Gone But Not Forgotten, 2022

Gone But Not Forgotten, 2022
Interactive video game environment, 3D printed PLA plastic
Dimensions variable

Gone But Not Forgotten (2022) is part of a research-based body of work by Bob Bicknell-Knight exploring the many facets of non-player characters (NPCs) in video games, from their looping lives to the repetitive dialogue that they bark at the player character, as a metaphor for the boundaries of human action within an increasingly algorithmic, surveilled existence.

NPCs are characters in video games that are controlled by the computer. They have a predetermined set of behaviours programmed by artificially intelligent (AI) software. The lives of these characters revolve around the player. They are stuck in the game world, doomed to repeat the same day for eternity, waiting to be interacted with.

Gone But Not Forgotten is an interactive video game environment that transports the audience into a misty forest filled with the graves of a number of NPC companions from different video game worlds. NPC companions accompany the player throughout the game and usually have complimentary skills that boosts the players abilities. Their role in the overarching story can be anything from being a helpful sidekick to a potential love interest. They are NPCs within the game world that many players become particularly attached to, with some mourning their digital deaths in the same way that you might mourn a relative or close friend. Each grave within the work is custom made, referencing the companions’ specific traits or interests.

The work physically resides on a 3D printed USB drive resembling a memorial headstone.

In some instances the work has been exhibited alongside custom seating, cubes featuring the video game textures from a number of enemy NPCs included in Bicknell-Knight’s film Non-Player Character (2022).

Gone But Not Forgotten has been included in the following exhibitions:

– Non-Player Character, curated by Pita Arreola-Burns and Elliott Burns (Off Site Project). At Klaipėda Exhibition Hall, Klaipėda, LT, 20th January – 19th February 2023.
– Non-Player Character. At Galeria Kollektiva, Kassel, DE, 29th July – 21st August 2022.