Video game interaction and musical practice share the common verb ‘play.’ But what does it mean to play a video game as opposed to a musical piece. How does the state of gameplay change when play is taken to mean ‘perform’ rather than ‘engage with’? What can we learn about the engagement level of a gamer by observing the speed of his button presses and the motion of his controller? How do older gamers ‘perform’ compared to younger ones? Do controllers from older eras of video game history elicit different responses and interactions? What about different genres of video games? How do their gameplay mechanics change the physical actions of the player? Does navigating Portal's Aperture Science Enrichment Center look different than jumping and running through Mario’s World 1-1?
Replay studies the movement and controller use of different levels of video game players (casual to hard-core) and translate that data into a series of audio-visual 'paintings'. These pieces serve both as documentation of the ‘performances’ and highlight the methods used by the players in their pursuit of play, showing the depth of the game engagement and the various themes inherent from each game's mechanics.