GAMESCENES

EVENT: MACHINIMA, THE NEW AVANTGARDE (MAY 6 2022, ONLINE)

 

Media Innovation Circle #11
May 6 2022 @2pm-3pm (Lisbon Time)

Zoom link https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/86896643186

Free (registration required)

Machinima. How a vernacular practice became a new artistic avantgarde
Speaker: Matteo Bittanti, IULM University, Italy
Moderation: Pedro Cardoso, University of Aveiro

In this talk, Matteo Bittanti discusses the origins and the evolution of machinima, a genre of video art that deliberately appropriates and repurposes video game content, providing an overview of an ever expanding practice. Bittanti argues that although machinima emerged both in vernacular and avantgarde contexts, it the the latter that has evolved in remarkable ways, while the former has largely plateaued. The talk will touch upon several examples of artists engaged with contemporary machinima and chart the possible future of the medium.

DigiMedia (Digital Media and Interaction Research Centre) presents the Media Innovation Circle, an opportunity to explore the digital media landscapes. The Circle consists of a series of scientific moments for discussion on new approaches, practices, methods, and techniques supporting media innovation. It will be a monthly cycle of online conversations with national and international experts doing research on digital media and interaction, which may take the form of keynote talks, seminars or workshops. There will be time for a short talk by the invited guest, followed by discussion and Q+A. The sessions will be online and the link will be shared with the registered participants. If you wish to join this Circle, please Register.

LINK: MATTEO BITTANTI MIC #11

EVENT: SJORS RIGTERS (APRIL 22 - MAY 5 2022, ONLINE)

The Virtual Frontier

digital video, color, sound, 3’, 2020, The Netherlands

Created by Sjors Rigters

vral.org

The popular video game Minecraft exemplifies the inner contradictions of the digital age. Lauded by many pundits as a highly creative form of entertainment, the so-called “digital LEGO” is a powerful vessel for neoliberal ideologies and hyper-capitalistic imperatives, with its frenzy of accumulation, extraction, circulation, production, and exploitation. An effective indoctrination tool now pervasive in thousands of US elementary schools, Minecraft is a techno-dream of endless growth, a manifesto for the perpetuation of devastating patterns of consumption, competition, and destruction. Informed by colonialist principles, its gameplay elevates numbing grinding routines into a recipe for the good life, casting the player as both a conqueror and an entrepreneur. In his video The Virtual Frontier, Dutch designer Sjors Rigters brings to the foreground the toxic message of one of the most successful video games of all time.

Sjors Rigters (b. 1995) is a graphic designer specializing in visual identity and editorial design. After receiving his BA in Graphic Design at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, he opened his own studio. Sjors lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

 

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EVENT: SARA SADIK ULTIMATE VATOS: FORCE & HONNEUR (MARCH 26 - JUNE 6 2022)

Sara Sadik. Ultimate Vatos: Force & Honneur

Curated by Oriane Durand and Kristina Scepanski

Westfälischer Kunstverein

Rothenburg 30, 48143 Münster, Germany

26 March – 6 June 2022

Opening: Saturday, 26 March 2022, 6pm

Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–7pm

The exhibition rooms will be open from 11 am on this day. 

Press release

The videos, performances, installations and photographs by Sara Sadik (b. 1994 in Bordeaux, lives and works in Marseille, France) range from manga, video games, docufictions to CGI-animated films. In the course of these works, the artist—who has Moroccan/Algerian roots—explores manifestations of what she calls “Beurcore”—a form of youth culture that emerged among the working classes in the North African diaspora. “Beurcore” defines both a hybrid identity and a collective movement constituted through music, such as rap and hip-hop, language, fashion, specific symbols and social media. With references to these specific markers of belonging, the artist succeeds in providing an incisive yet empathetic analysis of the social pressures and expectations placed on young adults in a post-migrant society. Ultimately, she is concerned with the valorisation of certain social classes that inspire a white majority society through their codes and music, but enjoy little social prestige overall.

