Artificial Life & Intelligence
Honorary Mention

YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING / ARE YOU SOULLESS TOO?

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (GB)

YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING / ARE YOU SOULLESS TOO? is a multiplayer, democratic game challenging players to examine their role within systems of power, control, and societal accountability. Set in a world where revolution has dismantled oppressive structures, the game immerses participants in the final moments of a transformed society, forcing them to confront the complexities around topics of leadership, morality, immigration, and self-reflection. 

The game unfolds within a colosseum-like setting, where a central player guides the experience for the rest of the audience. Choices voted on by the audience, shaping the narrative through collective decision-making. This asymmetric gameplay mirrors a democratic process, exposing both the strengths, failures, and contradictions of governance by majority rule. Players must wrestle with their own influence in deciding if they should passively follow, challenge authority, or disrupt the system entirely. 

The game is deliberately designed to frustrate expectations and punish passivity. This push-and-pull dynamic forces heightened engagement, compelling players to actively participate rather than passively consume. The game’s visuals are a heavy collage of drawings, text and low-poly, "PlayStation 2" 3D rendering. The method of creating the images was diaristic, based on the emotions of the artist, which shaped a digital world that is both familiar, political, and eerily distorted. 

It stands as a time piece of the current political landscape, confronting the audience with the questions: How do collective choices shape justice? What does it mean to follow or challenge authority? Are we willing to listen to perspectives that contradict our own? and What is the impact of your passivity? 

YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING / ARE YOU SOULLESS TOO? is a multiplayer, democratic game challenging players to examine their role within systems of power, control, and societal accountability. Set in a world where revolution has dismantled oppressive structures, the game immerses participants in the final moments of a transformed society, forcing them to confront the complexities around topics of leadership, morality, immigration, and self-reflection. 

The game unfolds within a colosseum-like setting, where a central player guides the experience for the rest of the audience. Choices voted on by the audience, shaping the narrative through collective decision-making. This asymmetric gameplay mirrors a democratic process, exposing both the strengths, failures, and contradictions of governance by majority rule. Players must wrestle with their own influence in deciding if they should passively follow, challenge authority, or disrupt the system entirely. 

The game is deliberately designed to frustrate expectations and punish passivity. This push-and-pull dynamic forces heightened engagement, compelling players to actively participate rather than passively consume. The game’s visuals are a heavy collage of drawings, text and low-poly, "PlayStation 2" 3D rendering. The method of creating the images was diaristic, based on the emotions of the artist, which shaped a digital world that is both familiar, political, and eerily distorted. 

It stands as a time piece of the current political landscape, confronting the audience with the questions: How do collective choices shape justice? What does it mean to follow or challenge authority? Are we willing to listen to perspectives that contradict our own? and What is the impact of your passivity? 

www.daniellebrathwaiteshirley.com
www.las-art.foundation/programme/the-soul-station

Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation 

YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING / ARE YOU SOULLESS TOO? © Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley 

Artist: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley 
Co-writer, voice actor: Ebun Sodipo 
Movement director: Malik Nashad Sharpe 
Virtual architecture consultant: Joel Simpson
Coder: Florian Brückner
Music and sound: wavesovspace 
Virtual camera assistant: Johannes Krell
Co-director and producer: Valerie-Malin Schmid 
Voice actors: Madison Moore, Robin Rutenberg, Blu Bone, Newroz Çelik, Jayden Rahatoka,  

Exhibition team:
Scenography and production: Celeste Burlina
Spatial sound design: Lugh O'Neill
Public program production: Pierre Renard   

LAS Art Foundation team:
Senior curator: Boris Magrini 
Assistant curator: Agnessa Schmudke
Project manager: Flinder Zuyderhoff-Gray  

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (b. 1995, London) is a Berlin/London-based artist. They received a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Brathwaite-Shirley works predominantly in animation, sound, performance, and video game development. Their practice focuses on intertwining lived experience with fiction to imaginatively retell the stories of Black Trans people. Their work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; LAS Art Foundation, Berlin; Studio Voltaire, London; FACT, Liverpool; Project Arts Centre, Dublin; and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, among others. 

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (b. 1995, London) is a Berlin/London-based artist. They received a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Brathwaite-Shirley works predominantly in animation, sound, performance, and video game development. Their practice focuses on intertwining lived experience with fiction to imaginatively retell the stories of Black Trans people. Their work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; LAS Art Foundation, Berlin; Studio Voltaire, London; FACT, Liverpool; Project Arts Centre, Dublin; and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, among others. 

Artist and game designer Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley creates participatory experiences centered on archiving and amplifying Black Trans experiences. YOU CAN'T HIDE ANYTHING/ARE YOU SOULLESS TOO? is a multiplayer democratic game that challenges players to examine their role within systems of power, control, and societal accountability. Installed within a kind of amphitheater, this multiplayer video game implicates its players in an unfolding experience set in the final moments of a transformed society. Inspired by horror, speculative fiction and retro video games, the artist plays with the choice architecture of games to encourage reflection on and engagement with the limiting rules and political oppressions that restrict life and which we uphold every day through our silence. It reflects our current political landscape and the increasingly precarious democracy of our times, as well as the asymmetry of our current systems, which interpret and sometimes overrule collective decisions. 

Artist and game designer Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley creates participatory experiences centered on archiving and amplifying Black Trans experiences. YOU CAN'T HIDE ANYTHING/ARE YOU SOULLESS TOO? is a multiplayer democratic game that challenges players to examine their role within systems of power, control, and societal accountability. Installed within a kind of amphitheater, this multiplayer video game implicates its players in an unfolding experience set in the final moments of a transformed society. Inspired by horror, speculative fiction and retro video games, the artist plays with the choice architecture of games to encourage reflection on and engagement with the limiting rules and political oppressions that restrict life and which we uphold every day through our silence. It reflects our current political landscape and the increasingly precarious democracy of our times, as well as the asymmetry of our current systems, which interpret and sometimes overrule collective decisions.