The Perks of Being Polygon

In his performative video piece, The Perks of Being Polygon, Michael Blaine seeks to explore the ever greying boundaries between real and virtual worlds. Inspired by the rise of virtual reality technologies such as the Oculus Rift, Blaine escapes from reality and immerses himself into the world of the popular role-playing video game, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. The artist becomes a character inside a seemingly living, breathing world, one usually experienced as an outside observer. The game transports him into a place filled with fantastical risks and new environments, where common gaming tropes may be exploited to his advantage. In the game’s virtual world he is impervious to the wilds of nature, can heal himself with the consumption of food, absorb intelligence instantly, and use the game’s mechanisms to negate poor decision making. Through the use of humor and mirth, Blaine invites the viewer to question the realities and insecurities of our waking lives which continue to drive us deeper and deeper still into virtual spaces through escapist technologies.