Early on in lockdown, Animal Crossing became the game on everybody’s lips, with players using the virtual simulation game as a creative antidote to these strange times. Fast-forward six months and it’s inspired a legion of dedicated followers, with virtual art shows, high fashion bootleg attire, and even IRL political protests. You thought you’d seen it all – until now.
Yesterday, Twitter user @jakefogelnest shared his very own Andy Warhol screening room in the simulation game. Made in collaboration with The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, players can visit an island where Warhol’s 1966 experimental film Chelsea Girls is playing on a 24/7 loop. “We are using two 16mm projectors and have the proper reel order and sound cues,” said @jakefogelnest of the set-up, which features a split screen, like Warhol’s original work.
While it’s unclear how the AC version compares to the original, Chelsea Girls was a classic Warholian cocktail of sex, drugs, and drama, and the artist’s first commercially successful film. It featured 22 different 33-minute reels and appearances by Nico, International Velvet, Eric Emerson, Brigid Berlin, Mario Montez, Ondine, Gerard Malanga, Susan Bottomly, and Ingrid Superstar.
Elsewhere, dominatrix Denali Winter is using New Horizons to continue interacting with clients, who are paying bells to be smacked by butterfly nets, made to water flowers, and generally, be digitally humiliated. If that’s not your vibe, you can now play the game with a smart buttplug. Brave new world.