GAMESCENES

EVENT: MACHINE VIOLENCE (MAY 5 - 31 2023, NEW YORK)

MILTOS MANETAS, RGB, 1998, oil on canvas, 40 x 48 in 101.6 x 121.9 cm (MM0001)

 

Machine Violence
May 5 - 31, 2023
Opening reception Friday, May 5
6 - 8pm  Postmasters 4 Bond Street, 10012, NYC

press release

Featured artists: Chando Ao, Damjansi, Huntrezz Janos, Gracelee Lawrence, Miltos Manetas, Eva and Franco Mattes, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw,Eddo Stern

Postmasters 5.0 is a moving target - our next exhibition will occupy a spectacular ground floor space on Bond Street in downtown Manhattan.

Machine Violence is a show for this moment, a visually stunning exhibition of topical relevance. It will bring together works in all media from software to painting.  Several historic projects by digital pioneers (McCoys, Matteses, Manetas) will be presented alongside current works of the new generation (Huntrezz, Damjanski).

Machine violence invariably fosters fear and disruption on an individual or societal scale. As artworks in this exhibition attest, it is left to humans - artists, in this case - to redirect, subvert, and/or transcend the literal narrative.

Fitting the current moment of intense uncertainty along the art-technology axis, this show can potentially triangulate two significant museum exhibitions currently on view in New York: Signals at MoMA and Refigured at The Whitney Museum.

The exhibition location, a former carpentry shop with skylights, brick walls and a 20 foot-tall ceiling, will be cleaned but otherwise left “as is” - raw - freeing the artists’ projections, screens, sculptures, prints and paintings from the homogeneity of a white box. Art can survive anywhere. Joining a salient history of co-opting raw spaces for art: Gavin Brown's Harlem space, Triple Candie, The Project, Sculpture Center - we will continue this countering flow at the moment of extreme showroom effect.

The exhibition centerpiece will be Horror Chase (2002) by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, who have worked collaboratively since early 2000 (Kevin McCoy is also widely recognized for creating the first art NFT in 2014). Newly remastered into 4K, Horror Chase is based on the climactic chase sequence from the film Evil Dead 2 re-enacted on a custom stage set. Each shot is digitized individually and processed by a custom computer program that selects clips randomly. The chase becomes a continuously variable incarnation of an endless - and futile - escape attempt. The images are projected on a cinematic scale, and the computer hardware is installed in a black briefcase which forms a part of the installation. Given the recent explosion of interest in generative art, the McCoy's piece may be one of the earliest examples of algorithmically created cinematic footage - a software/hardware combination of object and projection.

EVA AND FRANCO MATTES, Freedom, 2010, single-channel video(color, sound), monitor, inflatable mattress, cables, media player(optional), dimensions variable; running time: 8:56 mins, edition of 3 (#2/3), (EFM072)

 

Eva and Franco Mattes are the notorious Italian artist's team working with internet and digital media since the late 1990s. One of their most iconic works, Biennale.PY, Perpetual Self Dis/Infecting Machine (2001-2003) is an aesthetically alluring, customized computer encased in plexiglass, with all parts exposed. It only has two software programs installed:  the virus that the artists made in 2001 for the Venice Biennale, and the "Norton Utilities" antivirus patch. The computer is in a perpetual mode of being infected, then disinfected, then rebooted; a machine locked forever in a fight between good and evil.

EDDO STERN, Vietnam Romance, 2003 digital video, NFT Time 19:09 (ES0018)

 

MILTOS MANETAS, Flames, 1997, digital video file, machinima, NFT, time 23:49, Edition of 3 (MM0002)

 

There will be three early key works of machinima in the show: Miltos Manetas’ Flames (1997) of Lara Croft committing suicide; Eddo Stern’s masterwork Vietnam Romance (2003) where key war scenes are recreated through video games like Grand Theft Auto and MASH; and Eva and Franco Mattes’ Freedom (2010), a haunting montage of death scenes from iconic first-person shooter games.

 

Damjanski will present his app, Bye, Bye Camera (2020), the AI-powered camera for the post-human era, which automatically removes people from any picture someone takes. The tool digitally detects and erases body shapes, but keeps human traces like shadows. The app will be shown along with photographic prints of Post Human Dog (2020),  his pandemic-time series of dogs with no owners.Gracelee Lawrence will present two large scale, 3D-printed sculptures of fragmented, battered bodies.

 

Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw  are making a lamp, a huge, functioning, fruit flies - killing zapper encased in plexiglass.

 

Chando Ao’s kinetic sculpture in the show will be a computer driven chair/cradle for grownups that belies its mean and ominous torture device look, to soothingly rock the sitter.

