Footscray Community Arts
Sep-Dec, 2025
The Making of Fried Rice is a VR gaming simulacrum by Barcode People that invites participants into a one-on-one encounter with the metaphysical and ontological dimensions of fried rice.
Through the hyperabsurd gathering and frying of uncanny “ingredients”,touch becomes ritualised ping, ingredients become fragmented truths — constructing a hypnagogic meditation on identity, value, emotion, and ideology.
Through the hyperabsurd gathering and frying of uncanny “ingredients”,touch becomes ritualised ping, ingredients become fragmented truths — constructing a hypnagogic meditation on identity, value, emotion, and ideology.
This work draws inspiration from the humble yet iconic staple of Chinese restaurants: Fried Rice.
For Barcode People, visits to Chinese eateries have become anunofficial ritual while travelling; though the dishes share common roots, each place introduces its own localised twist. These subtle shifts in flavour reflect broader social entanglements — a culinary echo of the Chinese diaspora’s connections across cultures and geographies.
Endlessly adaptable and assembled from fragments, fried rice becomes a metaphor for being, identity, and collective life. By inviting audiences into an interactive VR encounter, the work opens a space for experimentation — where each participant constructs their own version of fried rice. Through play, we are prompted to pause, reflect, and reconsider how culture emerges — and why its intricacies matter.
This simulacrum unfolds as a continuous VR theatre of gestures and interactions, shaped by participants, creators, and the dynamic space between them.
This simulacrum unfolds as a continuous VR theatre of gestures and interactions, shaped by participants, creators, and the dynamic space between them.
The mart is organised into distinct sections, each grouping ingredients by a conceptual logic rather than function. These include OGs (foundational staples), Live Animals, Cassette Sound Vending, Conscience-Free Meat, Made in China, Instant Cup, Emosyn (emotional synchroniser), Virtues, and Sweat Essence, etc.
Together, these sections collapse material, emotional, ethical, and cultural categories into a single system of selection, reflecting how value and identity are constructed through everyday acts of choice.