Presentation Medium: computer game modification
Duration: Self playing video game
The first in a series of re-interpretations of Late Medieval Northern European religious paintings, Default Properties(); is a non-interactive, animated recreation of the baptism scene from the Triptych of Jean des Trompes by Gerard David from 1505 using current game development technology and visual styles. When plugged into a projector and power, a small custom computer automatically starts and displays the work. This “self-playing” game depicts a twitching, chubby figure of Asian descent with a horrible skin disease apparently lost in prayer in a Northern European medieval landscape next to a bored man in furs idling by the river with a flaming sword. Meanwhil, the sky is filling with a swirling extra-dimensional portal from which is emerging an astral being of unknown but seemingly royal nature.