Rotted Luck

Rotted Luck envisions a slot machine overtaken by a living fungal network, playfully critiquing the addictive potential of gaming and gambling. The spinning reel displays familiar slot machine icons like cherries and lemons, but this game unfolds differently. The fruit spins uncontrollably and starts to decay as mould spreads across the screen. As you play, your movements are tracked through a cloud of spores that ultimately engulfs you.

Rotted Luck disrupts the usual interactivity and visual style of slot machines to encourage a stranger, shared and more joyful experience. By subverting conventional game mechanics, it proposes an outcome that isn’t about ‘winning’. Communal, non-addictive and movement-based, Rotted Luck favours the fun of play.

To create the piece, artists Vidya Rajan and Ian MacLarty studied slot machine design and imagined a fungus mistaking one for food. They photographed real decaying fruit, transformed them into 3D models, and used a common webcam to track player movements.