Fucking with an online date at a beautiful natural spot somewhere in the Beckenham Place Park [2021, VIDEO]
PUBLISHED:
https://www.factmag.com/2021/06/25/c-a-fucking-with-an-online-date/
Created by England’s Council of Legislation and Governing Body of Hyper Real Simulations and Constructs, this audiovisual piece reconstructs a vivid lucid dream, unfolding within the historic landscape of Crystal Palace Park. A meditation on digital consciousness, fragmented identity, and the increasingly blurred boundaries between virtual and physical experience, the work immerses the viewer in an uncanny, hyperreal simulation where the familiar takes on a surreal, dreamlike quality.
The video’s wandering camera drifts through a landscape both recognizable and eerily estranged, capturing an environment populated by figures who seem half-present—detached, ghostly echoes of real-world inhabitants. Fragments of dialogue, seemingly lifted from online dating apps and late-night digital exchanges, hover in the air like disembodied thoughts. Lines from Andrei Tarkovsky and lyrics from AFI and Porcupine Tree emerge as cryptic messages, disorienting markers within this liminal space. Hatsune Miku idly hums Deadwing, while a solitary figure mutters about bedroom recording setups, their words reduced to a kind of digital residue, lingering yet devoid of weight.
This flattening of physical and virtual presence speaks to a broader exploration of artificial intelligence and the ways in which human connection is mediated by technology. The dialogue—awkward, fragmented, strangely mechanical—mirrors the experience of engaging with a chatbot trained on an esoteric dataset of film references, niche music, and social media exchanges. There is an inherent irony in this simulation of intimacy, a sense of isolation underscoring each interaction.
As the video unfolds, its pristine digital veneer begins to break down. What initially appears as a seamless, constructed reality begins to unravel, its synthetic smoothness disrupted by erratic glitches, the slow disintegration of coherence. The ambient electronic soundscape, composed of seething synthesis and hiccuping samples, gradually erodes into something far more primal and unsettling. The artificial serenity of the dream collapses, culminating in the chilling cries of cybernetic foxes—a piercing rupture in the illusion of controlled, sanitized connectivity.
What remains is a stark contrast between the digital fantasy and the messy unpredictability of real-world interaction. In the end, the video serves as a quiet but unsettling reminder: no matter how immersive or intricate a simulation becomes, it can never fully replace the weight, the unpredictability, and the raw, chaotic beauty of physical existence.
![ANIME-GAN [2018]](https://atayilgun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-31-at-17.02.18.png)