 

Huntrezz Janos will show - as AR - two Instagram filters that recast the user as armored, warrior-like characters and a related 3-D printed sculpture.

 

Also on view will be Miltos Manetas still life paintings of computer components from 1998-2010. A mid-show performance is planned where Manetas will, via WhatsApp and a local assistant, paint a still life remotely from Bogotá.

 

LINK: MACHINE VIOLENCE

EVENT: YUCEF MERHI: OPEN (SEPTEMBER 2 - NOVEMBER 2021, MIAMI)

Yucef Merhi: OPEN

On view Sept. 2 – Nov. 20 2021

The Bonnier Gallery

3408 NW 7th Avenue

Miami, Florida33127

Yucef Merhi is the Nam June Paik of Game Art. OPEN is his unmissable retrospective at the The Bonnier Gallery in Miami.

full press release

"The Bonnier Gallery is pleased to announce Yucef Merhi's upcoming solo exhibition "OPEN" will be on view from September 2nd - November 20th, 2021. Throughout his 30+ year journey, Merhi's work has remained front and center in the current thinking about art and technology. Opening up a panoramic view of Merhi’s inner worlds, the upcoming exhibition consists of works from five different series that capture the far-reaching consequence of Merhi's orbit around contemporary culture and map out his creative diaspora.

In 1985, when pioneer digital artist Yucef Merhi was only eight years old and growing up in Caracas, he reverse-engineered his ATARI 2600 and turned it into a programmable computer. He used the Atari Video Computer System to produce generative videos based in language instructions. A leading art critic at the time saw this and proclaimed: “What you have created here, Yucef, will be considered a work of art in years to come.” Decades later, Merhi’s seminal creations would be exhibited at the New Museum in New York and would travel all over the world in international exhibitions, celebrated as the first works of art crafted from a videogame console. Watch a video that demonstrates one of these original 1985 works. One year later, at the age of nine, Merhi figured out how to calibrate the atomic clock of Venezuela, and the National Ministry of Defense commended him for achieving this breakthrough.

From data hacking as protest art against totalitarianism and police brutality, to his new vision called Retrocycling that rescues obsolete tech devices from landfills . . . from perfecting a universal language as new source code for planetary awakening, to digital interventions that make poems come alive . . . throughout his 30+ year journey, the artist’s work has remained front and center in the current thinking about art, and especially digital art. Opening up a panoramic view of Merhi’s inner worlds, the new show Yucef Merhi: Open at The Bonnier Gallery captures the far-reaching consequence of his orbit around contemporary culture. For the viewer experiencing Merhi’s art, this often results in mind-expanding encounters with language.

The gallery show presents 15 works, from five different series that map out his creative diaspora. The show ushers in the eagerly anticipated return of Miami’s Art Basel season, and opens on September 2 at the Bonnier Gallery in Allapattah, Miami’s burgeoning art district. “This new show will allow people to experience digital art that is of substance, as opposed to the speculative NFTs that seem to dominate that conversation,” says Grant Bonnier, the curator of this show and owner of the Gallery. “Yucef Merhi has packed the equivalent of several lifetimes leading up to this critical mid-career point of his trajectory,” adds Bonnier. “Merhi is poised at the leading edge of the technology and art.” Yucef Merhi has produced bodies of work that engage a wide spectrum including poetry, facial recognition, artificial intelligence, sound, virtual reality, hacking, and retro video games. By ensuring that his works always connect with the warmth of human engagement through language, Merhi’s momentum continues ahead of the curve."

Atari Ex Machina, 2007

Atari 2600, cartridge, keyboard, TV

72 x 24 x 24 in. / 182.9 x 61 x 61 cm

Copyright The Artist

Photo: The Artist

 

 

Atari Poetry VI, 2006

Atari 2600, Atari cartridge, TV

39 x 16 x 16 in. / 99.1 x 40.6 x 40.6 cm

Copyright The Artist

Photo: The Artist

 

 

Compassion, 2020

5 CRT TVs, 5 Atari 2600 game consoles, custom Atari cartridges, directional sound system

80 x 60 x 70 in.

Copyright Yucef Merhi

Photo: Zachary Balber

 

Among Yucef Merhi's most powerful works is Mission Taliban 2.0 (2002), a 20 year old VR computer game which, for some reasons, feels so incredibly fresh.

