L.ESPACE

Diana Romanova’s mixtape is made up of functional soundtracks for videogame interfaces. In this way, digital non-places and liminal spaces of virtual worlds become a metaphor for the timelessness of our reality.

Liminal spaces in videogames—intermediary scenes, service screens, and functional sections—usually have specific sounds that are attractive in order to retain the player’s attention but not too dynamic in order that they do not spend a lot of time there.

Being inside those spaces, unlike playing the main game, is like being in a state of suspended animation, as when a person is facing major external crises that they cannot influence. Being in a static, timeless bubble produces a feeling of comfort and enables a delay in coming into contact with something frightening. However, sooner or later this period must come to an end. The player needs to continue going forward, to make it to unknown locations, to solve puzzles, and obtain tools that will help them deal with scary reality. In this way, the zones of digital «non-being» allow us to develop new means of overcoming and working with reality.

Cover: Courtesy Diana Romanova

Bio

Diana Romanova is an intermedia artist and sound researcher. In her works she interacts with silence in the broadest meaning of the term. She is developing the idea of reassembling sound concepts as an alternative form of political activity and the practice of listening as an exercise in non-violence.