AGE: 32
BASED IN: Los Angeles
Considering the cultural relevance and influence of video games, it’s surprising they haven’t become a more popular artistic medium. Alice Bucknell shows just how much potential they have. A recent video and video game of theirs explored LA from the perspective of its rivers, moths, and other non-human inhabitants to examine the politics of drought. The artist, who has held residencies at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the New Museum’s NEW INC, is also the founder of New Mystics, a digital platform merging magic and technology
Describe your work in three words.
Kaleidoscopic, roaming, speculative.
What’s an artwork you didn’t make, but wish you had?
When I was in art school I had this dream of making a game like Zach Gage’s Lose/Lose, 2009—a permadeath video game that lets you shoot aliens but deletes files on your hard drive with every kill. I wanted to do the opposite, a kind of suggested content simulator, where the game would fill your HD with stuff it thinks you’d like based on what it could glean from your files and gameplay; the game itself would be this extremely awkward text-based dating simulator. In the era of sycophantic, slop-laden A.I., this game would be easier to make than ever.
What project do you have coming up that you are especially excited about?
The game I’m currently working on—Earth Engine—and its film component, Ground Truthing. This project takes my interest in the affective and ecological dimensions of game worlds to the scale of the planetary. In this game, the Earth is the main player—its emotional states are shaped by player interaction and climate data, and it evolves with the humans that move through it.
What art-world trend would you like to see die out?
Biophilic art, NFTs, and ironic painting.
Is there a studio rule you live by?
I’m pretty flexible with my studio routine, but it’s essential for me to break contact with the screen at least once a day and go touch grass. In LA, this often ends up being long mountainous hikes in the Angeles National Forest near my house. Surprisingly, the long natural side quest always ends up playing a really big role in the simulated worlds I build.
See CULTURED’s full 2025 Young Artists list and access other individual artist profiles here.
in your life?
