GAMESCENES

EVENT: ZEROED IN: BETWEEN WORLDS. VIDEO GAMES AND THE PHYSICAL (JANUARY 24 2025, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS)

𝔃𝓮𝓻𝓸𝓮𝓭 𝓲𝓷

Student Final Work from ART 250: Between Worlds, Video Games and the Physical @ University of Illinois Chicago

Friday, January 24, 2025
6:00 PM 9:00 PM
VGA Project Lab 2233 South Throop Street #843
Chicago, IL, 60608 United States

curated by

Jared Kelley-Hudgins, UIC ART 250 Instructor

Eleanor Schichtel, VGA Director of Exhibitions

with works by Avery Chang, Shawnie Higuera, Cristiana Salerno, Dante Moore

Amid hard deadlines for as many as five other college courses, the students featured in this exhibition developed intriguing projects in the feverish context of the late semester crunch. What’s more, these projects stand out in particular for demonstrating genuinely original inspiration from the beginner tutorials they received in creative coding, video game design, and augmented reality. These delightfully weird and unpretentious early works are a testament to experimentation in new media art education.

LINK: ZEROED IN

GAME ART: VOLNA’S THIRD CALL (2024)

Third Call is an innovative art-game developed by the VOLNA artists collective, created as part of the ongoing renovation of the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany. Commissioned for the theater’s 2025 season and spearheaded by its newly established Digital Theater division, the project offers players a unique opportunity to explore a reimagined interpretation of the theater's spaces. By merging architecture with gaming, Third Call invites audiences to engage with the evolving identity of the building through an interactive, artistic lens.

Built using Unreal Engine, Third Call transforms the theater’s architectural blueprints into a fully immersive, first-person journey. The game plunges players into a surreal, deconstructed version of the theater, where they navigate a looping quest to find their seat in a not-yet-revealed futuristic performance hall. This narrative structure echoes the ongoing renovation, creating a metaphorical and real-time reflection on the interplay between the building’s historical legacy, its present transformation, and its speculative future.

Visually, the game masterfully blends the precision of architectural renderings with the eerie atmosphere of liminal spaces, crafting an aesthetic that feels both familiar and otherworldly. Drawing inspiration from seminal works like The Stanley Parable and the cyberpunk ethos of Blade Runner, Third Call establishes its own distinct identity, fusing clarity and ambiguity into a cohesive artistic experience. The result is a space where storytelling, architecture, and digital media converge, inviting players to contemplate the theater not just as a building but as a living, evolving concept.

As part of the Badisches Staatstheater’s initiative to integrate digital innovation into performance art, Third Call reimagines what theater can be. By turning the theater’s physical metamorphosis into an interactive journey, the game blurs boundaries between audience and performer, space and narrative, reality and simulation. This bold exploration of the intersection of digital media, architecture, and performance art challenges traditional notions of what constitutes "theater" in the 21st century.

As The Third Call clearly demonstrates, game engines like Unreal are increasingly central to digital art production, enabling creators to push the boundaries of interactivity and immersion in ways previously unimaginable.

Formed in 2016 as a loose cooperative of architects, artists, engineers, cultural workers and artisans, VOLNA is based in Karlsruhe, Germany. We have an extensive track record of successful collaborations with major museums, theaters, festivals, biennials, educational institutions, grassroots cultural initiatives, nightclubs, and corporate clients. Whether it's mechanical flowers under your feet or intricate environmentally sustainable art objects in the Alps, a dramaturgically designed immersive light forest for a choreographic performance or interactive light mirrors for a university bus stop, light set-ups for underground music venues or the entire architecture for a festival with 15,000 visitors, or even a virtual Kunsthalle with lifelike lighting effects, in all of our projects VOLNA creates unique and exciting artistic environments that integrate organically into each site with own unique context and specifics.

For more information, visit VOLNA Media’s official website.

