Edwin Lo's Desktop Documentary Explores Christ's Crucifixion and Epiphany Through Video Games

Hong Kong artist Edwin Lo has created "Crucifixion and Epiphany," a desktop documentary that explores the iconography of Christ's birth and death by combining footage from the horror video games Outlast and Outlast 2 with online audiovisual materials. The work is a "desktop documentary," recorded by capturing the artist's computer screen as he navigates through windows containing YouTube video essays, live footage, and game sequences. Lo previously created machinima works based on Outlast, including "The Fall" (2018), "The Heart" (2018), and "The Pit" (2019), which used the game as a backdrop for Edgar Allan Poe stories. In this new piece, Lo moves beyond machinima, drawing on the narrative elements of Outlast and Outlast 2—specifically birth and crucifixion scenes—and combining them with found audio and video from the internet and his own computer. The work retains a sense of improvisation and spontaneity, with small errors and moments of uncertainty left intact, and is made with almost no post-production or editing. Its rough "found footage" aesthetic echoes that of the Outlast games, which themselves mimic the style of horror films like "Rec" (2007) by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. "Crucifixion and Epiphany" is available for free streaming until October 15 on the VRAL website, an online supplement to the Milan Machinima Festival. The page also includes an interview with Edwin Lo conducted by Luca Miranda.