GAMESCENES

CALL FOR ENTRIES: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2019 (DEADLINE: DECEMBER 1, 2018) [REMINDER]

MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2019

MARCH 15 2019

IULM UNIVERSITY

VIA CARLO BO 1

20143 MILAN, ITALY

The MACHINIMA FILM FESTIVAL returns to IULM University (Milan, Italy) on March 15 2019 during the MILAN DIGITAL WEEK. Sponsored by the City of Milan, Department of Digital Transformation and Public Services, the Milano Digital Week celebrates the driving forces that are reshaping work, leisure, and learning. By highlighting the interplay behind production and consumption made possible by digital technology, MDW connects citizens, companies, institutions, universities, and research centers. 

Filmmakers and video artists engaged in the practice of appropriation, re-purposing, and creative remix of video games are encouraged to send their work for consideration. Submission will be judged by an international panel of jurors, which will be revealed in September 2018, and a selected number will be featured in the main program.

Screenings of selected works will be curated around different themes, to be announced. All the machinima will be projected onto a screen in an auditorium-like space. The most interesting submissions are those which seek to grasp or highlight a specific facet of contemporary life - from politics to art, from violence to creativity, from technology to ideology - through the aesthetic lenses of digital gaming. 

The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2018.

The full program will be announced in January 2019.

Please carefully read our simple submission guidelines and requirements below before sending your work.

INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL FOR NEW MEDIA ARTWORKS

GUIDELINES:

• Submissions must be 10 minutes or less in length. The minimum duration is 1 minute. 

• Submissions must feature machinima made with specifically with video games (not virtual worlds, like Second Life).

• Submissions must have been produced between January 1, 2018 and December 1, 2018.

• Acceptable submission formats: Digital video files only.

• Acceptable exhibition formats: mp4, avi, mpg, Quicktime file (ProRes 422).

• One-time, nominal submission fee: $15 or 10 euros payable via PayPal to the festival organizers.

• An accompanying artist statement no longer than 500 words.

• Submission deadline: December 1, 2018.

• Please send your submission through FilmFreeway by clicking the button below

For submission inquiries click here.

LINK: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL

GAME ART: PREBEN WOLFF'S PORTRAIT OF A VIRTUAL ART COLLECTOR: JOSEF K

A video essay about collecting virtual art in a virtual world by Glasz DeCuir. The documentary focuses on Danish teacher and musician Preber Wolff's impressive collection featuring works by Aelin Quan, Alles Klaar, AM Radio, Amona Savira, Andy Burroughs, Anita Witt, Anley Piers, Asmita Duranjaya, Augusta Mary, Betulla Jules, Bloo Ansar, Bryn Oh, Canary Beck, Cherry Manga, Cica Ghost, Cold Frog, Crystal Rehula, Dantelicia, Dido Haas, Duna Gant, Fae Varriale, Fiona Leitner, Fuschia Nightfire, Giovanna Cerise Gitu Aura, Haveit Neox, HeLa Lennie, Ini Inaka, Javier, Jessica Belmer, Judi Lynn, Kato Salyut, Kicca Igaly, Kikiri Tuqiri, La Baroque, L.B. Metzger, Maghda Whitewood, Manfred Pessoa, Mareea Farrasco, Max Bobair, Melusina Parkin, Meryll Panthar, Milly Sharple, miu miu miu, Molly Bloom, Monroe Snook, Morgana Nagorski, Nessuno Myoo, Paola Mills, Paula Cadin, Rachel Price, Rhea Choral, Rebeca Bashly, Sabbian Paine, Samara Furse-Barzane, SaveMe Oh, Savoree LeDesir, Serene Footman, Sia Oh, Siestabril Nitely, Sina Souza, Starlash Sweetwater, StarZ McCullough, Sylvia Fitzpatrick, Talullah Winterwolf, Tani Thor, Thea Maiman, Theda Tammas, Tomais Ashdene, Toysoldier Thor, Tutsy Navarathna, Ule, Whiskey Monday, Whimsical, WuWai Chun, Yoon and Ziki Questi.