A 2-channel video installation forms the centre of Sara Sadik's exhibition Ultimate Vatos: Force & Honneur, conceived especially for the Westfälischer Kunstverein. Arranged back-to-back, the LED screens are surrounded by two elongated seats made of PVC. The exhibition display is thus reminiscent of an ancient arena or the layout of a modern football stadium. The centrepiece is the LED wall presenting a show featuring a young man, a “Vatos” (a colloquial term for a Latin American man, comparable to the English “guy” or “dude”). As a participant in a military programme called Ultimate Vatos: Force & Honneur, which is geared towards physical and mental training, he embodies the trope of the perfect fighter. The aim of this programme is to give young men the opportunity to become the “ultimate man” with the help of “zehef”—an Arabic word meaning “angry” and also used in French. As in her previous film Khobtogone (2021), Sadik’s continued interest focuses on the conditioning of identity through the prism of masculinity.

Sara Sadik, Ultimate Vatos: Force & Honneur, 2022, Ausstellungsansicht, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, courtesy the artist and Galerie Crèvecœur, commissioned by Westfälischer Kunstverein, © Photo: Thorsten Arendt


Situated somewhere between The Hunger Games—a series of films based on novels—and a type of fictional survival training in reality TV format, the video follows the protagonist as he completes various tasks. On the one hand, he is confined in solitary inside, isolated from the other candidates and under observation, whereas on the other, outside, he has to search, on his own and unsupported, for a flag in an inhospitable area. The video was produced with the help of various image recording techniques, such as point-of-view shots, top down perspective and with a 360° panorama camera that offers a variety of viewing angles. In the course of the sequences, the atmosphere changes from a video games, such as GTA, and videos on social networks, such as TikTok to a strict surveillance system. This last perspective in particular palpably visualises the pressure the candidate is under. In the form of a voiceover, we hear him speak of his feelings, of loneliness, stress and anxieties. This procedure enables a change of perspective and, through his personal narration, offers the possibility of identification with the candidate. In this way, Sadik opens up an intimate moment, which we share with the protagonist, and which reveals him in all his humanity. Characteristics deemed masculine, such as success, toughness and strength, which the Ultimate Vatos organisation aims to bolster, are suddenly levelled—in what amounts to be a an almost painful contrast—by vulnerability, insecurity and melancholy.

If, at the beginning of the video, the protagonist admits his desire to make a fresh start, in the end the true victory for him lies in the recognition of his own identity and not in becoming the “ultimate human being”. Beyond the clichés and stereotypes that the artist plays with, love for oneself and for one's nearest and dearest proves to be a source of energy and a form of resistance that enables one to surmount social oppression and exclusion.

LINK: Sara Sadik. Ultimate Vatos: Force & Honneur

EVENT: JONNE HANSSON (APRIL 8 - 21 2022, ONLINE)

THE CONVENIENCE STORE

digital video, color, sound, 6’ 23”, 2018, Sweden

Created by Jonne Hansson

April 8 - April 21 2022

VRAL.org

 

The Convenience Store follows three recently former students who graduated from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts in Sweden and later moved to the fictional city Los Santos hoping to succeed as artists. They all have encountered challenges in their respective fields. One day they accidentally meet each other in a convenience store. In a setting, reminiscent of Kevin Smith’s cult film Clerks, they have a strange, meta-referential conversation.

Jonne Hansson (b. 1983) is an artist working with digital media. He received an MFA from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, Umeå, Sweden and a BA in Fine Arts from Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In the past decade, Jonne has created several machinima, drawings, prints and installations. His practice is narrative driven, with an emphasis on short films or using dis- or replaced still imagery. Different interests — including video games, sports, animals, and movies — are mixed with literary classics, resulting in narrative works — ranging in tone from philosophical, to poetic, to sit-com slapstick gags — pointing out the oddness, if not absurdity, of contemporary life. His work has been exhibited internationally, including Argentina, Croatia, Italy, and Sweden. His machinima Heavy Thoughts was presented at the Milan Machinima Festival MMXXII. Jonne lives and works in Sweden.

