At WTF, a simulated Thailand lures players to win a new future

Can people challenge oppressive regimes and alter history if they believe in themselves? 

The video game trope of saving the world is central to WTF Gallery’s new exhibition, This History Is Auto-Generated, where experimental short films and AI-generated text adventures bring interactivity to the timeless question of free will; namely, is there a way to change a nation’s political fate?

“Living in Thailand made me think that, right now, we cannot imagine the future or any alternative political system apart from capitalism,” artist Nanut Thanapornrapee said at his exhibition’s opening.

At his exhibition, the 27-year-old artist, who is a gamer, juxtaposes surreal character models of civilians and soldiers with video game footage framed in today’s political malaise to create unsettling simulated realities – and challenge visitors to do no less than…