File under #virtualartgallery

LINK: Preben Wollf

ART GAME: JACOPO COLO'S ONE HOUR IN A JAMES TURELL SKYSPACE: THE COLOR INSIDE (2018)

A new instance of "slow gaming meet the Artworld", One hour in a James Turrell Skyspace: The Color Inside is "a first person game were you spend an evening in an art installation called The Color Inside by the American artist James Turrell". Designed by game designer Jacopo Colo, the game is now available for PC and Mac. As Colò explains,

In this game, you sit for one hour in a Skyspace, specifically you are in The Color Inside, a Skyspace built in 2013 at the The University of Texas at Austin. You play in a chill evening, looking up at the sky and enjoying the sunset light show.

LINK: Jacopo Colo (via Kottke)

 

NEWS: THE GUARDIAN CALLS MACHINIMA "CUTTING EDGE VIDEO ART"

Named after the late experimental film director Derek Jarman, the Jarman Award celebrates and supports UK-based artists working with moving image and celebrates the spirit of experimentation, imagination and innovation in the works. The 2018 nominees include Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, who made the groundbreaking series Facing Fanon with Grand Theft Auto V, and Lawrence Lek, who uses gaming engines and 3D software to make his production. The £10,000 prize will be awarded on 24 November. The Guardian calls these productions "cutting edge video art". It's about time critics recognize machinima for what it is: a true avant-garde.

Read the full article here.

LINK: Jarman Award

GAME ART: BRAM RUITER'S PERPETUAL SPAWNING (2018)

Bram Ruiter, Perpetual Spawning, machinima, 2018, 5' 41"

Shot in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas by Bram Ruiter, Perpetual Spawning is "a timelapse in real-time." Sound design and mix by Tom 'Silkersoft' Schley.

Born in 1980, Dutch artist Bram Ruiter has been working as a professional filmmaker since 2011. His main interests lie with craft, demystification, minimalism and realism. He also designs Frameland and teaches film at ArtEZ and Deltion in Zwolle (The Netherlands) where he currently resides. Ruiter's previous machinima include Endlesss Sea (2015) and Infinite Skies (2011), all created with/in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

LINK: Bram Ruiter

VIDEO: SKAWENNATI (UNIVERSITY OF MAINE, 2018)

This talk was organized by The Masters of Fine Arts in Intermedia at the University of Maine, which provides substantial advanced study for individuals interested in interdisciplinary study in the arts. The program emphasizes intensive development of students’ creative and innovative abilities through a diverse engagement with multiple research processes, critical thinking skills and creative production tools and technologies-

Skawennati makes art that addresses history, the future, and change. Her pioneering new media projects include the online gallery/chat-space and mixed-reality event, CyberPowWow (1997-2004); a paper doll/time-travel journal, Imagining Indians in the 25th Century (2001); and TimeTraveller™ (2008-2013), a multi-platform project featuring nine machinima episodes. These have been widely presented across North America in major exhibitions such as "Now? Now!" at the Biennale of the Americas; and "Looking Forward (L’Avenir)" at the Montreal Biennale. She has been honored to win imagineNative’s 2009 Best New Media Award as well as a 2011 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. Her work in is included in both public and private collections. Born in Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Skawennati holds a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal, where she is based. She is Co-Director, with Jason E. Lewis, of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC), a research network of artists, academics and technologists investigating, creating and critiquing Indigenous virtual environments. She also co-directs their workshops in Aboriginal Storytelling and Digital Media. Skins, This year, AbTeC launched IIF, the Initiative for Indigenous Futures; Skawennati is its Partnership Coordinator.

LINK: SKAWENNATI 

GAME ART: THOMAS HAWRANKE'S SHADOWS:ULTRA (2018)

Shadows: Ultra is a groundbreaking artwork: a machinima sShot on Kodak Tri-X 7266 (S8mm), 18FPS. Scanned on 1920 x 1080p, 25 FPS.

As the wise Canadian put it, the medium is the message. 

Thomas Hawranke is a media artist exploring the effects of technology on society. After studying Media Arts at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, in 2013 he enrolled in a PhD program at the Bauhaus University Weimar conducting art research in computer games. He has been a member of the susigames group of artists since 2006, and participated at national and international exhibitions such as You @ ZKM, File Sao Paulo, File Game Festival in Rio de Janeiro and WIRED - NextFest in Los Angeles. With susigames he was a guest artist at the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM) for several years, with a scholarship for art research in computer games. In 2009 he co-founded Paidia Institute e. V. which focuses on the computer game as an art form.