 

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EVENT: LUYANG: FALSE AWAKENING (FEBRUARY 12 - JUNE 19 2022, ERLANGEN, GERMANY)

LuYang
False Awakening
February 12–June 19, 2022

Just Thinkers and Creators: May 5–June 16, lecture series

Kunstpalais
Palais Stutterheim
Marktplatz 1
91054 Erlangen
Germany

press release

Media artist LuYang (born in Shanghai, China) is currently taking the international art scene by storm with his groundbreaking productions. Technically sophisticated and aesthetically stunning, his 3D animated films, video installations, and computer games depict a new form of digital world populated by superheroes, monsters, and gods.

LuYang’s art is a unique crossover of neuroscience and Buddhist philosophy, medical technology and body enhancement, as well as manga aesthetics and fantastical sci-fi. Inspired by social issues derived from these fields, LuYang creates artworks and digital avatars that can be read as commentaries on current identity debates as well as the supposed limits of cultural identity. The artist’s claim, however, extends far beyond the realm of fiction—LuYang breaks with established categories of thought such as "real" and "artificial" or "male" and "female" right into his own biography. The question of a "true" biological gender is deliberately put aside in order to create mental freedom and to let creativity come to the fore. This concept is personified by LuYang’s digital reincarnation Doku, a gender-neutral avatar who will also play the main role in a new video work created especially for Kunstpalais.

LuYang, The Great Adventure of Material World game film, 2019, Videostill, © LuYang

The exhibition False Awakening draws from global gaming culture not only in aethetic terms. Visitors are invited to slip into selected roles from LuYang’s repertoire and explore his digital world. In May and June, a series of lectures titled “Just Thinkers and Creators” will examine LuYang’s art from the perspectives of art and cultural studies, sinology, and queer studies. Last but not least, the extensive mediation program in cooperation with the Confucius Institute Nuremberg-Erlangen, the Haus des Spiels (Museums of the City of Nuremberg) and the 20th International Comic-Salon Erlangen opens up perspectives on LuYang’s art for everyone. The artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in Germany is co-curated by Malte Lin-Kröger and Nora Gantert.

LuYang, The Great Adventure of Material World game film, 2019, Videostill, © LuYang

LuYang’s art fuses a wide variety of aesthetic and cultural influences. Religious traditions from East Asia and Japanese pop culture meet the latest techniques of image creation and highly topical questions about gender identity. Avant-garde in every sense, LuYang redefines the boundaries of what art can be and regards his own role as artist as just one quality among many.

The interdisciplinary lecture series “Just Thinkers and Creators” will examine the phenomenon LuYang from various scholarly perspectives and embed his art in a broader research context. You are cordially invited to join in the discussions that follow!

LuYang, The Great Adventure of Material World game film, 2019, Videostill, © LuYang

 

Thursday, May 5, 2022, 7pm
With Popo Fan, filmmaker and LGBTQI activist in Berlin, and Prof. Dr. Marc Matten, Professor of Contemporary History of China at Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg

Language: English

Thursday, May 19, 2022, 7pm
With Dr. Tania Becker, research associate at the Center for Cultural Studies on Science and Technology in China, TU Berlin, as well as Nora Gantert and Malte Lin-Kröger, curators of the exhibition

Language: German

Thursday, June 16, 2022, 7pm
With Petra Poelzl, sinologist and freelance curator between Germany, Austria, and China and Prof. Dr. Mi You, Professor for Art and Economies at the University of Kassel

Language: English

The lectures will take place in the Bürgersaal of Palais Stutterheim. For further information call +499131/86-1625, visit kunstpalais.de or ask at the box office of Kunstpalais.

Admission is free, pre-registration by phone or via [email protected] is requested.

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Supported by Konfuzius-Institut Nürnberg-Erlangen.

LINK: LuYang: False Awakening

EVENT: SPECULATIVE FUTURES SYMPOSIUM (APRIL 7 2022, VANCOUVER, CANADA)

Epic Games, MetaHuman Creator (still), 2022. Video. Courtesy of Epic Games.

