Alephograph: Architecture, drawing and video games.
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Little Books of Los Santos

Little Books of Los Santos

Inspired by Ed Ruscha's small artist's books documenting Los Angeles, I produced a series of screenshot books embracing Ruscha's 'deadpan' photographic style to reveal the contingencies of this video game metropolis. Three books are direct reproductions of Ruscha's original publications while a further two investigate the subtle deviations that exist within a video game world, all recorded in the same 'no-style' fashion. They comprise recreations of Twentysix Gasoline Stations, Thirtyfour Parking Lots and Nine Swimming Pools, alongside my own Cars on Hill and Many Mission Markers.

 
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TWENTYSIX GASOLINE STATIONS

Ruscha's original Twentysix Gasoline Stations documented all the structures he encountered on a journey to see his parents in Oklahoma. As Los Santos is an island bounded by sea, the linear pilgrimage of Ruscha's work becomes a circular journey, destined to be repeated many hundreds of times as one plays their way around the virtual city.

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My little books follow the format and pagination of Ruscha's original books, framing Los Santos as a real place, yet derivative of its source system: Los Angeles.

Gas stations in a world where vehicles do not run out of petrol.

CARS ON HILLS

Moving beyond Ruscha's original books, I use screenshot photography to reveal the contingencies of this most visually convincing of virtual worlds. Cars on Hills is a series of screenshots of vehicles in improbable positions, their resting point on hillsides and up mountains betraying the cartoonish physics that regulate Los Santos.