LINK: Thomas Hawranke (Image and video courtesy of the Artist)

GAME ART: JOSEPH DELAPPE'S WILFRED OWEN'S REPLAY (2018)

American artist Joseph DeLappe is streaming right now on Twitch a new online performance, a replay of an early project titled “War Poetry: Medal of Honor, Allied Assault Online”, where the artist read the poetry of British soldier Wilfred Owen in a first-person shooter game. We spoke to DeLappe in 2010 about this performance - here's the salient part:

DeLappe is recreating that seminal work in Verdun in honor of the anniversary of Owen's death, a century ago last Sunday. 

Today, November 11 2018, is the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the Great War.

You can watch the performance here

LINK: Joseph DeLappe

GAME ART: DUNCAN ROBSON'S HOURS PLAYED (2018-ONGOING)

Duncan Robson, a San Francisco based artist and video editor responsible for such projects as Let’s Enhance (2009), the Lorde supercut or a tumbleweed collection for the Columbus Museum of Art among other things, is crowdfunding his new project, a videogame equivalent/remake of Christian Marclay's The Clock titled Hours Played which will be presented online, as a live streaming experience, for free, and perhaps at festivals and other events. In fandom terms, the project entails a 24 hour supercut comprising scenes/images of videogame gameplay showing clocks, alarm clocks, watchtowers, cuckoo clocks, talking clocks, digital watches, pocket watches, and the likes, in sync with the actual time of the viewer. As you can imagine, the amount of human hours needed to identify the games, edit the video and create a seamless viewing experience is simply gargantuan. So far, Robson has collected relevant sequences from more than 900 games encompassing decades of videogame history across all genres and platforms. Read more about the project here. 

LINK: Duncan Robson

ART GAME: HUNTER JONAKIN'S BEATING A DEAD HORSE WITH A ONE-TRICK PONY (2018)

From the author of Jeff Koons Must Die!!! and Can You Hear Me Now? comes Beating a Dead Horse with a One-Trick Pony, a first-person RPG (ArtPG) with a narrative, mild melee combat, and some platforming elements. The game is a sequel to Jeff Koons Must Die!!! and is set in the same destroyed museum that the previous game ended in. Jonakin developed the game between November 2017 and November 2018. As he explains on Steam, "It was a very personal project that deals with my struggles navigating the pitfalls of the art world and my realizations and epiphanies regarding the complex systems within that world. It is a love letter as well as a Dear John letter."

Hunter Jonakin was born in North Alabama, where he spent his formative years. In his early twenties, he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota with a group of friends, where they played, recorded, and obsessed over every facet of underground/indie rock music. Ten years after venturing to the frigid north Jonakin went back to school and finished a BFA in visual art at the University of Minnesota. In 2011 he completed a MFA in studio art at Florida State University. Currently, Jonakin resides and makes art in Minneapolis, MN.

LINK: Hunter Jonakin

VIDEO: IN-GAME PHOTOGRAPHY (ART OF GAMING) (2017)

 

Martin Geisler and Rainer Sigl discuss in-game photography with Melek Balgün in another episode of the excellent Art of Gaming series on Gallic/Teutonic channel Arte. 

 

 

Themes and keywords: the photographer as a demiurge via modding. Photography as alternative/emergent gameplay. In-game photography adds "extra value" to the game? "Extracting something that the designers did not create" (Geisler). In-game photography as a creative practice that enhances the game and highlights the player's skills (akin to high-performance play, as Lowood aptly put it?). Total control vs. lack of control (e.g. Squad). Taxonomies: record (memories, souvenirs) vs. art (Sigl). "99% of in-game photographs are not made with an artistic intent" (Sigl). The difference between "real" photography and in-game photography is "purely ideological" (Sigl). In-Game photography not an art form, but a remix art? (Balgün).

 

 

Games discussed: theHunter, Skyrim, No Man's Sky, Squad. 

 

 

On the same subject, don't miss Fraser Brown's excellent article "Photographing invisible animals in theHunter: Call of the Wild" recently published on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

LINK: IN-GAME PHOTOGRAPHY (ART OF GAMING)

 

LINK: Martin Geisler

 

LINK: Reiner Sigl