Speculative Futures

April 7, 10am–3:30pm

Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby Street
Vancouver BC V6Z 2H7
Canada

press release

To what extent have technology and the promise of digital futures co-opted and compromised our sense of self and identity? How can we decolonize digital space or build new digital infrastructure?

Presented in conjunction with the Vancouver Art Gallery's exhibitionThe Imitation Game: Visual Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, the Speculative Futures Symposium examines artificial intelligence and the specific uses of technology in its multifarious dimensions. Across four different lectures and panel conversations, leading thinkers of today will explore the ethical implications of technology and discuss how they are working to address these issues in cultural production.

Featured speakers include: Dr. Ramon Amaro (University College London), Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble (University of California, Los Angeles, and MacArthur Fellowship Honoree), Jiayang Fan (The New Yorker Magazine), Nalo Hopkinson (University of British Columbia), Larissa Lai (University of Calgary), and Ken Liu (author).

Moderated by Melissa Karmen Lee, Director of Education and Public Programs, Vancouver Art Gallery and Dr. Kavita Phillip, President's Excellence Chair in Network Cultures, University of British Columbia.

The Speculative Futures Symposium is presented in partnership with the University of British Columbia’s Public Humanities Hub, the UBC Library and the UBC School of Information, the English Language & Literatures Department, the President’s Excellence Chair in Network Cultures and the School of Creative Writing, with additional media support from Canadian Literature.

LINK: The Imitation Game: Visual Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

EVENT: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL MMXXII NOW LIVE (MARCH 21-27 2022, ONLINE AND IN SITU)

MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL MMXXII

EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE FOR EVERYTHING TO STAY THE SAME

March 21-27 2022

Milan, Italy and online

 

The MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL MMXXII returns with a hybrid format —both online and in situ screenings — after a long disruption in the face of an unprecedented global crisis. The festival program is now online: 25 works of machinima and game video created by 21 artists representing 9 countries are featured in two distinct sections — EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE (March 26 2022, IRL) and FOR EVERYTHING TO STAY THE SAME (March 21-27 2022, online) — for a total of 11 programs.

Below is a breakdown of all the features:

EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE (Museum of Interactive Cinema, Milan, March 26 2022): MACHINEMA (MACHINE CINEMA), BRAND NEW YOU ARE RETRO, and MADE IN ITALY

FOR EVERYTHING TO STAY THE SAME (March 21-27 2022, online): THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE AI, BAD TALES, SONG TO SONG, GAME VIDEO ESSAY, IDENTITIES/INTIMACIES, HISTORIES/HERSTORIES, NO DRAMA, PLEASE, and GAME OVER PRESENTS: THIS IS NOT A GAME.

Artist line-up: Lorenzo Antei (Italy), Nicolas Bailleul (France), David Blandy (England), Beatrice Carpina (Italy), Sam Crane (England), Federica di Pietrantonio (Italy), Marie Foulston and The Grannies (England/Australia), Jamie Janković (England), Steffanie Padilla (United States), Juan Poyuan (Taipei), Giulio Piacentini (Italy), Kelly Rabbachin (Italy), Phil Rice (United States), Sjors Rigters (The Netherlands), Sara Sadik (France), Paolo Santagostino (Italy), Jordy Veenstra (The Netherlands), Cris Ubermann (France), Arne Vogelgesang (Germany), and Mathias Wolff (Germany).

This year the curators are unlocking the online various features gradually, like levels of a video game. The online section comprises seven back-to-back features and one special screening.

The first two — THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE AI — featuring works by Phil Rice (US) and Beatrice Carpina (IT) — and SONG TO SONG - featuring machinima by Paolo Santagostino (IT) and Lorenzo Antei (IT) are now available.

For more updates, keep an eye on the festival's Twitter account.    

