White Cube Combat:
Simulating the Art World as a Playable System
White Cube Combat is an experimental multimedia artwork that combines sculpture, video game design, painting, and participatory artistic research.
At the centre of the project is the concept of a functional arcade cabinet housing a custom-built fighting game set within the symbolic architecture of the "white cube," the modern gallery space often associated with neutrality, but also critically with institutional authority and cultural power.
The arcade cabinet is conceived as a sculptural object, a gaming device, and an exhibition piece. Its exterior is planned as an oil painting referencing historical battlefield imagery, creating a visual dialogue between classical representations of combat and contemporary forms of competition within the art world. By juxtaposing historical warfare with artistic endeavour, the object reflects on how artists navigate institutional systems, aesthetic hierarchies, market visibility, and broader socio-political structures that are invisible or ignored.
Inside the cabinet, the fighting game White Cube Combat transforms artists into playable avatars within a competitive system modelled on the dynamics of the contemporary art world. Each player constructs an artist-avatar by combining a set of physical attributes with a public artistic identity defined by artistic orientation, institutional background, geographic context, socio-cultural positioning, and modes of professional visibility within the art world.
These characteristics influence gameplay mechanics such as health, power, resilience, mobility, and special abilities, translating questions of cultural capital, marginalisation, privileges, institutional recognition, and the construction of commercialised artistic selves into the logic of a fighting game. In this sense, the artist-avatar becomes a speculative model of the contemporary artist as both cultural producer and produced public persona.
Matches unfold across multiple rounds in arenas modelled on internationally recognised exhibition environments, including museums, galleries, art fairs, and project spaces. Each arena represents a different cultural context in which artistic identities are produced, contested, and legitimised. Depending on the setting [for example, a museum, commercial gallery, biennial, or artist-run space] different attributes may shift in value, altering the balance between competing artist-avatars.
Through this playable system, White Cube Combat invites participants to reflect on how artistic careers, reputations, and public identities are shaped by artist's bodies, institutional frameworks, market structures, geography, and social positioning. The game does not aim to represent the art world realistically. Instead, it exaggerates these structures through the mechanics of competition, turning the invisible side of culture into a speculative and interactive model.
The project is supported by a workshop-based preparatory phase developed in collaboration with participants aged 18 to 25. These artist-led, collaborative, and research-based workshops are designed as a first step toward the future realisation of the artwork as a finished sculptural object with a functional playable software installation. The workshops do not complete the final artwork itself; rather, they generate the visual, conceptual, and structural material that will inform its later development.
The workshops function as a form of collective artistic research in which participants contribute ideas for the systems, tools, and visual elements that allow players to construct artist-avatars and select their arenas. This phase is not structured as traditional skills-training. Instead, it creates a temporary artistic laboratory in which participants explore how artistic identities, genres, styles, and institutional settings can be translated into visual and interactive systems.
The resulting workshop phase operates on several levels: (a) as a research-based process exploring the symbolic and institutional structures of the art world; (b) as a collaborative artistic framework involving young creatives in the development of ideas; (c) as a preparatory phase for the future realisation of the final artwork.
The public-facing outcome of this funded phase will be a presentation or exhibition of the workshop results as the conclusion of the preparatory stage of the wider artistic project.
Structure and Description of the Four Workshop Sessions
Workshop Approach
These workshops do not follow a traditional expert-teaches-students model. Instead, they are based on an artist-as-explorer approach. My role is not to teach a fixed technique, but to facilitate an artistic investigation. I act as an artistic initiator, conceptual guide, and discussion facilitator.
Participants collaborate with me in exploring the visual and conceptual development of the project. After the workshops, I will synthesise the ideas generated during the sessions into the next developmental stage of the artwork.
The workshops function as a temporary creative laboratory in which participants collectively explore artistic ideas rather than learning predefined skills. They are therefore artist-led, collaborative, research-based, and not skills-training in the traditional sense.
Artistic Framework
The project combines two main elements:
1) The concept of a sculptural arcade cabinet with a painted surface referencing historical battlefield imagery.
2) The concept of a custom-built fighting video game.
The central concept is simple: artists fighting in the "white cube."
