The first chapter is a generative installation, titled Entering ThermoDome that is on display during Meta.Morf 2024 four month period @Kjoppmansgate-Ung-Kunst. In this audio-visual installation the protagonist named Markov-NPC, an AI-driven Non-Playable Character (NPC) is embedded in a virtual ecological zero-player game. Markov-NPC is not only able to explore a virtual environment autonomously, it can also narrate and communicate its environmental journey and internal computational ‘experience’.

The long-term installation serves as an open-ended sandbox, where every day NPC-Markov faces different pressures of an environment under siege of a changing climate. It also collects data, such as pixel-based entropy, temperature, color variation, location-based events, perceived objects, etc. Markov-NPC has two main goals: reduce entropy in the environment, and collect money from its artefacts. These two simple goals seem straightforward but often present an existential conflict to the NPC, because the variables are entangled in the dynamic environment and depending on the temperature. The temperature of the environment is determined by the logistics . This means it can be constant, periodic or chaotic. The state of the environment and Markov-NPC’s interactions can be followed by the visitor from day to day during the exhibition, as every day offers new possibilities and/or challenges. The effects of the climate and the changes Markov-NPC makes to the environment, are not only reflected visually, but can also be heard in the generative soundscape created by Øystein Fjeldbo.