Developed as an exercise in futility, Unsuccessful Wrestling examines how social media platforms trap users in cycles of conflict, where opposing sides argue from within separate echo chambers. Commissioned through the Joy of Voting project by Citizen University and the Knight Foundation, the work combines an interactive installation with an experimental film series to reflect the heightened stakes and exhaustion surrounding the 2016 U.S. federal election cycle.
The installation pairs participants as opponents within a shared virtual arena, where they confront one another from the safety of separate wrestling mats. Using custom software developed by the artist in Max MSP, camera vision from installed surveillance devices tracks participants’ movements and transforms them into an augmented reality encounter.
Their actions—grappling, dodging, kicking, or resisting—are captured live and merged into projected cinematic-scale imagery. At once disorienting and theatrical, the work draws parallels to the influence of mass media and social platforms on political discourse. By staging conflict as a participatory yet unwinnable game, Unsuccessful Wrestling critiques rigid binaries while asking how physical and digital commons might be reimagined as spaces for more open, complex, and democratic forms of exchange.