Download the game here

Watch a teaser here

LINK: VOLNA (Special thanks to Nikita Golyshev/VOLNA)

GAME ART: MIKHAIL MAKSIMOV’S FLYOVER VR (2024)

Mikhail Maksimov’s FlyOver is a VR experience that merges meditative gameplay with a deeply existential narrative. By transforming players’ hands into wings, the game invites participants on a tranquil journey through surreal landscapes, including serene swamps and dreamlike vistas where reality and imagination blur. The journey is marked by discovery: abandoned VHS tape recorders, placed in the heart of a swamp, beckon the player to engage. By inserting old VHS tapes into these machines, players unlock cryptic movies that weave a narrative of memory, mortality, and transcendence.

Are they fragments of forgotten lives? Echoes of alternate realities? Or glimpses into a subconscious? At its core, FlyOver is a “game of overcoming death,” exploring the liminal space between life and the afterlife, where transgression becomes key. This sense of transition - what Maksimov describes as meeting oneself in a dream - captures the enigmatic beauty of FlyOver.

Mikhail Maksimov engages with the conceptual interplay between digital media and reality, employing advanced techniques such as simulations and 3D animation to interrogate potential alternative realities. His practice, grounded in the framework of ‘transmedia storytelling,’ traverses multiple platforms, including film, installation art, and mobile applications. Through these media, Maksimov rigorously examines and critiques ideological and philosophical constructs, situating digital interfaces as both a reflective medium and an active agent in shaping the relationship between creator and audience. He posits that if reality can be understood as modeling gaming principles, then digital forms such as animation and interactive artworks possess the capacity to reconfigure reality itself. Maksimov’s academic foundation includes studies at Moscow State Construction University and the Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia. His works have been featured in prestigious exhibitions and festivals, including the Moscow Modern Art Biennale, the Locarno Film Festival, Manifesta 10, the Venice Architecture Biennale, and DA Z Festival in Zurich.

Download the game here for Windows/Android platforms

LINK: Mikhail Maksimov

INITIATIVE: PALESTINIAN VOICES IN GAMES (ONGOING)

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EVENT: PROJECT HASHTAG 2024 (NOVEMBER 15 2024 - APRIL 27 2025, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA)

PROJECT HASHTAG 2024. Photo: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

Wish Office & Playing Art Method: PROJECT HASHTAG 2024
November 15, 2024–April 27, 2025

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
99 Sejong-daero
Jung District
Seoul
South Korea

press release

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA; director Kim Sunghee) is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition for PROJECT HASHTAG 2024, an open call initiative aimed at discovering promising creators and supporting interdisciplinary collaboration in the visual arts. The exhibition will take place from November 15, 2024 to April 27, 2025 at MMCA Seoul.

In partnership with Hyundai Motor Company, PROJECT HASHTAG was launched in 2019 and is now in its fifth year. The project has successfully established itself as a new platform for artistic creation, fostering collaboration among artists, curators, researchers, and other cultural practitioners. This year two teams, Wish Office and Playing Art Method, were selected from among 148 applicants representing diverse fields. Both teams have been working on their projects with the support of KRW 30 million and access to studio space at MMCA Residency Changdong.

Installation view of Wish Office, The Wishes, 2024. Photo: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

Wish Office (Kim Raeo, Seo John, Seo Jin kyu, Oh Saeol, and Titanium (Choi Joon Seong)) presents a project called Wish World—a metaverse environment where everyone’s wishes can be fulfilled. This project takes the form of a social experiment, reflecting on the often challenging realities of personal struggles in contemporary society through a game-like experience. Visitors to the exhibition have the option to submit their wishes to be processed through an AI classification system and delivered into the Wish World. The fate of this virtual world—whether it thrives or withers—depends on these submitted wishes. The project explores themes of frustration, desire, and hope, reflecting on the feelings of helplessness, powerlessness, and need for recognition experienced by many people. It incorporates popular cultural concepts such as time travel, reincarnation, and transmigration, recently trending in webcomics and online novels. The project simulates what might happen if these “lucky breaks,” known as hoebinghwan (an amalgamation of the words hoegwi [regression], bingui [transmigration], and hwansaeng [reincarnation]), once reserved exclusively for protagonists, were extended to everyone, allowing participants to see the outcomes of these second chances.

