Matthew D. Gantt

Sword of Fire: First-Person Slasher was first created in response to an invitation from artist and organizer Babak Ahteshamipour to take part in the group show Against the Will, Against Staying Still. In the framing of this exhibition, each artist was given a hypothetical fantasy weapon, which was to be used as the creative impetus for the creation of a new work, in which the weapon is used to ‘defeat’ the curator himself, in the style of a video game’s final boss.

Having been given a Sword of Fire, my thought process was that in order to defeat the final boss of the curator, an artist must first battle their way through the ‘henchmen’ of their own previous ideas. As such, First Person Slasher takes the form of a self-playing first person shooter (FPS) style video game, in which the WASD + mouse look controls have been delegated to a simple game AI controller. This simulation mechanic is situated within a kit-bashed dungeon environment, populated by sketches and elements of my previous work, including kinetic sound sculptures, procedural sonic objects, and simple musical agents.

As the first-person sword-controller wanders the dungeon space, it encounters these sonic art-henchmen, valiantly (but ineffectually) slashing at them with the sword of fire. The choreography of this automated dungeon crawl results in a kind of abstract virtual sound walk, as the spatial audio of the game engine brings the sounds and sonic gestures of the henchmen, controller and environment into audible range. While defeating the final boss and clearing the dungeon remain a Sisyphean task, we might still imagine our player controller happy.

About the Artist

Matthew D. Gantt is an artist, composer, and educator based in New York. His practice focuses on sound in virtual spaces, generative systems facilitated by idiosyncratic technology, and digital production presets as sonic readymades. He worked as a studio assistant to electronics pioneer Morton Subotnick from 2016- 2018, and has been an active participant in the international creative community, presenting or performing at spaces such as Pioneer Works, SAT Montreal, Issue Project Room, Ars Electronica, MUTEK Mexico, Feral File, IRCAM, ICST Zurich, and countless DIY venues and grassroots organizations.

Gantt releases music with Orange Milk and Oxtail Recordings, and has taught experimental composition and media in both institutional and DIY contexts, including Harvestworks, CUNY Brooklyn, NYU, Bard College, Sarah Lawrence, Stevens Institute of Technology, and a variety of community workshops aimed at creating equitable access to developing technologies. Gantt’s work has been featured in The Wire magazine, Pop Matters, Exclaim!, Tiny Mix Tapes, Bandcamp New and Notable and more.