Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt: Kentucky Route Zero

Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, Ben Babbitt, screen shot from Kentucky Route Zero, 2013-2020. Courtesy Cardboard Computer.

Join artists and game developers Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt for an evening of live performance, unique playthroughs, and rare materials from Kentucky Route Zero.

“One of the most thoughtful, heartbreaking and yet fantastical looks at modern life in America.”—Todd Martens, LA Times

“KRZ really is the masterpiece critics have been lauding it as for years.”—William Hughes, AV Club

Widely regarded as one of the most important video games of the last decade, Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt’s Kentucky Route Zero is a haunting odyssey of debt and loss that unfolds along a secret highway beneath Kentucky. By turns surreal, tragic, and darkly funny, the game follows Conway, an antique delivery man on his final job, and the marginalized seekers he meets along the way. Developed over more than a decade, the project draws on a wide range of influences—from the cinematic atmospheres of David Lynch and the proletarian poetry of John Steinbeck to the radical visions of grassroots and experimental media artists of the 1960s and ’70s. Kentucky Route Zero was released episodically as five acts and four playable interludes, accompanied by a constellation of related works: a soundtrack, a play, a series of videos, and a mysterious telephone line that connects directly to the game’s world. For this special evening, Elliott, Kemenczy, and Babbitt present a program of live performance, unique playthroughs, and rarely seen materials from the game’s extended universe—offering new insights into its narrative spaces, audiovisual design, and Chicago roots while bridging the screen and real life.

Followed by a conversation with the artists and an audience Q&A. Presented in partnership with the University of Chicago’s Year of Games initiative.

2013–25, USA
Format: Digital and live performance
In English
90 minutes

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jake Elliott (BFA 2011) is a game designer and writer. He is co-founder of the Chicago-based studio Cardboard Computer and co-developer of the game Kentucky Route Zero. Before his work with Cardboard Computer, he collaborated on music and experimental software projects in Chicago, including the internet radio station NUMBERS.FM and the software/video art history project Critical Artware. He has taught courses in game design at DePaul University, Northwestern University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and IULM University in Milan, Italy. He lives in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

Tamas Kemenczy (BFA 2007) is a game designer and visual artist based in Chicago. He is one-third of the studio Cardboard Computer, known for the game Kentucky Route Zero. The game’s distinctive visual style has received awards from the Independent Games Festival and IndieCade and was featured in the exhibition Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Prior to his work with Cardboard Computer, he contributed to Critical Artware, a collaborative project on the history of early software and video art. He is currently working on Cardboard Computer’s next game and designing catio-balconies for his feline roommates.

Ben Babbitt (BFA 2013) is a composer and producer based in Los Angeles whose work spans live performance, studio albums, DJ mixes, film and video game scores, and collaborations with artists including Eartheater, Angel Olsen, Colin Self, film directors Martine Syms and Zia Anger, and the new music ensemble Wild Up. He is also one-third of the studio Cardboard Computer, where he composed the original score and sound design for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts–-winning game Kentucky Route Zero. His work has been presented at institutions and festivals including the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), 3hd Festival (Berlin), and the Getty Museum (Los Angeles).

ACCESSIBILITY

Conversations at the Edge events have live captions (CART). The Gene Siskel Film Center is fully ADA accessible and its theaters are equipped with hearing loops. For other accessibility requests, please visit saic.edu/access or write cate@saic.edu.

TICKETS

$13 General public
$8 Students & seniors
$6.50 Film Center members
$5 SAIC staff & faculty & AIC staff
FREE for SAIC students with a valid ID

All CATE programs are free for SAIC students. Unless otherwise noted, SAIC student tickets are released five days prior to showtime. Tickets must be picked up in person from the Gene Siskel Film Center box office. A student ID is required.

RESOURCE GUIDES

Conversations at the Edge’s resource guides contain articles, interviews, and other material related to upcoming artists and events. Available here.