Ripon is an interdisciplinary interactive media and video game project that examines violence, mortality, agency, social systems, and the conventions of contemporary game culture. Developed as both a playable digital work and a large-scale installation, Ripon combines video game design, digital media, projection, printmaking, drawing, and installation practices to situate the video game within a broader context of contemporary art and critical media research.Set within a dystopian reinterpretation of Ripon, Wisconsin, the project deliberately challenges conventional structures of power and heroism in commercial games. Rather than positioning the player as an increasingly powerful protagonist, Ripon explores vulnerability, consequence, and the limitations of player agency. Its interactive structure uses the language of video games as a means of investigating social behavior, violence, technological mediation, and the relationship between virtual and physical environments.The development, exhibition, and associated creative research surrounding Ripon and related projects received more than $500,000 in combined support through competitive grants, institutional funding, private donations, artist residencies, partnerships, and other forms of research and creative support.The project also received significant professional and governmental recognition. Hybinette was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, and Ripon received formal recognition from Ohio Senator Bill Harris and Ohio Senator Shirley A. Smith for its creative and cultural contributions. The work has been exhibited and presented within gallery, festival, and new-media contexts, contributing to an ongoing investigation of video games as a serious form of contemporary artistic practice, interactive storytelling, and interdisciplinary research.