 

 

LINK: Yucef Merhi: Open

LINK: Yucef Merhi

GAME ART: MAK YING TUNG 2'S HOME SWEET HOME (2019)

Mak Ying Tung 2, Home Sweet Home, 2019 (installation shots De Sarthe)

Home Sweet Home (2019-) is a series are triptychs on canvas created by Mak Ying Tung 2 through a fascinating process. First the artist appropriated and modified images from The Sims and then she asked three separate painters on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao to paint them. A commentary on the nature of images, outsourcing, the gig economy, authorial control, and digital culture, Home Sweet Home uses the aesthetic of utopia to depict an increasingly dystopian world. Mak 2’s images depict colorful rooms filled with CCTV cameras, millennial hangout spots, and pools on "green roofs" filled with plants. Mak 2 screen grabbed digital fantasies enacted within the world of The Sims and subsequently divided the images into thirds. Each third was then painted by a separate painter found on Taobao, who was given as little instruction as possible. Thus, Mak 2 partially abdicated her authorship and delegated part of the production to a third party whom she did not previously knew. Home Sweet Home illustrates the contradictions of the Generation Z(oom), in which the very idea of domesticity, labor, and art requires a radical rethinking. 

Mak Ying Tung 2 was born in Hong Kong in 1989. She graduated from City University of Hong Kong with a Bachelor’s degree in Critical Intermedia Art in 2013. Mak Ying Tung 2 currently lives and works in Hong Kong. Mak 2 is a conceptual artist and her work is not defined by any medium. Her recent works contemplate contemporary issues through the study of Humanities. The aesthetic experience she crafts is bound by the dualism of humor and intense, often dark inquisitiveness. 

LINK: Mak Ying Tung 2  (all images (c) of the Artist and De Sarthe)

GAME ART: MATTEA PERROTTA'S ARTWORKS IN ANIMAL CROSSING

A screen shot of Mattea Perrotta's show 'New Drawings,' an exhibition organized by Et al. in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. (Courtesy Et al.)

New Drawings

an exhibition in Animal Crossing New Horizons

Friday, April 17, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. 2020 (PST)

Et al, San Francisco, Ca

Mattea Perrotta's new drawings and rugs are currently on display in Animal Crossing New Horizons. The collection is currently on display online as part of Et al., a gallery directed by Jackie Im, Aaron Harbour, and Kevin Krueger and located in the basement of Union Cleaners in San Francisco's Chinatown.  In 2017, Et al. opened its second location, Et al. etc., a gallery in the Mission. This is another example of tangible, concrete art being exhibited and recontextualized in video game spaces.

Mattea Perrotta, The Last Supper, Installation view. Et al. etc., San Francisco

Mattea Perrotta, Untitled (Rug II), 2019, Hand dyed, hand woven wool textile. 87 x 76 x 1 in / 221 x 193 x 2.5 cm

Mattea Perrotta (b. 1990) is a Paris-based artist born and raised in Los Angeles. Perrotta has a BFA from UC Berkeley and studied at the Santa Reparta School of Art in Florence. Her paintings deal with the balance between masculinity and femininity, the unconscious, desire, and the female body. She has had solo and two-person exhibitions at The Landing, Los Angeles; Lamb Arts, London; and MAMA Gallery in Madrid and Mexico City. She has appeared in group exhibitions in Istanbul, London, Melbourne, Lima, São Paolo, Mexico City, and Bogotá and attended residencies in Mallorca, London, Marrakech and Lisbon. Her recent textiles were influenced by her time living in Tahannaout, Morocco, she still frequents the city and it has had an immense impact on her paintings and practice.

LINK: Mattea Perrotta (all images courtesy of Et al etc.).

GAME ART: SÉAMUS GALLAGHER'S A SPACE AND PLACE FOR US ALL (2017)

Seamus Gallagher, falling in love with whatever loves me first, pigment print, 44” x 66”, 2017

I'm in love with Séamus Gallagher's a space and place all for us, a triptych featuring images created digitally using 3D modeling programs like Blender, as well as Unity, a computer game engine. As Gallagher explains,

images of these video game environments are then extracted into print form, which i use to construct complex, large-scale installations for me to photograph, encompassing the camera’s frame. in bringing these digital aesthetics into a physical space, these photographs exist as dense visual environments that blur the line between the digital and the physical, the real and the fake. by photographing myself inside these constructed spaces, i want to explore what it means for the body to interact within virtual, otherworldly spaces.

Seamus Gallagher's is a an interdisciplinary artist originally from Moncton, New Brunswick, and currently finishing his undergraduate with a double major in Photography and Expanded Media at Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. His practice centres around constructing complex, colourful spaces for myself to interact within, blending photography with installation and performance.

LINK: Seamus Gallagher

EVENT: ANALOG PLEASURES (SEPTEMBER 6 2019, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA)

ANALOG PLEASURES

at LIKELIKE

Friday September 6th, 2019
7-11 PM
During the Unblurred gallery crawl
205 North Evaline St.
Pittsburgh, PA

A special show featuring videogames that transcend standard hardware. Have you ever played a VHS, an LED strip, or an oscilloscope? Have you ever used your sense of smell in a videogame or strapped a joystick on your crotch? This may be your only chance!
Works by: Gregory Witt & Richard Kolling /// Hannah Epstein /// Robin Baumgarten /// Kurt Bieg and Ramsey Nasser /// Molleindustria & Heather Kelley

LINK: LIKELIKE

Art Game: Steph Caskenette's Petitwo: Zoetrope Game (2016)

Steph Caskenette is a graduate student at McGill University in Montreal studying game development and design.