The game stages are inspired by museum and gallery spaces, while gameplay mechanics are influenced by artistic positions, identities, and institutional contexts. Together, we will explore questions such as:
What might an artist-fighter look like?; How can art movements, artistic styles, or genres translate into fighting abilities?; What might a museum such as Tate Modern look like as a fighting arena?; How can art movements, artistic styles, or genres translate into fighting abilities?; What might a museum such as Tate Modern look like as a fighting arena?; How might different art spaces affect gameplay mechanics* [such as strategy, attack, defence, vulnerability, health, mobility, and special powers]?; How do artistic identities and social positions influence these gameplay mechanics*?
Participants will contribute ideas for:
Functional arcade cabinet Design; Visual and Narrative Speculation; Visual design of the game; User interface elements, symbols, Icons, HUD elements; Arena environments inspired by internationally recognised museums and galleries; Artist-avatar construction systems; Narrative elements of the game world.
Session 1 — Introduction and Concept (Physical Meeting)
The first session introduces the artistic framework of the project.
I will briefly present my artistic practice and doctoral research, explaining how themes such as alter egos, heteronyms, and artistic identity relate to the concept of White Cube Combat.
Participants will also be introduced to the fighting game genre, which originated in the early 1980s including references such as Street Fighter (first released in 1987) and Mortal Kombat (first released in 1992). We will discuss how the genre's mechanics [rounds, attacks, defensive moves, special abilities, and arena-based confrontation] can be translated into an globalised artistic context in which artists become playable avatars.
The session will also include references from:
Art history and Contemporary Art;
Video games and visual culture;
Artists who use alter egos or fictional identities;
Several theoretical texts such as Brian O'Doherty's Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space (1986)
The session concludes with a first discussion of artists as fighters and possible attributes for artist-avatars.
Session 2 — Creation: Game Elements
In this session, participants begin developing the visual and conceptual elements of the project.
Working individually and in small groups, they will explore different aspects of the work through drawing, discussion, storyboarding, and collaborative idea generation. Participants are encouraged to propose speculative concepts, visual interpretations, and narrative ideas that reflect their own perspectives on artistic identity, institutions, and cultural dynamics.
Areas of focus include:
Arcade Cabinet Design
The cabinet as a sculptural object.
Historical battlefield references for the painted exterior.
Visual dialogue between historical conflict and contemporary artistic practices in the art world.
Narrative and Story
Short narrative introductions or prologue ideas.
Storyboarding possible openings or character contexts.
Inspiration from fighting game structures.
Artist-avatars [This can be developed separately, but should remain in close coordination with the Arena Environments and Game Mechanics groups]
Combinations of social background, artistic style or movement, and bodily construction.
Attributes related to identity, artistic practice, and social positioning.
How these factors affect gameplay mechanics [*such as strategy, attack, defence, vulnerability, health, mobility, and powers].
Arena Environments [This can be developed separately, but should remain in close coordination with the Artist-avatars and Game Mechanics groups]
Museums, galleries, biennials, and independent art spaces as battle arenas.
Visual interpretation of those environments.
How environments shape gameplay mechanics* and symbolic meaning.
Game Mechanics [This can be developed separately, but should remain in close coordination with the Artist-avatars and Arena Environments groups]
Relationships between identity, context, and gameplay.
How social and institutional factors can be translated into game rules.
Interface design
User interface elements
Icons, symbols, health and power bars [resilience and vulnerability], and gameplay indicators
Participants may work with analogue or digital tools such as drawing, painting, Procreate, or Photoshop.
Session 3 — Development and Synthesis
In this session participants present the material created in Session 2.
Together we review the sketches, concepts, and ideas developed during the previous session. Through group discussion we explore which ideas are most interesting and how they might function within the game system.
Participants collaborate in refining and combining these ideas into more coherent visual and conceptual proposals.
Session 4 — Reflection and Public Presentation
The final session focuses on reflection and public presentation.
Participants discuss how the ideas developed during the workshops might be presented publicly as part of the preparatory phase of the project.
Since the funded phase supports the workshops rather than the completion of the final artwork, the public-facing outcome will focus on presenting the generated concepts, materials, and research process.
This session also reflects on authorship, contribution, and the transition from workshop process to the later realisation of the artwork.
Public Presentation / Exhibition
The exact dates, location, and format will be determined.
Materials
Snacks and drinks will be provided during the workshops.
Selected art materials will be provided.