#spectralinterface

[laramzp]

Phantom Inputs (2023)

It’s weird how your hands still remember the weight, the button layout, the resistance of analog sticks. Even after all these years. Muscle memory never really fades.

The translucent plastic was always futuristic, like holding a piece of the future in your hands. But now, it's a portal back to a time when play was immersive in a way adulthood never quite recaptures.

The overlay isn’t just an aesthetic choice. It’s the way memory actually works, doubling back on itself. The more you try to place it, the blurrier it gets.

There’s something hauntological about controllers, about video game hardware in general. The hands grip the controller in the now, but the memory grips back.

Is memory just a series of inputs, an interface we return to over and over, pressing the same buttons in the hope of recreating a feeling? 

What does it mean to hold a past version of yourself in your hands?