Like a Bird in a Cage

While machinima has long grappled with themes of entrapment in fictional spaces, Like a Bird in a Cage deepens this exploration, presenting the unknown as an insatiable force, both seductive and oppressive. The urge to cross its threshold is irresistible, yet doing so only magnifies the void, stretching it into a liminal abyss that is at once physical, abstract, and metaphorical. Drawing from Fallout, Minecraft, and Voices of the Void, the machinima places its characters in a perpetual search for knowledge and meaning. Yet, as they press forward, reality and dream collapse into one another, leaving only unanswered questions and an unrelenting sense of longing. Structured in four acts, the work highlights the theatrical nature of video games, where players are not passive spectators but active participants in a drama of agency and constraint. As Miltos Manetas observed, video games generate avatars that mirror our desires, anxieties, and identities. Perhaps, like us, these characters are not merely exploring but searching for themselves within a landscape that is both uninhabitable and inescapable.