Pachinko Machine at Santa Fe

Brigitta Zics’ Pachinko Machine installation is exhibited at the Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe, viewable online till the end of the year, from the Centre for Contemporary Art I Santa Fe – https://currentsnewmedia.org/artist/brigitta-zics/

Pachinko Machine is a vertical pinball machine (or pachinko) played by large number of people in Japan. This digital version is a self-learning pachinko displayed on a screen with a highly detailed kinetic graphics simulation. The machine plays the game by itself in an automated setup. Through machine learning algorithms the pachinko will become increasingly accurate in achieving the winning result. During the period of the exhibition the machine optimises its own performance and improves its results hour after hour. The only obstruction to fulfil the complete learning cycle is beyond the machines’ control; there is a second intelligence embedded within the machine that aims to obstruct and obfuscate. The work aims to represent the walk of life and although we may be able to control some part it, there is always an element of chance that may destruct and encourages us to stray from our original path.