Over the past years the stereotype of the gamer within online culture has become synonymous with shut-in, socially inept and often radicalised young men. Instagram memes, tweets and other pieces of content often reinforce and ridicule how aggressive, unhealthy and ultimately how much of a loser the stereotypical gamer is. The Gamer Keyboard Wall Piece series uses the (visual) language of gamer subculture to reimagine this stereotype and give it a new political identity.

In Gamer Keyboard Wall Piece #1 the RGB lit keys of four gamer keyboards have become the pixels of a video installation displaying a text addressing loneliness, anxiety and more downsides of NEET life, amongst other topics. Besides an archive of screenshots and links to content documenting the online perception of the gamer, the videos by the psychiatrist and Twitch streamer Alok Kanojia, or Dr. K, and his online platform Healthy Gamer, became a main point of inspiration for this piece.

Gamer Wall Piece #1 has been made with support from the Mondrian Fund and Stroomversneller.

Software development by Ibo Ibelings

Hardware development by Jelle Reith

Early prototypes were made with support by Wooting