*Undershoot, sensitive data: Cristiano* is a video game. The character, Cristiano Ronaldo, generates random existential monologues about its condition of media interface & digital pet and a few actions through a data bank supplied by the author.
In 1996, the Japanese company Bandaï launched a game called Tamagotchi. This name refers to virtual animals one takes care of by using an interface that resembles the screen of a colorful watch, in the shape of a key chain. They can be washed, fed, and raised with the help of basic commands located around the screen to ensure that they live as long as possible (even though many users entertain themselves by letting them die).
For the second part of the series *Undershoot, sensitive data*, Cindy Coutant’s installation echoes back to the principle of this game. She describes it as a “textual Tamagotchi.” With the help of technological developments, the pet animal looks more precise: here, he takes on the features of Cristiano Ronaldo, and the space in which he moves is a vast soccer field.
How does the artist interact with CR7? Starting from three databases, she “feeds” him with texts—according to her own expression. The first one contains simple instructions (run, throw oneself to the ground, observe the landscape, dawdle, cry, cry hard enough to trigger a tsunami of tears—and there we can well recognize CR7…). The second one consists of simple sentences. The third one includes elements of these sentences, tagged according to their nature and grammatical function.
“Thus, the artist remotely feeds the character (input), who then acts and transforms the submitted text (output). The instructions are visible on the screen, along with the link between the actions and the commands that set them off.” (Jill Gasparina for *Le Confort Moderne*)

Links: https://vimeo.com/334298440, http://cindycoutant.net

3D: Robin Maulet
Unity development: Léon Denise
Produced by *Le Confort Moderne* (Poitiers, FR), Zebra3 (Bordeaux, FR), and LAC&S Lavitrine (Limoges, FR)
Special thanks to Jérémie Nuel

Cindy Coutant (FR) is an artist and researcher, currently resident at Le Fresnoy. Her work mainly questions the desire of the living to connect with beings and things, coevolution between species or techno-species, and the human need to manage and attach a meaning to the incoming information of the world. Her installations and augmented readings are close to science-fiction and unfold into writing processes that explore different issues such as love in the time of technological espionage, affective economics, grammar of anxiety, or alternative Genesis creation narrative.