“No Ghost Just a Shell” is a collaborative art project initiated by French artists Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno in 1999. The project involves the creation of a fictional character named AnnLee, who originally appeared as a manga character in Japanese comics. Huyghe and Parreno bought the rights to AnnLee and used her as a central figure in various artworks, films, and installations.

The project explores themes such as authorship, ownership, identity, and the nature of reality in the digital age. AnnLee, being a fictional character devoid of any narrative or personality, becomes a vessel for different artists to project their ideas onto. By removing her from her original context and stripping away her backstory, Huyghe and Parreno challenge traditional notions of character development and storytelling.

“No Ghost Just a Shell” reflects on the commodification of culture and the fluidity of identity in an increasingly digitized world. It raises questions about the value of art, the role of the artist, and the nature of creativity in an era dominated by mass media and consumerism.

To me, ‘No Ghost Just a Shell’ signifies someone (or something) needing direction or instructions to be able to exist. Similarly, in this childhood game I used to play, a character is invented and customized, then played by someone in the real world, controlling a character inside the game world. The pixels on the screen signify the ‘shell’, whereas my mouse and pad would dictate what my player is doing, seeing, and creating.

In the game itself, I created my avatar according to the project of Annlee by Pierre Huyghe (b. 1962) and Philippe Parreno (b. 1964). The speech bubble asks the question, ‘Who am I today?’ referring to the plethora of directions the gamer can choose to interact as, using their personalized avatar.