With mould in a video game and a death metal score satirising a luxury housing ad, artists, musicians and writers are expressing the feelings of generation rent
When invasive mould is the new way to die in one of the world’s most popular video games, you know the housing crisis has hit the cultural mainstream.
The new For Rent version of the Sims game allows players to role play as tenants at the mercy of killer mushrooms. Fungus sprouts from damp bathrooms, carpets and eventually the avatars’ heads, leading to a horror movie-style death. It is just one example of rent forming the backdrop to popular art and culture, a phenomenon that may spread wider in 2024.