GAMESCENES

EVENT: RADICAL GAMING – IMMERSION SIMULATION SUBVERSION (02.09.2021 – 14.11.2021)

Radical Gaming - Immersion Simulation Subversion

An exhibition curated by Boris Magrini

September 2 - November 14 2021

Opening: Wednesday, 01.09.2021

HeK
House of Electronic Arts Basel
Freilager-Platz 9
CH–4142 Münchenstein/Basel

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Theo Triantafyllidis, Pastoral, 2019 , screenshot. (Courtesy of the Artist)

This is the most important Game Art exhibition of 2021, by the way.

Press release

The international group exhibition Radical Gaming presents a selection of artists who investigate the structures, technologies and aesthetics of a global gaming industry. Their works are characterised by a particularly unconventional approach to employing the immersion and interaction inherent to video games, whose common narratives and stereotypes they subversively undermine.

This new generation of artists use contemporary game programming technologies to create virtual and augmented reality experiences, immersive environments, interactive stories and multimedia installations. By appropriating the medium for their artistic practice, they create alternative perspectives on identity construction, gender issues and social change. Their refusal to abide by the commercial and recreational logic of video games, sets the scene for their progressive, uncompromising, and thought-provoking works.

Artist: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Leo Castañeda, Sara Culmann, Debbie Ding, Keiken, Lawrence Lek, Mikhail Maksimov, Cassie McQuater, Sahej Rahal, Nicole Ruggiero, Jacolby Satterwhite, Eddo Stern, Theo Triantafyllidis, Miyö Van Stenis, Lu Yang

LINK: Radical Gaming 

EVENT: THEO TRIANTAFYLLIDIS, RADICALIZATION PIPELINE (JUNE 3 - SEPTEMBER 25 2021, MILAN)

Radicalization Pipeline

Theo Triantafyllidis

June 3–September 25, 2021

Eduardo Secci Milano

Via Bernardino Zenale, 3, 

Milano, 20123 Italy

 

Press release:

For this new body of works, Theo Triantafyllidis draws inspiration from video games and recent events of civil disorder in America. Looking at phenomena such as the rise of QAnon, the artist suggests connections between gamification, fantasy, and political radicalization. The gallery space brings together a series of ceramic weapons. These dark glazed stoneware works are adorned with decorative details like tennis over grip tapes, hair extensions and laser-cut acrylics. With titles such as Chadslayer, SnowflakeSkorcherand, Stormbringer, they are reminiscent of the exaggerated forms often seen in video games and extremist ideologies which the internet culture has accelerated.

The ceramic surfaces reflect the light from a large display playing Radicalization Pipeline, a Live Simulation piece that runs on a gaming PC. Two seemingly endless hordes clash into a violent free-for-all, swinging large melee weapons and shouting with distorted voices. A wide range of characters -from citizen militias to fantastical creatures -enter the screen only to kill each other, wave after wave, sinking their virtual bodies slowly into a muddy landscape. The mood occasionally lightens up by the medieval covers of familiar pop songs that complete the soundscape conceived by the composer and sound designer Diego Navarro."

Theo Triantafyllidis, Radicalization Pipeline (excerpt), live simulation, 2021

Theo Triantafyllidis, born in Athens in 1988, lives and works in Los Angeles. The artist builds virtual spaces and interfaces for the human body to inhabit them. He creates complex worlds and systems where the virtual and the physical merge in uncanny, absurd, and poetic ways. They are performances, mixed reality experiences, games and interactive installations. He received a Master of Fine Arts at UCLA Department of Design Media Arts in 2016. Selected solo shows include ‘Pastoral’ at Eduardo Secci, Florence (2019); ‘Role Play’ at Meredith Rosen Gallery, New York (2018); and ‘Pretzel Twist’ at The Breeder, Athens (2017). Among the group exhibitions, ‘World on a Wire’, Hyundai Motor Studio & Rhizome of New Museum, Seoul (2021); Sundance New Frontier Exhibition, Park City, Utah (2020); Athens Biennale: ANTI-, Athens (2018); and Hyper Pavilion, 57thVenice Biennale (2017). Theo Triantafyllidis’s work is currently on display at MEDITERRANEA 19 Young Artists Biennale: School of Waters, San Marino (2021). Among his upcoming exhibitions in 2021, ‘Radical Gaming: Immersion Simulation Subversion’ at House of Electronic Arts Basel and the Augmented Reality Biennale at NRW-Forum Düsseldorf.

