The most exciting feature of the game might be that it takes
place in New York. Apart from that there is not much that would
trigger excitement for gamers and art lovers. Pippin Barr from the
Norwegian Centre of Computer Games Research is the
creator of this rather eccentric game.
His creation was inspired by a performance of the Serbian Marina Abramovic. At
the beginning of 2010 for 75 days she sat down on a chair in the MoMa and invited
guests to silently take a seat in front of her. Obviously, this
resulted in long waiting lines which Barr tried to capture in "The
Artist is present".
(foto: Andrew Russeth)
While designing the game, Barr aimed at imitating the experience
of this performance. This means for instance that the hours the
game can be played are adapted to real MoMa opening hours: closed
on Tuesdays, otherwise open Wednesday till Monday between 16.30h
and 23.30h, CET.
Furthermore, it is actually possible to step out of the line.
Then, the game shows no mercy. All people waiting behind you move
ahead forcing you to go all the way back to the end of the line.
This "fun" can take you hours with no cheats allowed.
Barr admitted that in an early version of the game, a bug
existed which allowed the player to fly your avatar all the way to
the front. This glitch, however, was fixed to give the player the
whole experience of waiting in line.