Brent Watanabe's "One Tethered Bird"

 A research piece on Brent Watanabe's exhibit at the Benke Gallery in South Lake Union.

Self Guided Museum Research - One Tethered Bird

Artwork #1:

(My photos, gallery view and secondary screenshot of the website’s home page)

Brent Watanabe, How Many Birds, web-hosted video game, digital, 2024.

How Many Birds is a twenty-eight minute video game experience by experimental artist Brent Watanabe. The game is surreal, calling back to similar unfiction and internet projects quite common in modern media. A simple, pixelated, arrow-key-controlled puzzle game guides the view through memory and association, undertoned by a metallic, fast-paced soundtrack and text-to-speech language.

Formal Aspects: The work is pixel-based, with harsh, rough colors. The photos that are present are grainy and brutal. Sound utilized is immersive and drilling, forcing the viewer to fully examine the game’s content and context. As this is a long, nonlinear experience, the artist suggested that it was not expected to be played by viewers in a gallery setting, but the experience within the larger space creates a pocket of controlled chaos in an overwhelmingly loud and droning atmosphere. The more traditional elements of the work serve to bolster the surreal nature of the piece, especially as it connects to a viewer.

Idiosyncratic Aspects: The work presented reflects back on Watanbe’s works’ themes of human futility as displayed through animal inability. His overwhelming technical style is present through the engineering of the game, as well as the pop ups, links, and overall overwhelm of the piece. You are presented with a goal at the beginning (“how many birds?”) and are then asked the question at the game’s conclusion, with no true guidance throughout your journey. The work is rough and grating in all of the right ways. The work’s existence as a video game alone is fascinating, especially when referencing the pillars of modern indie games, such as OFF, Can Your Pet, and even an arg-formatted piece like This House Has People In It. The influence of modern internet fiction cannot be understated, and it’s fascinating to view.

Formal Critique + Response: I truly, truly love this piece. I think it achieves its goal well, immersing a viewer and providing a space to experience these specific avenues of work. Especially in a gallery setting, I was drawn to this piece on account of its singularity alone– serving as a point of respite from the overwhelm present in the cramped gallery space. (Little did I know how much of a ride I was in for.) I believe it to be an authentically modern and truly unique piece of work. It draws the viewer in, luring them with a false sense of calm, all the while creating a universe within a near-thirty minutes. I found it effective, immersive, and truly remarkable.

Artwork #2

Brent Watanabe, San Andreas Community Cam, computer-hosted livestream of modified GTA, digital, 2017.

 San Andreas Community Cam is a livestream of various Grand Theft Auto non-player characters walking around the city aimlessly, while a track of their sobbing plays repeatedly. The recording, that of a webpage with a Twitch.tv livestream, has a recorded chat on the right side, with details provided by onlookers in a preserved format.

Formal Aspects: I was fascinated by this piece’s use of “culture jamming,” almost as a medium of its own. I’m not entirely sure how long the installation’s livestream goes, as the content is simple but repetitive and the chat on the right hand side provides little indication. It is difficult to analyze the formal aspects of this piece, as it is entirely hosted in GTA, but the inclusion of the live chat, which is not present in pieces on Watanabe’s website or portfolio, hints at a deeper technical inclusion. The piece is mounted on the wall beside other works (see: San Andreas Streaming Deer Cam) but stands out as the only piece in this work to involve humans, both visually and through the chat aspect. This new media work encompasses many avenues, especially when it comes to breaking tradition and expectation.

Idiosyncratic Aspects: Similarly to How Many Birds, this piece discusses human futility, but in a fascinatingly hidden way. The artist creates comfort and familiarity through the use of a recognizable livestream format, a browser with Twitch open, not unlike something many viewers have experienced in some way or other. Context granted by the chat is even more fascinating with the lack of visual info. By reading, the viewer discovers that it is the day after Trump’s first inauguration day, due to the discussions of viewers, especially in their teasing or outright bullying of the perceived streamer. What is technically fascinating about this piece as performance art is Watanabe’s ability to distill and bottle a non-privileged audience reaction to a performative new media work. As performance art, it is highly effective, and as a recording almost more so.

Formal Critique + Response: This work, as said above, emphasizes the cultural impact of emotional performative pieces by allowing a group of (presumably 600+) unknowing individuals in a non-privileged context to comment on work as it is being made. The piece displays politicalness interestingly as well, especially since it does not insist upon itself. You, as a viewer, only discover the setting-based context when sitting with it for long enough to read the chat, which is immediately projecting its own specific agenda. The viewers are both brazen and anonymous, allowing for a meshing of gaming and formal art critique worlds. This piece was interesting to me for a similar reason as my previous choice: I was deeply overwhelmed (in a good, effective way) by this exhibit and needed something to sit and focus in on. Reading this Twitch chat formed an interesting and particular experience for me, as it created a strange and harsh lifeline. Watanabe’s work is not typically the kind I focus on, but it was amazing to see in this critical and technical light.