Installation view of Playing Art Method, Playing Art Method, 2024. Photo: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

Playing Art Method (Cho Hoyoun, Kim Youngju, and Sei Rhee) is a collaboration between Parade & Patchwork, an exhibition planning group led by Rhee Sei, and Loopntale, a media art-based game production team consisting of Cho Hoyoun and Kim Youngju. Playing Art Method proposes a project under the same name to explore the questions that arise when “Video games” are exhibited in an art museum. Through exhibitions, workshops, and animated posters, they aim to generate meaningful discourse on these topics. This project reconsiders the position of games and game developers within the contemporary art ecosystem, establishing branding strategies for these creators. Learning materials that help visitors interpret the meanings within the games are displayed alongside the games themselves, and experts from a range of fields—including poets, game researchers, and art critics—provide insights into the project from various perspectives. These experts act as docents while also showcasing their current or long-term interests, interacting directly with visitors in the exhibition space.

This year’s program also includes a variety of related programs including live game streaming sessions, talks, docent programs, and game walk through workshops in collaboration with experts from different fields. To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the project, a special event featuring past PROJECT HASHTAG participants will also be held, offering a retrospective look at the significance of interdisciplinary collaboration over the past five years.

Kim Sunghee, director of the MMCA, notes, “Just as hashtags connect different subjects and people in our contemporary digital culture, PROJECT HASHTAG 2024 aims to bring together creators from diverse backgrounds to create new artistic synergies and expand the potential of contemporary art.”

LINK: Wish Office & Playing Art Method: PROJECT HASHTAG 2024

GAME ART: HUGO PILATE’S LAGARES DO ALVARÁ (2023)

Lagares do Alvará is a virtual environment created using Unreal Editor for Fortnite, envisioning a partial reimagination of Mouraria, Lisbon, as a thriving, self-sustaining neighborhood no longer reliant on tourism. The project was mmissioned by Davide Onestini and André Trindade (aka By the End of May) for the 2024 Gentler Futures Festival. Special thanks to Maria Mascarenhas for providing invaluable local insights, enriching the project with contextual depth, and recommending Vale dos Vencidos, José Smith Vargas’s evocative graphic novel.

Hugo Pilate’s work revolves around enabling diverse groups to collaborate effectively by crafting shared visions, defining guiding values and principles, and developing actionable plans to bring concepts to life—from research to prototyping and piloting. His practice thrives at the intersection of design fiction, urban development, gamer culture, and maker culture, drawing inspiration from practitioners such as Sara Hendren, Nicolas Nova, Taeyoon Choi, and José Sanchez. With over a decade of experience, Hugo has honed a multidisciplinary approach that bridges speculative design with practical implementation, fostering innovation and inclusivity in collective projects. Beyond his professional endeavors, he nurtures a passion for creative coding and small-scale digital experiments. He has organized hackathons such as Digikat and Museomix India, exploring the interplay between traditional crafts and creative technologies.

LINK: Hugo Pilate

Fortnite map: Lagares do Alvará

CALL FOR ARTWORKS: FILE SP 2025 (DEADLINE: JANUARY 15 2025)

FILE 2025 – Open Call – Art and Technology

FILE is now accepting applications for the 2025 edition, inviting artists, creators, developers and researchers to submit their projects. This is a unique opportunity to exhibit your work in São Paulo, from July 15 to September 7, 2025, at the renowned FIESP Cultural Center.

We seek innovative and creative projects that integrate art and technology, both national and international, covering diverse areas such as installations, robotics, CGI, virtual and augmented realities, animations, mobile art, games, kinetic art, public art and much more. We value proposals that explore interaction with the public and the use of Artificial Intelligence, in various formats of artistic expression.

As a non-profit cultural organization, FILE promotes experimentation and development in the field of Art and Technology, providing a platform for artists to connect with new audiences. In this 24th edition, the festival continues its commitment to exploring the boundaries between technology and art.

You can also take advantage of the chance to participate in the FILE LED SHOW, exhibited annually at the FIESP Digital Art Gallery, or to lead a session at the FILE WORKSHOP. Sign up using the form and check the guidelines in the regulations.

