Marking the upcoming release of the widely popular game Death Stranding on PlayStation 4 scheduled for November 8, 2019, its author Hideo Kojima will deliver a public talk at Garage. The Museum’s Senior Curator Ekaterina Inozemtseva and Garage Digital’s research curator Nikita Nechaev will ask Kojima about the futurological setting of the game and the concepts behind it, the groundbreaking techniques the game uses for building the innovative experience, and its possible interconnections with the field of contemporary art.

The game’s open-world format allows investigation of an alternative logic of its existence and operation by developing various survival strategies and modes of interaction with this world. Death Stranding’s hyperrealist mechanics and immersive storytelling combine for a new approach to futurological concepts and challenges that humankind may face. Experiencing the game from the perspective of themes raised by the exhibition The Coming World inscribes it into an even wider cultural context: how can we connect to better adapt to new environments and ever-changing possibilities of the future?

The production of the game involved some cutting-edge technologies making it even more interesting in relation to the issues touched on by the show. For instance, the technology of performance capture used in Death Stranding allows players to recognize the star-studded cast, featuring Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, and Mads Mikkelsen among others, opening up new possibilities for gaming as a medium, relating it to cinema, and revealing new means of creative storytelling.