Exit 8 (Years of Earwyrms)
ISSUE #328
Exit 8 is a film about being trapped in a subway platform. It’s based on a video game, which remains unique as an art form because it gets closest to balancing the relief and futility of waking up day after day. Any time, in Exit 8, you feel like you’re making any progress, you turn a corner to face a new challenge, a new silence, a new dead end.
In this way, it is a game about the creation of content. Little is belittled quite like expression of a self. Got a simple sentence? Aching gesture of need? It all gets choked in the drool of automation.
What I mean is: Can you believe people are still out there making music? Many people want you to think it all means nothing. They make their money when you give up—Stop singing! Stop painting! Stop eating! Stop breathing!
Earwyrms turned another year old again on Monday. I still count it down, still feel the urge to observe it. But I didn’t know how to honor an eighth anniversary, so I just skipped last week. That felt bad. That felt like them winning.
Nothing feels quite like saying what you mean. Nothing feels quite like listening. Nothing feels quite like knowing that others are out there, waking up day after day, and facing the same terror with aplomb. You only get that flavor of relief by sharing; by creating.
Exit 8 is a film about being trapped in a subway platform. It’s based on a video game, which remains unique as an art form because it gets closest to balancing the relief and futility of waking up day after day. Any time, in Exit 8, you feel like you’re making any progress, you turn a corner to face a new challenge, a new silence, a new dead end.