These works were created on an Amiga computer and then photographed. They came out of a series of works on video games started in the late 1980’s and feature imaginary scenarios in a colourful, pixellated virtual world that now appears outdated and vintage, offering a snapshot of early technology. Curious still images present us with stages of a fictional videogame that appears to feature a crime. Some ask enigmatic statements or questions: “Are you dreaming?”; “Would you like to make a wish?”; “Have you been sentenced to a fate worse than death?” and “You are about to set out on a voyage of discovery”.

These works have now been released in an edition of 15, printed at 40.6 × 50.8 cm (16 × 20 inches). 

There are 53 works in total in the series.

“In the late 1980s I was making paintings about computer games. In January 1991 I bought an Amiga computer and made a series of fictional videogame stills using Deluxe Paint II. I photographed them straight from the screen as there was no other way to output them that I knew of apart from through a very primitive daisy wheel printer where they appeared as washed out dots.

The effect of the photographs perfectly reproduced the highly pixellated, raised needlepoint effect of the Amiga screen image. Conceptually, this means of presentation was also appropriate in that it made it seem like I had gone into a videogame arcade and photographed the games there, lending authenticity to the fiction. The original Amiga floppy disks which stored the image files are corrupt, but the photographic art works remain.”

Suzanne Treister

Suzanne Treister is considered a pioneer of internet art and more recently has produced work in Augmented Reality. An ongoing focus of Treister's work is the relationship between new technologies, society, alternative belief systems and the potential futures of humanity.

Many of these works were first shown in London at the Edward Totah Gallery in March 1992 and at the Royal Festival Hall in the exhibition It's a Pleasure in 1995. Recent venues: Somerset House, London, 2018; Akron Art Museum, Ohio, USA 2019 and tour; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, 2019/20.