As you enter, the installation curves away to the left with panel after panel of computer bowling games projected against the far wall. The games are ordered chronologically with the first dating back to the 1970s and the last 2001. Each game has been rigged to play on a loop with each bowler launching the ball into the gutter at every throw.
My first thought was of Sisyphus and his own particular bowling game doomed by the gods to failure. Arcangel has had all his games rigged, committing each computerized bowler to share Sisyphus' fate.
What does it mean for each computer bowler to be condemned to a failure inescapable despite technological advancement? What of the gamer seeking meaning in the computer console? Is Arcangel's message entirely pessimistic? Are we, in a desperate search for meaning, doomed to repeat the failures of past generations in spite of seeming progression? In realising the impossibility of escape, is it correct to argue, as Carmus does, that "The struggle itself...is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." ?
As I left the installation room, walking back from later to earlier computer programs, I noticed a bowler from an old Atari game quietly knock down one of the pins. I'm still not certain that this was actually part of the show - all games were supposed to be rigged to fail. Did one rebel? Was the seed of revolt more powerful that that of suicide?
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