All images courtesy of the Artists and Eduardo Secci gallery.

Theo Triantafyllidis

Witchblade, 2021

Glazed Stoneware 31 x 5 cm 12 1/4 x 2 in

LINK: Theo Triantafyllidis

LINK: Theo Triantafyllidis, Radicalization Pipeline at Eduardo Pecci Milano

GAME ART: ROBERT LAZZARINI'S RATED M FOR BLOOD AND GORE, INTENSE VIOLENCE, NUDITY, SEXUAL CONTENT, STRONG LANGUAGE, USE OF DRUGS (THE LAST OF US PART II) (2021)

Robert Lazzarini, Rated M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs (The Last of Us Part II), 2021
Acrylic and oil on canvas, 17 x 22 inches (image source: Lowell Ryan Projects)

Robert Lazzarini's latest project consists of a series of paintings depicting the pervasive red title signs displayed in movie trailers. Specifically, Lazzarini depicts the warnings in order to highlight the notion of violent spectacle of entertainment as well as the denotative language used to describe it. Alongside the "cinematic" paintings, Lazzarini also produced a set of smaller works depicting video game ratings by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). "Rated M for mature content" message mirrors the warning of the rated "R" movies, highlighting the visceral nature of the sampled video games, which include The Last of Us II (above) and Yakuza 5 (see Lazzarini's tweet):

Yakuza 5 pic.twitter.com/1cWLA102ng

— Robert Lazzarini (@lazzarinistudio) May 18, 2021

Lazzarini's works will be exhibited between June 26 through August 14, 2021 at Lowell Ryan Projects  located in Los Angeles in a show curated by Emma Frank, Rated R for Violence.

As Frank explains:

Lazzarini applies mathematical distortions to the image as a way to offset the observer and complicate the space of the composition. The horizontal fields of red within each painting are filled with an ever expanding and contracting text. The artist refers to the diverse mark making in the language of bodily injury such as nicks, scrapes, cuts, and abrasions. The repetition of specific loaded words within each of the paintings generates a sense of unease. The scale of these works are realized in two aspect ratios: 1.85:1 known as Flat or Theatrical Widescreen, and 2.39:1 known in the film industry as Scope or Cinemascope. Here the paintings tether to the formats that the corresponding films are shot in—a way for the artist to refer to the space of viewing films.

Robert Lazzarini (b. Denville, NJ, 1965) lives and works in New York, NY. Lazzarini uses the language of mathematical distortion as a way to question the conventional, acritical way we view images and objects. The artist’s themes include societal decline and America’s obsession with violence and criminality.

LINK: Robert Lazzarini

LINK: Rated R for Violence at Lowell Ryan Projects

PROJECT: SUPERMOVA

Lera Malchenko, 1/2 of the collective fantastic little splash, has recently launched the project Supermova, a new series of videos focusing on developing media and their impact on human interactions.

""Why are we sometimes so "therapeutically" outspoken on social media; how virtual worlds without moderators push us to invent political solutions? How emotions can become human interfaces? How does the Ukrainian political reality become algorithmic? The goal is to notice and document how we change through our digital communication tools: social networks, computer games, virtual worlds and other interactive digital platforms. The author of the project is journalist and artist Lera Malchenko. Supermova is supported by the European Union under the House of Europe program initiative.

The videos focus on three main areas:

e-bodily practices: "physical sensations and close relationships between distanced people, technological sexuality (Marshall McLuhan), e-corporeality, closeness of constant distancing"
2. emotions as human interfaces as a level of direct interaction between user and other people through social media; ability of the algorithms to retranslate emotional states, disrupt human behavior, and become an additional tool for solidarity ("leaderless revolutions"); fusion at the collective level (Vilém Flusser's concept of "intersubjective dialogue")
3. social e-practices; homo ludens and projections of worlds: games, virtual worlds as a space for inventing other languages and new political implements, potential spaces for projecting alternative configurations."

Episode 3 episode features Austrian Game Art collective Total Refusal and Matteo Bittanti. The main topic is politics and video games.

