Julian Stallabrass notes that there is a blurring between work and leisure occuring in the consumption of video games. He argues, in "Gargantua, manufactured mass culture" that, "in the futile tasks set in computer games, as opposed to hobbies, a simulation of this mimicing of working practices is established, for while time is consumed and while the repetition of tiny, discrete tasks and the loss of self in labour are real enough, the activity is entirely unproductive." ZXZX is concerned with automating the repetitive tasks of the gamespace, in a similar way in which computers have been brought to bear on various repetitive facets of the working environment.

ZXZX is also an object for thinking about what it means to outwit the computer. Playing a computer game against an automatic (computer controlled) opponent can still engender feelings of elation at winning, or frustration at losing. This seems to me to be one of the more peculiar aspects of our relationship with the computer. What does it mean to cheat this unseeing opponent?

ZXZX is a way of thinking about the layering of interfaces over our control of the world. The direct action/reaction which occurs through the physical properties of objects is mimiced by the virtual space of the computer - click a mouse button and some unseen chain of events causes a reaction. ZXZX makes this chain of events visible. ZXZX serves to remind of the prosthetic nature of the computer, ZXZX through it's form mimics the hand and performs the repetitive tasks for us.