To Reflect A World Where All Life Is Work, An Artist Must Make Games w. Mitchell F. Chan
Our everyday lives are shaped by systems which break us down into data: step counts, credit scores, Uber ratings. The logic of optimization is so deeply embedded in these systems, and so pervasive, that it becomes invisible. We cease asking why we are optimizing, or for whom.
In this online presentation and conversation, artist Mitchell F. Chan explains how the contemporary world is best represented by game loops: carefully designed modes of interactivity that don't just steer us toward our optimal selves, they define what we think of as optimal outcomes. [And therefore video games are cool]
About Mitchell F Chan
Mitchell F Chan is a conceptual artist based in Toronto, described by one critic as “committed to the most serious ideas of conceptualism in the most playful way possible.” His pioneering blockchain artwork Digital Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility, 2017, was recently exhibited in “Monte di Pietá” at the Fondazione Prada during the 60th Venice Biennale.
His most recent project, The Zantar Triptych, is a series of real videogames set inside a fictional videogame economy. It premiered at Nguyen Wahed in New York City in 2025 and has since been presented at Frieze Seoul and Westbund Shanghai by DE SARTHE gallery.
In addition to creating artwork, Chan has written for Artforum, Outland, Right Click Save, and The Pembroke Observer.
About Rhizome
Rhizome champions digital art and culture through commissions, exhibition, and digital preservation, online at rhizome.org and in partnership with its longtime affiliate and host, the New Museum in New York City.
Founded in 1996 by artist Mark Tribe as an intimate email list connecting some of the first artists to work on the web and now—more than twenty years later—a thriving nonprofit with robust, multi-tiered programming, Rhizome has played an integral role in the history, definition, and growth of art engaged with the internet.
About Artwrld
Artwrld is a social discovery app that makes the art world more welcoming, accessible and easier to explore. Now live in NYC and LA. More at: artwrld.com