LINK: Supermova

EVENT: LI ZHU (JUNE 11 - JUNE 24 2021, ONLINE)

Li Zhu

All Beings Are Suffering  

June 11 - June 24 2021

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti

vral.org

All Beings Are Suffering is part of Human Dust, an ongoing project that comprises self-generating scenes of human-like intelligence created by Li Zhu with Unity 3D. These simulated creatures reproduce themselves endlessly, floating in the air and multiplying at a frantic pace. As the artist says, “We don’t know whether such a human-like AI would have consciousness, but its presence will definitely confuse real humans’ consciousness. At least, because I heavily rely on computers to create my artwork, my own consciousness seems to be constantly washed away by algorithms. In a data flood, ‘real’ meanings that may exist in my art quickly decompose. Reality disappears; only a torrent of tumbling image data remains.”

Li Zhu is a Chinese-Canadian artist and scholar who uses new technologies such as video games, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and social media to create novel ways of understanding reality. Li Zhu has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received a B.A. in Visual And Intermedia Arts from the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada. She studied at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris and McGill University. Her work has been exhibited in China, France, Canada, and the United States. Recent exhibitions include I Think (solo, 2017) in Guangzhou, China, ON AURA (group, 2021) in Montreal, and Backyard Stories (group, 2020) in Chicago. She is currently working and living in Chicago.

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EVENT: PERSPECTIVES 2021 (UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE, SCOTLAND, ONLINE)

Prospectives 2021 is a one-day symposium highlighting an international selection of work by graduate and PhD students working at the edge of developments in scholarly and practice based work involving digital technologies. An invited international group of 12 graduate and PhD level artists and scholars working in and across disciplines will be invited to share emerging research practices and innovative approaches to exploring digital systems for scholarly, visual and experiential production, including but not limited to: interactive art, robotics, movement/dance, video games, net art, blockchain/NFT’s, culture-jamming, generative systems, digital social practice, electronic sculpture, locative media, XR technologies, electronic music/sound art, performance art and telematics. This event will be structured to provide invited presenters with the opportunity to share their ongoing research, discuss and receive feedback and to virtually meet and network with fellow post graduate students. The event will be moderated by Dr. Laura Leuzzi (Research Fellow DJCAD University of Dundee) and co-organized with Professor Joseph DeLappe (Abertay University). The event will feature a keynote from Valentino Catricalà and Shu Lea Cheang.

Click here to register

Programme

10.00-10.10 Video Presentation by Prof. Joseph DeLappe

10.10-10.15 Introduction by Dr Laura Leuzzi

10.15-11.15 Keynote 1
Shu Lea Cheang, cycleX

Session 1 (11.15-13.00)

In dialogue: digital art and interdisciplinarity

This session opens up to the investigation of digital art in relation to different disciplines and issues including gender, heritage, and science. 

Presentations (11.15-12.15):

• Victoria Evans
• James Gonese
• Donna Holford-Lovell
• Cynthia O’Neill
• Sarah Selby

Q&A 12.15-13.00

13.00-14.00 Networking Lunch Break

14.00-14.10 Introduction by Dr Laura Leuzzi

14.10-15.10 Keynote 2
Dr Valentino Catricalà, The Artist as Inventor

Session 2 (15.10-17.00)

GAME/play
This session will be a focus on research on game art, video games and VR with  theoretical and practice-based approaches from the point of view of artists, curators and theoreticians.

Presentations (15.10 -16.00)

• Ahmed Al Shaer
• Gemma Fantacci
• Dianfeng Li
• Mary Jeys
• Melody Owen

Q&A 16.00-16.45

16.45 Wrap up and conclusions

17.00 End of the symposium

Keynotes

Valentino Catricalà

“My talk aims at identifying a new approach to the study of media and technological development. An approach that sees in the creativity and practice of artists a new engine. An approach that combines art, technology and innovation. Investigating media through art can be the best way to understand our contemporary society”.

Valentino Catricalà (Ph.D.) is a scholar and contemporary art curator. He is currently the curator of SODA Gallery in Manchester and lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is also the director of the Art Section of the Maker Faire - The European Edition, the biggest Faire on creativity and innovation in Europe and Art Consultant at Paris Sony CS Lab. Valentino has curated exhibitions in important museum and private galleries. He is the author of several essays (see Academia.edu) and books such as Media Art. Prospettive delle arti verso il XXI secolo. Storie, teorie, preservazione (Mimesis, 2016) and the book The Artist as Inventor (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021). 