LINK: MMF MMXXII

EVENT: IAN CHENG: WORLDING (MARCH 2–JULY 3, 2022, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA)

Ian Cheng: Worlding
March 2–July 3, 2022

Leeum Museum of Art
60-16, Itaewon-ro, 55-gil, Yongsan-gu
140-893 Seoul
South Korea

Curated by Gina Lee, Curator, Leeum Museum of Art

press release

Leeum Museum of Art presents Ian Cheng: Worlding, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Asia. Through his pioneering works comprising virtual ecosystems created with artificial intelligence and game engine, Ian Cheng (b. 1984) creatively explores and philosophically contemplates the nature of human consciousness. Ian Cheng: Worlding is the first exhibition to bring together all of the virtual worlds that Cheng has created. The artist’s boundless imagination and futuristic vision are on full display in all five of the featured works, the latest of which was produced with support from Leeum.

Ian Cheng, Emissary in the Squat of Gods, 2015, still from simulation

Included in the exhibition is the Emissaries trilogy (2015–2017), the unique series that brought Cheng to the attention of the international art world. In this live simulation, which the artist describes as a “video game that plays itself,” AI-based characters and environment are contained in a virtual ecosystem in which new and unforeseen events continuously arise.

Ian Cheng, BOB (Bag of Beliefs) (2018–2019)

In BOB (Bag of Beliefs) (2018–2019), an artificial creature that resembles a snake explores the inner workings of human consciousness. Just as every person has different faces and traits that can appear in a given situation, BOB consists of multiple artificial intelligences with various motives. Using the customized app, audience members are invited and encouraged to help form BOB’s personality and beliefs.

Cheng’s latest work in the show is Life After BOB: The Chalice Study (2021), a feature-length animation created with support from Leeum, The Shed (New York), the LUMA Foundation, and Light Art Space (LAS, Berlin). Telling the story of Chalice Wong, a ten-year old girl with an AI “BOB” brain implant, this work reveals the artist’s imagining of a future in which humans and artificial intelligence coexist. After viewing the work, the audience can use a link to gain access to the interactive “World Watching” mode to explore Cheng’s animated world in even greater depth.

About Leeum Museum of Art: Leeum Museum of Art was established in 2004 by the Samsung Foundation of Culture to preserve the cultural assets of Korea and to share with the public its expansive collection ranging from traditional Korean art to modern and contemporary art of the world. The museum is dedicated to enhancing appreciation and understanding of art through exhibitions, artist support programs, education, research, and publications. Three of the world's most renowned architects designed the three buildings of the museum. Mario Botta designed the terracotta building (M1) for the museum's traditional Korean art collection, Jean Nouvel designed the rusted stainless steel building (M2) for the museum's modern and contemporary art collection, and Rem Koolhaas designed the futuristic black concrete and glass edifice for the museum's special exhibitions and Child Education & Culture Center.

LINK: Leum Museum of Art

LINK: Ian Cheng

EVENT: WORLDBUILDING: GAMING AND ART: 15TH ANNIVERSARY (JUNE 5, 2022–DECEMBER 10, 2023, JSC DÜSSELDORF)

STURTEVANT, Pacman, 2012, HD Video, 1′15″, color, sound. Video still. Courtesy of the Estate of STURTEVANT and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris/Salzburg/London.

WORLDBUILDING: GAMING & ART

15th anniversary exhibition of JSC Düsseldorf

Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist

June 5, 2022–December 10, 2023, JSC Düsseldorf

Opening: Saturday, June 4, 2022, 12–6pm

JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION

Schanzenstraße 54

40549 Düsseldorf, Germany

press release

Computer and video games have found their way into popular culture and nearly every part of society. Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Julia Stoschek Collection, this group exhibition examines the relationship between gaming and time-based media art. Early works from Julia Stoschek’s holdings will be shown with more recent works, some of which were commissioned especially for the exhibition. This juxtaposition will provide an archeological view of video games and art that bridges the past and the present. Recent developments in moving images as well as the potential of interfaces between computer games and art will be considered. The anniversary exhibition will constantly change over the course of its one-and-a-half-year run and will be accompanied by a varied program, both online and on-site. A comprehensive exhibition catalog will investigate various perspectives on the phenomenon of gaming.

