TANK No. 020 – May 2002

Without stories, you can’t have culture. This issue of TANK critically examined virtual worlds and video games, building a barricade against the flooding of culture by pseudo-reality and simulation to construct narratives of the now. Liam Gillick considers the minutiae of communal life and the paradoxes of utopia Karl Lagerfeld submits himself to a post-production slimdown Charlie Koolhaas turns reality into fantasy in popular PC game The Sims Plus, Dave Eggers assumes a dog-avatar in an exclusive short story, Shumon Basar on on-screen architecture and Will Sanders shoots scenes in the liminal world of the departures lounge