kiss, an unboxing, a careful cleaning) reveal a more complex relationship.

The Basic Bitch Bath - 2017, 5 min 4 sec. video, collaged appropriated imagery and stock video footage. The Basic Bitch Bath is a video about rebirth within a cult of infinite consumerism. Iconic and recognizable tropes such as La Croix Sparkling Water™ and Lana Del Ray’s “Summertime Sadness” are used as a counterpoint to apocalyptic narration about originality and innovation in a completely virtual, fabricated landscape concerned with infinite replication.

Wayshrines I, II & III (an avatar manifesto) - 2016, 24 min 18 sec. video, recorded gameplay, collaged appropriated footage and stock video footage, original audio by Rose Pierce. Wayshrines I, II & III (an avatar manifesto) overturns patriarchal power structures that exist within web-based reality by appropriating and reinterpreting virtual representations to create new meaning. The work calls into question the alternative moral code that exists when confronting the immortal digital body.

Wicked Game (the original wicked game) - 2016, 1 min 56 sec. video.

Birthday Cake Crush - 2015, 1 min 28 sec. video. Arguably Baby Peach’s hottest crush! Happy Birthday to You.