The video game/film Controls Unbound follows the journey of virtual star Whowle, who grapples with the loss of her physical autonomy through the decisions of the players.

Whowle is the virtual avatar of artist Harriet Davey, her virtual alter ego and digital identity. The name Whowle has been Davey's gamertag since her early youth, and the character has been a virtual representative of the artist since 2019. Following earlier works in which Whowle is seen as an explorer and independent character exploring the self, Whowle now becomes another element of the game. Integrated into the process and development cycle of a fictional game studio, Whowle becomes a celebrity, joining the ever-growing list of Hollywood stars.

This new version of the game character has exaggerated sexualized features and even smoother skin than its predecessor. It can move in new ways, be thrown like a rag doll, crawl through tiny spaces, and be dressed and undressed.

Player freedom and self-expression are marketing buzzwords for modern games, but this claimed freedom collapses under the player's gaze. The camera becomes an instrument of dominance: it circles, tilts, zooms in; it is not the avatar that is the “character,” but the camera... Whowle's body, once a fluid and exploratory tool for the artist, becomes a navigable object.

The film alternates between two visual languages: that of a production fantasy and that of a game reality. Viewers see Whowle in the process of performing herself—scanned, recorded, animated, and then helplessly played.

The soundscape of Controls Unbound is characterized by nostalgia for the early console era, glitches and audio artifacts, and expansive drones. The sonic identities of the past are transformed and mutate into broken, degraded fragments. The boundaries between digital sound and acoustic resonances dissolve, forming interwoven clouds of sound that create an intense sensory effect. The sound texture merges the human with digital noise and corrupt remnants of forgotten audio data.