Utility for the Soul

Utility for the Soul is a short narrative puzzle game based on a work by Lithuanian-American environment artist Aleksandra Kasuba. You explore a retreat house built by a corporation for its employees, where the galleries host displays of the elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. The experience is intended to give visitors time away from the demands and information overload of everyday life, letting them respond to the environment and reflect on themselves.

The retreat house

The galleries are designed to feel vast, with no apparent walls, and to sound like echo chambers. As you encounter elemental events in this unstructured setting, the game explores Kasuba’s aim of finding a harmonious relationship between people, nature and technology.

Puzzles and presentation

You explore 11 rooms, each with a distinct puzzle based on an element. Hand-animated black-and-white visuals and an ambient soundscape create a meditative atmosphere. The experience takes 15 to 30 minutes to complete.

Background

In 1970, Kasuba wrote Utility for the Soul as a short-book entry for Projects Outside Art, launched by Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), an organization that developed collaborations between artists and engineers. The work became her manifesto, expressing a utopian goal at the core of her research.