The Pleasure Machine

Experience an interactive journey where your collective energy dictates the fate of a whimsical slot-machine character, navigating the thrilling and perilous landscape of algorithm-driven media that influences attention and behavior.

Produced by

Kelon Cen, Weilu Ge

Directed by

Kelon Cen, Weilu Ge

Project Description

The Pleasure Machines is an interactive full dome experience exploring how algorithm systems shape attention, behavior and collective agency in contemporary media environments. The experience opens with an infinite-scroll interface that echoes the compulsive rhythms of social platforms. As participants intensify their interaction, their collective "energy" activates MeowSlot, a cat-shaped slot-machine character modeled on the reward loops of casinos and algorithmic feeds. Once awakened, MeowSlot drives the group through escalating collaborative tasks: success extends their shared play time, while failures drain their energy, darkens the scene, and summons a new machine that gradually cancels all interaction, returning the space to silence.

About the Director

IMUU is an artist collective that utilizes light as paint and music as dialogue to create an episodic narrative about a futuristic dystopia. The team consists of animator, composer, directors and creative technologists doing experiments in creative expressions via VR/AR, interactivity, and performance in transformative physical or virtual spaces.