SOD by JODI

The renowned net art duo JODI’s release of SOD represented a blend of their net.art roots, video game art and the video game cracking culture that led to the demoscene. The work is a warped, scrambled version of “Wolfenstein3D” (1992), a game chosen for “its ‘abandonware’ status,” as the game was seven years old in 1999, according to Phillipa Stalker.

A participator from the time was quoted as saying, “Every ‘wall’ of the maze is rendered in black and white geometric patterns, while the main enemy in the game appears as two inverted triangles.” Despite this graphical reduction and intentional obfuscation, gameplay remarkably remains intact. JODI invites viewers to become active participators in a world of their own creation, making SOD not only a unique digital expression capturing the late ’90s gaming and internet culture, but also a journey into JODI’s surreal vision of the world.