Project submission: until January 15, 2025

FILE SP 2025: from July 15 to September 7, 2025

Read more about the submission

FILE FESTIVAL

CALL FOR PAPERS: ARTS AND GAMES (DEADLINE: DECEMBER 13 2024)

The fields of arts and games are continuously and progressively intersecting, creating hybrids and cultural frames, mutually influencing each other. This is not new; arts have been using games as subject and material for millennia from depictions of athletes in ancient Greek sculpture to Yoko Ono’s All White Chess Set (1966) and from Caravaggio’s Cardsharps (1594) to Harold Hejazi’s game performance series Adventures of Harriharri. Weiqi, or as it is named in the West, Go, was one of the four arts a scholar should master in ancient China. However, games are increasingly recognized as having artistic qualities after the cultural ascendancy of digital games.  

Games as a form of expression, and gaming as a performative practice, hold significant artistic potential. They are used for artistic self-expression, both within recognized art worlds and in alternative and emerging fan-based art practices across different forms of media. These renegade art worlds challenge traditional curatorial practices. Popular triple-A digital games have been placed within artistic discourse and practice, both when existing games are used as platforms for artistic interventions, such as Joseph DeLappe’s dead-in-iraq (2006-2011) or Brent Watanabe’s San Andreas Streaming Deer Cam (2016), but also in the aesthetic experience they create without additional modding.  

The cross-pollination between arts and games is particularly strong right now. Art history has been a constant inspiration for visual and sound design in games, establishing structures of expectation and shaping player experience through points of reference, or by directly utilizing various aesthetics such as, surrealism, renaissance paintings, and medieval illumination. Furthermore, interest in what games can offer art practices has been strengthening. Features such as structured participation, instruction-based performance, 8-bit aesthetics, virtual co-presence, exploration, and simulation have made games a significant part of contemporary media arts. From JODI’s Untitled Game series (1996-2001) to Zach Gage’s Lose/Lose (2009), Harun Farocki’s Serious Games I-IV (2011), or Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s The Lack: I Knew Your Voice before You Spoke (2023), digital games have become medium, topic, and site of artistic practice. Similarly, live action role-playing is used both as a generative engine in visual arts, like in Brody Condon’s Twentyfivefold Manifestations(2008), and as the heart of the performance as in Pihla Lehtinen’s Do Crime (2019) or Signa’s Das 13. Jahr (2023).  

Arts and Games are coming together all kinds of ways. Games are also a way for art museums to show their collections or offer alternative paths to art, with games about art, artists, and art worlds – like Reiner Knizia’s Modern Art (1992). The aesthetics and functions of digital games also allow for idea-historical perspectives. By pointing out the intersections and parallels between experience, design, and reception of digital games and historical phenomena of arts (ranging from painting and literature to theater and architecture) entirely new perspectives on existing works of art can be enabled. 

To play around with all this, the spring seminar of Game Research Lab wants to carve a space for a discussion of artistic approaches to games and ludic approaches to art. We are not looking to discuss if games fit in the arts, but how the multiple fields of games and arts intersect and tickle each other. As always, we encourage interesting interpretations of ‘games’ and ‘arts’.  

With all that in mind, the list of possible topics includes but is not limited to: 

• • (Playing) games as expressive forms 
  • Artistry of games 
  • Games in art 
  • Artistic vibes in games 
  • Art on games 
  • Games as material and/or medium in arts 
  • Curating/exhibiting/presenting game art 
  • Application of theoretical and methodological approaches from the field of art practice and theory 
  • Aesthetics and experience 
  • Curatorial practices/research in relation to games 
  • Diegetic Art in games 
  • Games as art 
  • Artistic appreciation of games 
  • Artistic praxis in games 
  • Games in the cultural heritage sector 

Seminar information 

Arts and Games is the 21st annual spring seminar organised by the Tampere University Game Research Lab. The seminar emphasises work-in-progress submissions, and we strongly encourage submitting late-breaking results, working papers, as well as submissions from graduate and PhD researchers. The purpose of the seminar is to have peer-to-peer discussions and thereby provide support in refining and improving research work in this area. The seminar is organised in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies and Games as Art Center. 

The papers to be presented will be chosen based on extended abstract review. Full papers are distributed prior to the event to all participants, in order to facilitate discussion. There will be two invited expert commentators to provide feedback on the papers. 

