Circadian Rhythmz: Twitch While you Twitch
2020
Video Game
Exhibited and Sold at: DDDD Gallery 7.7.20-8.8.20
Duration: Until you fall asleep
Videography: Lizzie Klein
Model: @deathbysanrio
A ‘sleep twitch’ (also known as a hypnagogic jerk) is a strong, involuntary contraction a body feels as it falls asleep. It is the sensation of jumping and falling while remaining still. In multiple realities, it is the result of our body remaining in one while succumbing to another.
The pressures of 24/7 entertainment are exhibited within an emergent subgenre of live streaming: the video gamer who falls asleep in front of their camera (as seen on Twitch). While their body exists in one time zone, their channel exists across all. Earning thousands of dollars and viewers from broadcasting their sleep, their body becomes an interactive landscape for their audience, turning sleep into a form of crisis survival, a status symbol, and luxury item.
Circadian Rhythmz: Twitch while you twitch is a video game that viewers can play in order to fall asleep, exploring new screen-based sleep patterns and gamified landscapes. Moving across the streamer’s curated sleep scene, players endlessly jump their character named Hypnagogic Jerk, from obstacle to obstacle battling their drooping eyelids. The game’s lighting slowly dims over time, getting darker and darker, it increases in difficulty. Circadian Rhythmz ends when the player falls asleep, achieving what they so desire.
Download to play (pc + mac)
Game play documentation