OGRE - WILDER (2023)

'Recognising the portentous warning signs of a global extinction event, elect individuals retreat to Hermetica: a sealed biosphere and luxury resort; a privileged vantage for the super-elite to watch the last catastrophic moments of humankind play out on screens as entertainment.

Whilst life support and ecologies are governed by an artificial intelligence, under the Labour For Life Initiative, a non-elect staff, selected by trades, skills and other desirable physical attributes, are housed within Hermetica. After all, a biosphere needs maintenance, its elite residents require hospitality, and the eventual rejuvenation of an apocalyptic world must have bodies to do the heavy-lifting.

After months of exposure to what began as casual current affairs viewing, growing into algorithmically curated media debasement (decapitations over breakfast before hot-yoga; the live-flaying of a village playing out on the screens of the gymnasium), Hermetica’s elite residents begin to desire something more, something that even the capital-expenditure sim’s most outlandish scenarios can’t provide.

There’s only so much you can get from witnessing an act before you just have to try it yourself, they say, as Hermetica accelerates into wilder, happy destruction…'