The seminar is potentially looking into partnering with a publisher so that the best papers would be invited to be further developed into publication. In the past, we have collaborated with e.g. Analog Game Studies, Games and Culture, Games: Research and Practice, International Journal of Role-Playing, Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, Simulation & Gaming, and ToDiGRA journals. 

The seminar will be held at Tampere University, Finland, on 26-27 March 2025. The event is free of charge. 

Submission guidelines 

The papers will be selected for presentation based on extended abstracts of 500–1000 words (plus references). Abstracts should be delivered in PDF format. Full paper guidelines will be provided with the notification of acceptance. 

Our aim is that all participants can familiarise themselves with the papers in advance. Therefore, the maximum length for a full paper is 5000 words (plus references). The seminar presentations should encourage discussion, instead of repeating the information presented in the papers. Every paper will be presented for 10 minutes and discussed for 20 minutes. 

Submissions should be sent through this form.

All information will be updated on the seminar website: https://springseminar.org 

Organisers can be contacted at: [email protected]  

Important dates 

• • Abstract deadline: 13 December 2024 
  • Notification of acceptance: 10 January 2025 
  • Full paper deadline: 5 March 2025 
  • Seminar dates: 26-27 March 2025 

 Organising team

Aska Mayer, Mark Maletska, Leland Masek, Jaakko Stenros, Essi Taino, & Heikki Tyni 

LINK: Arts and Games Seminar

EVENT: X VIRTUAL GATHERING: HONEY (NOVEMBER 1 2024 - FEBRUARY 14 2025, BEJING)

X Virtual Gathering: Honey
November 1, 2024–February 14, 2025

X Museum
Chaoyang District
Langyuan Station, E1 (Building 10), No.53 Banjie Tower Road
Beijing China

press release

Although the Chinese pictograph  and title of the project refers to “honey,” it also morphologically entails its originator, the “bee” and its natural habitat, the “hive.” “X Virtual Gathering: Honey” focuses on the expanded network of bees and its implications—ecological biogeography, human civilisation, and capitalisation. In recent years, resource depletion and ecological crises have resulted in a net loss of biodiversity, which has dramatically affected the living conditions of many species. Here, humans are no exception, and are never excused from these systems. The space occupied by “Honey” is not merely one of nature and ecology, but also a space shaped by totems and human activity that impacts wildlife. “X Virtual Gathering: Honey” is an interdisciplinary research project that commissions visual artists and music producers to explore organisms, ecosystems, food supply chains, cultural heritage, organisation and sharing. All of the works in this exhibition are new commissions, including a video game, eight music tracks, and an art installation. The game Honey will be available for download through X Museum’s online platform. At the end of 2024, the project will also release an eponymous vinyl record which will be distributed globally.

Humans created a nexus of civilisation, slowly deepening the division between civilisation and nature through technological revolutions. From reverence to exploitation, our shifted minds towards natural resources have disenchanted nature’s spirituality. Inorganics have been replacing the organics, continuing its claim as the centre of the capitalistic society. As of late, the delicate and dynamic balance amongst organisms has been disrupted against the backdrop of capitalism and the Anthropocene. The network of “Honey” symbolises a fluid environment, connecting humanity with “Otherness’, and capitalism with exploitation. This exhibition highlights and challenges a series of ecological predicaments coming towards us—artificial sugars, pesticides, intensive agriculture, and colony collapse disorder. Through various styles ranging from experimental electronic and dance music to free jazz and ambient music, this exhibition offers an interdependent soundscape. Sampled music from China’s ethnic minority regions trace an alternative perspective on the paradoxes of memories and loop back to the emotions of these interrelated communities.Techniques such as granular synthesis are used to further transcribe bee colonies and terrestrial ecosystems within the technological environment. As an abstract medium, music alters and challenges the participants” senses, urging us to rethink ecological justice and species justice.

