Human Souvenir is an interactive piece that explores themes of commodification, ownership, and the abstraction of human identity within a playful, toy-like framework. The work presents a speculative scenario in which an extraterrestrial traveler, having exhausted their time on Earth, seeks to extend their experience through the acquisition of a Human Souvenir—an objectified, interactive version of an Earth Human designed for amusement and display.
Through the mechanics of an arcade-style simulation, the piece interrogates the ways in which cultural encounters are often reduced to consumable experiences. The Human Souvenir, modified to fit within its constraints, exhibits an exaggerated need for attention and care, reflecting both the complexities of human nature and the distortions that occur when life is recontextualized as a product. A party mode recreates social rituals, reducing human movement and behavior to spectacle, while the system of reincarnation ensures an endless supply of disposable subjects.
Human Souvenir operates as both a playful engagement and a critical reflection on the ethics of possession, interaction, and entertainment in digital and physical spaces.
