Falsework studio is an artist-led production company in Los Angeles that treats the game engine as an artistic medium. Founded by Matthew J.X. Doyle with Yuehao Jiang, the studio works with artists to develop original worlds and IP across games, installation, performance, and film, and operates as both a production partner and an incubator for artist-driven projects in a moment when AI tools are rapidly reshaping creative labour.

This talk introduces the studio's history, structure, and philosophy through two current works. Spider Lily began as an artist worldbuilding project rooted in Chinese mythologies of the afterlife and grew into a commercial indie game, a live performance with original score, and sculpture. Declaration of Dependence, an interactive installation for the Malta Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, uses mocap, photogrammetry, and a custom Unreal animation system to have a MetaHuman address visitors with an ever-changing declaration on sovereignty and nation, with no controller, tutorial, or UI.

Along the way: how a visual artist's concept becomes a real-time system, working with performers and technical artists from capture to MetaHuman, optimizing for months of exhibition uptime rather than a play session, and what we've learned from making art with, and against, the tools of the games industry.

Bio:

Matthew leads development, production, and partnerships at falsework, pairing game design with narrative craft. Projects he has produced have been presented at Sundance New Frontiers, Hyundai Art Lab, C-Lab Taiwan, Ars Electronica, and the Venice Biennale.