neoArcana – Mikey Damager
pseudo-institution / pseudo-OS / desktop performance / live simulation / surveillance capitalism / co-authored narrative / corporate espionage
words by h.y.lan 6th Sep 2025
neoArcana (2025), Mikey Damager, Medium: Immersive Fiction, JavaScript, Python, Large Language Models, Generative AI. Courtesy of Mikey Damager and Purist Magazine.
neoArcana uses pseudo-institution as a narrative medium, that simulates an “unattended terminal,” guiding the audience into an interactive cyber-narrative space. I found this mysterious kekkai on the mezzanine of the St James Harcham Building.
A poster immediately drew me in with its immersive setup: “We’re hiring—Bowditch.” Curiosity propelled me to step inside.
neoArcana (2025), Mikey Damager, Medium: Immersive Fiction, JavaScript, Python, Large Language Models, Generative AI. Courtesy of Mikey Damager and Purist Magazine.
A highly refined interactive piece.
A single-seat chair allows participants to step into the perspective of a novel’s protagonist intuitively. When the viewer sits down, there is an illusion of “hacking into” an institution. Every input from the audience is incorporated into the narrative — participation=being sculpted.
A sense of “disorientation” becomes a training ground for viewers to recognise the institutional language and capitalist momentum embedded in neoArcana. It is precisely this role-playing that injects the aesthetic tension of unpredictable human behaviour into AI’s automated storytelling.
neoArcana continues and reconfigures a lineage of multiple artistic forms: it inherits the pseudo-institutional narrative practices of works like (The Jejune Institute), draws on the operational logic of pseudo-OS and desktop theatre (Her Story, JODI), while resonating with terminal hacker aesthetics (Quadrilateral Cowboy) and critiques of data-driven labour (Hito Steyerl, Pippin Barr). It brings the narrative engine itself to life.
neoArcana (2025), Mikey Damager, Medium: Immersive Fiction, JavaScript, Python, Large Language Models, Generative AI. Courtesy of Mikey Damager and Purist Magazine.
Mikey Damager is an artist, writer and technologist who makes text move and audio visible.
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