Shu Lea Cheang, cycleX

1980s - media activism. 1990s - homesteading cyberspace. 2000s - post Netcrash. 2010s - Viral love Biohack. 2020s - Enter the BioNet. Routed from New York city to Eurozone, Shu Lea Cheang recounts her cycles of works that spans over four decades - from cyberpunk, cypherpunk to transpunk and ultimately situates herself in viral alt-reality. 

Shu Lea Cheang is an artist and filmmaker whose work aims to re-envision genders, genres, and operating structures.  She constructs networked installation and multi-player performance in participatory impromptu mode. She drafts sci-fi narratives in her film scenario and artwork imagination.  Regarded as a net art pioneer with her Guggenheim commission BRANDON (1998 - 99), Cheang represented Taiwan with her mixed media installation 3x3x6 at Venice Biennale 2019. She is currently artist-in-residency with UNBORN0x9 at ART4MED (Art and Biomedical research) EU platform and at work on UKI, a feature length scifi viral alt-reality cinema. http://mauvaiscontact.info

LINK: Perspectives at the University of Dundee, Scotland

RESOURCE: HOW TO WIN AT PHOTOGRAPHY ONLINE SUPPLEMENT

Fotomuseum Winterthur new exhibition How to Win at Photography's online supplement is not a replica of the in situ exhibition, but rather an archive of information related to all-things-playful-image-making.

It will grow, so keep an eye on it.

LINK: How to Win at Photography Online Supplement

EVENT: HOW TO WIN AT PHOTOGRAPHY – IMAGE-MAKING AS PLAY (JUNE 5 - OCTOBER 10 2021, WINTERTHUR, SWITZERLAND)

 

How to Win at Photography - Image-Making as Play

June 5 - October 10 2021

Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

Curated by Marco de Mutiis and Matteo Bittanti 

official site

How to Win at Photography – Image-Making as Play explores the relationship between photography and play. It investigates the notion of image play, creating unexpected connections between the history of photography, the gamification of the visible as well as practices of image making with and within computer games.

The group exhibition How to Win at Photography includes more than forty positions from contemporary and 20th century photography. Through an assemblage of multimedia artworks and vernacular images, the exhibition questions the very meaning and function of photography today.

 

Are we playing with the camera or is the camera ultimately playing us? Are we really in charge or are we mere pawns in larger technical, social, cultural and economic networks? What can a playful photographer achieve on a political and sociocultural level? Who and what is performing the act of seeing and capturing – humans, machines or a combination of both? Who is playing along? And finally, can this game be won? These are just some of the questions posed by How to Win at Photography. The exhibition invites visitors to focus on the playful aspects of photography. It looks at artists and photographers who play with – and sometimes against – the camera, document the environments of video games and question the notion of identity, gender and class.

With works by: Cory Arcangel, Aram Bartholl, Dorothée Elisa Baumann, Justin Berry, Julius Brauckmann, Alan Butler, Claude Cahun, Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, Dries Depoorter & Max Pinckers, Philipp Dorl, Constant Dullaart, Harun Farocki, Christopher Graves, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Beate Gütschow, Jon Haddock, Emily Hadrich, Florence Henri, Roc Herms, John Hilliard, Yuyi John, Rindon Johnson, Andy Kassier, Sherrie Levine, Gloria López Cleries & Sive Hamilton Helle, René Mächler, Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs, Joan Pamboukes, Steven Pippin, Michael Reisch, Tabor Robak, Ria Patricia Röder, Lorna Ruth Galloway, Ed Ruscha, Emma Agnes Sheffer, Cindy Sherman, Guido Segni, Andrew Stine, Petra Szemán, Akihiko Taniguchi, Danielle Udogaranya, Coralie Vogelaar, Tamás Waliczky and Ai Weiwei.

In collaboration with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University.

There will be several events planned between now and October, some in situ, some online, so stay tuned for more.