With works by Peggy Ahwesh, Rebecca Allen, Cory Arcangel, Ed Atkins, Meriem Benanni, David Blandy & Larry Achiampong, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Ian Cheng, Cao Fei, Basmah Felemban, Ed Fornieles, Sarah Friend, Kim Heecheon, Institute of Queer Ecology, Rindon Johnson, Keiken, Lawrence Lek, Gabriel Massan, Lual Mayen, Sondra Perry, Jacolby Satterwhite, Frances Stark, Sturtevant, Theo Triantafyllidis, Suzanne Treister, Angela Washko, Lu Yang, among others.

The JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION Düsseldorf opened to the public in June 2007. On the occasion of its 15th anniversary in June 2022, Hans Ulrich Obrist is invited to curate an exhibition with works from the collection. This group exhibition will explore the relationship between gaming and time-based art and also include new works. Julia Stoschek’s collection comprises moving image works from the 60s and 70s in addition to works by younger artists active today. Obrist is fascinated with the idea of creating an archaeology of video games with these early works and building a bridge from the past to the present by uniting them with more recent pieces. Bringing together these works that—in various ways—deal with the video game aesthetic, presents both the recent trajectory of moving image art, and the potential of bridges between gaming and art.

Hans Ulrich Obrist (b. 1968, Zurich, Switzerland) is Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London, Senior Advisor at LUMA Arles, and Senior Artistic Advisor at The Shed in New York. Prior to this, he was the Curator of the Museum d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show World Soup (The Kitchen Show) in 1991, he has curated more than 350 shows-

Cory Arcangel, The Making of Super Mario Clouds, 2004, video, 76′, color, no sound. Video still. Courtesy of the artist and Electronic Arts Intermix, New York.

Jacky Connolly, Anhedonia (full length feature), 2017, HD-video, 18′, color, sound. Courtesy of the artist and Daata, London.

Cao Fei, i.Mirror by China Tracy (AKA: Cao Fei), 2007, video, 28′, color, sound. Video still. Courtesy of the artist and Creative Vitamine Space, Guangzhou.

Hito Steyerl, Factory of the Sun, 2015, single-channel HD video installation, 23′, color, sound. Video still, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021. Courtesy of the artist.

Ian Cheng, BOB (Bag of Beliefs), 2018–2019, artificial lifeform, infinite duration, color, sound. Video still. Courtesy of the artist, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels/New York and Pilar Corrias, London.

LINK: JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION

EVENT: RICARDO MIRANDA ZÚÑIGA (FEBRUARY 18 - MARCH 3 2022, ONLINE)

FINTECH FOR THE PRECARIAT

digital video (3840 x 2160), color, sound, 11’ 37”, 2017, United States

video documentation of an immersive world application

Created by Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga, 2021

February 18 - March 3 2022

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti

vral.org

FinTech for the Precariat is an immersive urban environment populated by Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, gig workers and twelve voices from New York City’s financial spectrum. As the user wanders around this environment, she stumbles upon its inhabitants — from financial brokers to recent college grads to computer programmers and cultural workers —, gaining an understanding of their financial perspectives. It has been projected that the 2020s will be the decade of the “FinTech Revolution”. This marketing hyperbole is on the heels of many such revolutions sold on the broken promises of democratization and prosperity for all. FinTech for the Precariat asks a simple question: Who are the winners and losers in this “game”?

Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga is a new media artist. He approaches art as a social practice that seeks to establish dialogue in public spaces. Zúñiga received a B.A. in Practice of Arts and English Literature at University at California, Berkeley, and later an M.A. in Fine Arts a from Carnegie Mellon University. Born in San Francisco in the early Seventies in a family of immigrants from Nicaragua, Zúñiga’s practice explores such themes as immigration, discrimination, gentrification, globalization, and commodification. His works have been exhibited internationally, often behind the contexts of art galleries and museums.

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