Date of Graduation

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts in Art (MFA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Art

Advisor/Mentor

Turner, Aaron R.

Committee Member

Efstathiou, Kes

Second Committee Member

Lyon, Calista

Third Committee Member

Thompson, Jody T.

Keywords

Art Installations; Queer; Video Games

Abstract

A Wicked Game is an installation comprised of a video game in an arcade cabinet, photographs, sound, and sculpture. The installation explores the complexity of play and personal memory. Working from the concept of “wicked” (Epstein) learning environments – domains with hidden rules, unstable structures, and inconsistent feedback – the project constructs a playable space, where players must navigate an inhospitable environment, echoing the experience of living in a world that resists accommodation.

The installation centers around an all-black arcade cabinet placed in a darkened gallery space, inviting visitors to play A Wicked Game. The game demands the player know things which are never taught, demands that they contort themselves to a constantly changing control scheme, and success requires mastery combined with luck. The narrator is deliberately inhospitable. The game’s mechanics disorient and confuse, both repelling and enticing the player.

Other works in the exhibition reinforce themes of loss, memory, and uncertainty. Personal storytelling is interwoven with scholarly discourse and design research, positioning the work as both autobiographical and theoretical.

A Wicked Game traverses an artistic practice informed by game logic, resisting clarity and embracing complexity. It invites players to reflect on what it means to inhabit systems that are unstable, arbitrary, and often unjust to imagine new forms of cooperative play and shared empathy.

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