Colin Cej is a multidisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, Canada. His work YOUHAVENOGOD.NET/VERSION0980 (September 21, 2025) is currently on display at Slice of Life Gallery in East Vancouver.
YOUHAVENOGOD.NET is a point-and-click adventure game designed to emulate media produced during the early years of computer programming. Gaming in the 80s and 90s was not the dominant industry it is today. Programs were often created by small teams or even individual developers. Solitary figures planning, designing, and coding while muddling through graphics, music, and mechanics. These early products tended to be rough around the edges by today’s standards, but they also revealed the aspects of the people that crafted them: amateur MIDI tracks have become cult classics, hastily created graphics are still referenced in modern gaming and art, and narratives produced by small, often independent groups contain deeply personal and emotionally complex elements.
YOUHAVENOGOD.NET is a sprawling, rough, multi-faceted interactive digital adventure created entirely by a single artist. Since its unceremonious launch on its domain, the site has been played worldwide and garnered interest from several international net art and contemporary art platforms. In 2025, a newer version was displayed in a refurbished 1983 Track and Field arcade machine at the Bass Coast Arts Festival. A unique iteration of the game is exhibited at Slice of Life Gallery. This is presently the only existing version of the software. The console containing this unique software is a purchasable product. For inquiries, please contact: design@colincej.ca.
Control was featured in a group exhibition titled The Through Line at GAM Gallery in 2015, alongside works by Bradley Harms and Romulo Cesar.
The piece was displayed on a large screen opposite two mouse controllers labeled A and B. Initially, the work was presented without any explanatory information, prompting viewers to interact out of curiosity and experimentation. This open-ended interaction led to varied interpretations of the level of control the user had over on-screen elements. Some users concluded their inputs influenced the sequences; others believed their choices determined the outcomes. Conversely, some might have thought both buttons produced identical effects, rendering their interactions meaningless.
Through further exploration, visitors discovered that control was both partial and illusory: certain elements responded to input, while others remained beyond influence. The challenge lay in the inconsistency and ambiguity—mirroring the human experience of life's uncontrollable aspects alongside our capacity to make decisions that can indirectly impact outcomes.
Whirlpools by History comprised an interactive, locally based website and a "choose-your-own-adventure" short story book. Both components were created digitally using a process grounded in randomness. The initial creative process employed computer-generated randomization, primarily using random.org, which sources true randomness from atmospheric noise—considered superior to typical pseudo-random algorithms.
From random.org:
"RANDOM.ORG offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs."
Digits from random.org fed into JavaScript functions, which generated words, incorporated images from open-source archives, and processed these visuals through Adobe programs for splicing and reworking. Several artistic decisions—including paper size, page count, and word count—were intentionally removed from the process, emphasizing automation and chance.
This method produced a vast trove of incomprehensible text and errant images, reflecting the artist's hand in editing. Despite the automated, prolific nature of this approach, the amount of coherent work produced was comparatively limited, highlighting the tension between automated processes and artistic intention.
For press or any other inquiries:
design@colincej.ca