“Honey” also symbolically alludes to the sacred—it flows from the material world to the immaterial realms with a golden gleam. It washes over human minds, and extends to eternity. Since the Stone Age, honey has been one of the oldest substances cultivated, managed and distributed by humans. It is a natural sweetener, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antibacterial agent, which reflects upon human prosperity and longevity, embodying our quest to speculate on the unknown and the cosmos. In this exhibition, each individual music work from the artists represents a specific event throughout levels in the game-build. As the space shifts, these pieces are triggered by visitors, immersing them during real-time gameplay. Visitors are invited to participate through the perspectives of bees, engaged in a dynamic, unstable environment that enhances and augments the sensory experience. “Honey” unfolds as a fluid, generative virtual space where “you” influences the honey, and the honey influences “you.”

Bee colonies are organised by an effective social structure that manifests collective decision making. Their ways of collaboration closely resemble the neuron interactions of the human brain. To study the behaviour of bees is to study ourselves. These social insects collectively decode complex tasks and are guided by instinct and order, while humans tend to pursue independence and freedom. In response, the game Honey spreads its multiple story lines around this organisational aspect, challenging the stereotypical concepts of order and autonomy, civilisation and nature. Here, we explore the trans-dimensional space that “honey” occupies in visual culture through the construction of a series of totemic symbols, and a mix of organic and inorganic landscapes. From discursive sound environments, installations and virtual worldbuilding to text, images, and gamified spaces, “X Virtual Gathering: Honey” systematically unpacks the intricate network of civilisation embodied by these insects. Through the lens of honey, the project takes a multi-species ethnographic approach in a dialectical exploration of the primordial, non-Western-centric ecological futures lurking beneath the “human” crisis.

Artists

33EMYB W00 Zhang Gooooose Alex Zhang  Hungtaigogoj Hyph11 EABADIRDJ  Marcelle Jana Rush

About X Virtual

Launched by X Museum in 2019, X Virtual is a digital art platform that fosters new artistic 3D spaces within virtual worlds. We commission artists to create new digital works and organise online and offline exhibitions, workshops, and talks. As a museum affiliate initiative dedicated to cultivating virtual worlds, X Virtual aims to promote new thoughts, discussions, and interdisciplinary practices in relation to the emerging Web3 centred technologies, including XR, AI, and game engines. By collaborating with artists, technologists, architects, game designers, filmmakers, and other digital creators from diverse backgrounds, we are committed to building an accessible digital art platform that caters to the fast-evolving Web3 virtual worlds, for everyone.

LINK: X VIRTUAL GATHERING

EVENT: CAO FEI: MY CITY IS YOURS (NOVEMBER 30 2024 - APRIL 13 2025, SYDNEY)

Cao Fei, Oz, 2022

Cao Fei: My City is Yours曹斐: 欢迎登陆
30 November 2024 – 13 April 2025
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery Road
The Domain
Sydney NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA

official website

press release

In the largest exhibition of her work ever seen in Australia, Cao Fei (pronounced tsow fay) 曹 斐 brings the energy of the contemporary metropolis into the Art Gallery of New South Wales with a retrospective that includes two new commissions.

Cao was recently voted one of the most influential artists in the world. Born in Guangzhou in 1978 and based in Beijing, she has documented China’s rapid urbanisation and digital revolutions for over two decades. Her acclaimed films, photography and large-scale installations offer thrilling encounters with the disorienting, quick-fire transformations of the new millennium.

My City is Yours 欢迎登陆 is an invitation into a world of neon, street dance and pop music; a city both familiar and warped, real and virtual. Enter the exhibition via a replica 1960s Beijing cinema foyer, and exit through a homage to a popular Sydney yum cha restaurant.  

Designed by the artist and Beau Architects of Hong Kong, the exhibition takes the form of a cityscape. It’s a space of play and self-reinvention, where cosplayers and hip-hop dancers take over sidewalks in Fukuoka and New York. It’s a city of screens and pixels, mediated by gaming technologies, VR and the metaverse. It’s a city under construction, where neighbourhoods are razed overnight and workers compete for jobs with robots.

The exhibition is made possible with the support of the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW. Along with Magritte, also at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Julie Mehretu, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Cao Fei is part of the Sydney International Art Series, bringing the world’s most outstanding exhibitions to Australia, exclusively to Sydney.

LINK: Cao Fei: My City is Yours曹斐: 欢迎登陆