Petitwo: Zoetrope Game is an analog/digital game presented at the 2016 edition of the Alt.Ctrl.GDC exhibition at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Caskanette provides a full overview of his project on his website. Here's an excerpt:

Making a traditional zoetrope is straightforward, as it’s just a drum with measured slits around its diameter. However, a significant issue in this situation was transportation as a big round drum would be difficult to fly with across the continent. The solution for this was to make everything collapsible, so I had a central base that had holes for dowels to fit into, that would either be holding up slats or the bird figurines I made. The console box and display supports screwed into the main box base, and I also made rounded tops for the box that had Velcro underneath (see diagram). Other than scrap wood, everything was from the dollar store and, truth be told, 80% of these supplies purchased were motivational chocolate bars.

LINK: Steph Caskenette

Game Art: Olaf Val's Verstärker-I (2001)

Verstärker means amplifier in German. This interactive sculpture design by Olaf Val consist of a PSOne controller, a light bulb, a microcontroller and a pedestal. 

As Val explains:

In the works "Rückkoppler", "Automatic Loop Unit", and "Bubbles", I focused on the development of instruments, which are able to generate light games in the tradition of Clavilux, Farborgel and Chormatops by using video projectors. These concepts are now continued without using video technology. The interaction between light and the designed interaction is at the fore in "Amplifier". In this way the daily use of electric light is the main topic of the work. The light bulb was a symbol of belief of the advance of technology at the turn of the century (1900). Also, the light bulb is just simply a symbol for light, spirit, and idea. In the work "Amplifier" a light bulb is used as a feedback media. The usual displays, like monitors or colorful flashing displays are reduced to a bulb, which turns on and off at one pixel, becoming lighter and darker. This reduction is effected with regard to the input media. The keyboard of the PlayStation becomes the real attraction, because of its tangible and sculptural qualities. The flashing lights, known from the world of computer games are not just follows the purpose to allure people into gambling halls as eye catchers, but most of all to enhance dramatic moments in the game. The flashing light/dark light therefore intensifies the sensuousness of the video game. By playing this work it becomes clear how much quality this effect has, at the same time, computer games are critically examined of their empty light games.

In 2013, Val produced a second version, aptly titledVerstärker-II, featuring a gamer mouse.

Olaf Val (born 1968) grew up in Hanau and Frankfurt, Germany. After his studies at the Academy of Art, Kassel, he was awarded his diploma at a postgraduate course at the Art Academy For Media in Cologne.

LINK: Olaf Val (all images and video courtesy of the artist)

Event: Virtual dream (September 19 - 30 2016, online)D

VIRTUAL DREAM

September 19 - 30 2016

Online

Curated by Haydi Roket

Full line-up:

Aaron Hayes / Arthur Machado (Tù.úk’z) / Christian Petersen / Daniel James Cashman / Dmtr Grnchrv (Noir77 – Trapers) / Elena Garnelo / Elena Romenkova / Ellectra Radikal / Erik H Zepka / Esra Özkavcı / Erik Buth (Hexeosis) / Flavio Scutti / Haydi Roket / Jean Guillaume Le Roux / Jon Cates / Kenaim Alshatti / Logan Owlbeemoth (Tachyons +) / Mark Klink / Mathieu St-Pierre / Nıhıl Mınus / Petar Grancharov (Alone365 – Trapers) / Peter Rahul / Raquel Meyers / Robert Seidel / Sarah Zucker / Sholim / S U B T L E G R Λ C E S / Systaime / Yoshi Sodeoka / V5MT

LINK: Virtual Dream (via Raquel Meyers)

Game Art: Keith Lam's "Moving Mario" (2008)

A radical rethinking of Super Mario Bros.' scrolling feature. In Keith Lam's Moving Mario, a game mechanic becomes truly mechanical. This work received an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica 2008. As Lam writes:

By grabbing partial concept and some of the key elements behind the TV game development, Moving Mario is trying to challenge some of the traditional game elements. Throughout the gaming process, players can rethink the relationship between the player and the game.

Keith Lam is a New Media Artist, Founder and Artistic Director of New Media Creative Team Dimension+. External Examiner of Hong Kong Design Institute, Lam is Visiting Lecturer of School of Design of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong University

LINK: Keith Lam

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti (video and image courtesy of Keith Lam)