developed fully in dreams, the ps4 game engine, hxstory explores how the meaning of a piece of art can change drastically over time. partially based on the history Max beckmann’s “man in tuxedo,” this interactive experience traces the story of a sculpture of a gender nonconforming person over time—when the world around it changes, and pieces of the sculpture go missing, how does its meaning shift? how do we trace the history of an object? is it based on its material, on our perception of it?

tellingly, this video has been “age restricted” by youtube despite no explicit content being present, due to its discussion of gender nonconforming individuals—who are increasingly surveilled and labeled as being “explicit” despite simply existing in the world. this has been appealed with youtube numerous times to no effect.

voiceovers were recorded via the ps4 dualshock microphone, and all assets created or modified from community resources—music was produced in-game.