LINK: How to Win at Photography

EVENT: JUEGA BAJO TU PROPIO RIEGO. VIDEOJUEGOS EN CLAVE PANDÉMICA (ONLINE)

Curated by Enrique Salmoiraghi, Juega bajo tu propio riesgo. Videojuegos en clave pandémica (Play at your own risk. Pandemic video games) is an international exhibition bringing together the work of artists who use the language ​​of the video game to address emerging issues in contexts of isolation, distancing,and uncertainty. An invitation to play and, in turn, to reflect on the impact of sudden changes in society due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The exhibition is organized by Espacio Byte, an online museum dedicated to digital art established in 2012. A natural environment for the exhibition of artistic works that, created through the use of digital technology, propose new languages, poetics, and aesthetic values. Open 24/7, the museum offers a space for reflection, a source of information to delve into the dimension of digital art and learn about its first manifestations, movements and specific problems. All games featured in the exhibition are free to play. Juega bajo tu propio riesgo. Videojuegos en clave pandémica is only one several exhibitions curated by the Argentinian institution and currently accessible online. 

Alvaro Cresping, Regreso a casa, 2020

Moshe Linke, Neo-brutalismo del mañana, 2019

CURATORS' INTRODUCTION

"More than a year since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, we have experienced changes in the ways of interacting with others and with the environment. Confinement and distancing social, extreme disinfection, online study and remote work became part of the everyday scene. These modalities have generated new habits and caused psychological effects that affect directly in all areas of our life, including the way we relate with art. Anguished at the confinement and loneliness, concerned about the economic crisis, wondering about the experimental vaccines; we find ourselves in a labyrinth of uncertainty whose exit has not yet we have found, but when that happens, what will we have learned? This exhibition brings together the work of artists who use video game languages ​​to address these problematic. Works that involve the player directly to recreate these circumstances and be able to observe them from other perspectives. Play at your own risk, it is not only an invitation to play, but also to reflect on the consequences of these sudden behavioral changes in contemporary society"

ARTISTS' LINE UP

Jordan Magnuson

Yuliya Kozhemyako(alias Supr)

Margarita Skomorokh(alias RkkTKK)

Moshe Linke

George Larkwright

Ivan Notaros

Alvaro Cresping

Max Garkavyy

 

LINK: Juega bajo tu propio riesgo. Videojuegos en clave pandémica (Espacio Byte)

Press release: Juega bajo tu propio riesgo - Museo de Arte Digital - Espacio Byte

EVENT: GWENI LLWYD AND OWEN DAVIES (MAY 28 - JUNE 10 2021, ONLINE)

Gweni Llwyd and Owen Davies

Becoming a Legend

May 28 - June 10 2021

Introduced by Luca Miranda

vral.org

 

The practice of customizing characters and assets in video games has a long tradition within vernacular as well as avant-garde subcultures. In fact, artists have often pursued this route to create their artworks. Few, however, reach the meta playful levels of Becoming a Legend which introduces the imperious character of Da Man!, a post-human, virtual übermensch, a diabolical, green-haired “divin codino”. Created with/in the popular video game Pro Evolution Soccer, Da Man! embodies the notion of toxic masculinity and the neoliberalist mantra of self-optimization.

Gweni Llwyd (she/her) is a Welsh artist based in Cardiff. Her practice reflects on a human condition caught between tactile physicality and intangible digital realms. Predominantly working in video, 3D animation, and installation, Gweni creates abstracted rhythms and narratives, mirroring the often chaotic, disjointed nature of the contemporary world by collecting, modifying and rearranging the most disparate sources and materials, including first hand and found footage, game engines and concrete artifacts. She is also co-founder of RAT TRAP, a collective of artists and musicians that find their own routes through the maze of protocols and ways of doing things.

Owen Davies (he/him) is a Welsh filmmaker based in Cardiff. Mainly working in live-action narrative film, his work revolves around the limits of human connection and interaction. Owen’s upcoming short film Arwel’s House, funded by Ffilm Cymru and the BBC, is shooting in July and will air on BBC4 in the UK later this year. The film follows the mother of a dead YouTube star as she gives tours of his childhood home in South Wales to fans from around the world. In 2018, he was shortlisted for the Armani Laboratorio where judge David Kajganich (Suspiria, The Terror) described his script Money Now as “just fantastic — a kind of moral emergency for the modern age that left me both queasy and totally fascinated.” 

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