GAMESCENES

EVENT: ALAN BUTLER (SEPTEMBER 13 - 26 2024, ONLINE)

26 GASOLINE STATIONS

digital video (1920 x 1080), colour, sound, 4’ 23”, 2016, Ireland

created by Alan Butler

September 13 - 26 2024

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti

vral.org

 

26 GASOLINE STATIONS is a digital homage to Ed Ruscha’s iconic 1963 photobook, 26 Gasoline Stations. Ruscha’s work famously documented the mundane yet intriguing petrol stations along his route from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City. In contrast, Butler’s reinterpretation situates this journey within the virtual world of Grand Theft Auto V’s San Andreas, transforming the act of driving across America into a navigational exploration and documentation of digital spaces. Executed as both machinima and an ebook, the project captures each station from the confines of Butler’s studio in Ireland, emphasising the shift from physical to virtual mobility. This transformation not only pays tribute to Ruscha’s artistic exploration but also probes deeper into the evolving relationship between real and simulated environments, highlighting how digital media can extend and challenge traditional notions of landscape, place, and documentation in the age of video games.

Alan Butler is an artist who employs both traditional and new media to probe themes surrounding digital culture and its influence on shaping realities. His creative approach incorporates various materials and techniques from the annals of image–making, scrutinising the ideological and political implications of technologies like 3D graphics, video games, and cloud computing. His recent solo exhibitions include We are Now in the Mountains and They Are in Us at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2023); The Need To Argue In The Master’s Language at Visual Carlow, Ireland (2018); and Down and Out in Los Santos at the Malmö Fotobiennal, Sweden (2017). He has also participated in notable group shows such as Open World: Video Games and Contemporary Art at The Akron Art Museum (2019) and Digital Citizen: The Precarious Subject at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, UK (2019). A key moment in his career was representing Ireland at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 as part of the collective ANNEX. His works are held in several collections including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Office of Public Works, Ireland, The Arts Council of Ireland, and Trinity College Dublin.

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BOOK: KEVIN STEBNER'S GAME GENIE POEMS (SPRING 2024)

Kevin Stebner, a Calgary-based multidisciplinary artist, writer, and musician, has consistently explored the intersection of art and video games through his project GreyScreen. This expansive artistic endeavor incorporates an array of media, from music to visual installations and poetry.

In spring 2024, Stebner is set to release a new book, Game Genie: Poems, published by The Blasted Tree Art Collective and Publishing Company. This innovative collection features oulipo-inspired lipogram poems (i.e., written works composed of words selected so as to avoid the use of one or more letters of the alphabet.), which double as working Game Genie codes for Nintendo, demonstrating a unique fusion of literary creativity and retro-gaming technology.

Here's an example, Analog (Analogue), originally published in Backslash Lit

Originally from Red Deer, Alberta, Stebner has been a prominent figure in Calgary's creative scene for nearly two decades. His journey into video game-inspired music began in 2007 while he was teaching in Korea. Facing the challenge of creating music in a small, isolated space, he discovered Chiptune, a genre that uses vintage gaming consoles to create music, and has since delved deeper into this style.

Related to his GreyScreen project, Stebner’s work often features interactive installations that blend visual art with sound through the manipulation of vintage video game equipment. One of his most remarkable projects is Glitch (2016), an interactive digital visual art installation that represents an advanced iteration of the earlier Switches Make Glitches project. This innovative piece features a circuit-bent Nintendo Entertainment System, where the video chip is intricately wired to a user-operated control box. Although the system retains its functional integrity, it has been transformed into a creative platform similar to patching a modular synth or operating a telephone switchboard. Participants can interact with the installation by configuring their own circuit bends.

GreyScreen, Glitch, 2016, presented at Beakerhead Festival, 2016. Photo (c) Kevin Stebner 

This hands-on engagement allows users to generate a unique array of visual glitches, offering a personalized experience with each interaction. This approach not only reimagines nostalgic elements in a contemporary context but also has led to collaborations with prominent institutions like the EPCOR Centre, Beakerhead Arts Festival, and Contemporary Calgary, where his installations invite viewers to experience the confluence of sound, sight, and interactive art.

LINK: Kevin Stebner

LINK: GreyScreen

EVENT: THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S GUIDE TO LOS SANTOS (MAY 25 - JUNE 23 2024, LENZBURG, SWITZERLAND)

Mattia Dagani Rio, Los Santos, 2023

 

The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos

May 25 - June 23 2024

Curated by Marco De Mutiis and Matteo Bittanti

address:
Dammweg 19
5600 Lenzburg
Switzerland

Opening hours:
Thu-Fri: 2-5 PM
Sat-Sun: 10 AM–5 PM

 

The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos is an official exhibition of the Lenzburg Fotofestival in Lenzburg, Switzerland, and will be accessible from May 25 to June 23, 2024.

The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos interrogates the ontological boundaries between physical and virtual spaces through an examination of photographic practices within the context of Rockstar North’s record-breaking 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V. Situating Los Santos as a simulacrum of Los Angeles — the epicenter of global image production —, the exhibition explores the emergence of this fictional locale as a site of artistic experimentation and critical inquiry.

Curated by Marco De Mutiis, Digital Curator at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, and Matteo Bittanti, Associate Professor in Media Studies at IULM University in Milan, the exhibition explores the influence of video games — encompassing their aesthetics, logics, and tools — on photography, through the works by artists working at the intersection of post-photography, video games and art, including 2girls1comp, Raphael Brunk, Alan Butler, Mattia Dagani Rio, Elizabeth Desintaputri, Claire Hentschker, COLL.EO, and Georgie Roxby Smith.

Through meticulous in-game capture techniques and cunning manipulations of code, this cadre of international artists rupture the veneer of mimetic realism that shrouds Los Santos, opening fissures wherein the underlying algorithms and tacit ideological assumptions underpinning these contested spaces are hijacked. At once playful and critical, the featured projects — several of which have never been presented before — challenge the stability of categories such as the virtual, the real, and the hyperreal within an increasingly gamified culture.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an online resource and a database detailing significant post-photographic interventions within Grand Theft Auto V and, later on, a “how-to-photograph-the-virtual” critical guide.

read more

GAME ART: ROBERT WHAT'S ALTERNATIVE SCREENSHOT ART EXHIBIT (2024)

Robert What's Alternative Videogame Screenshot Art Exhibit presents a meticulously selected and refined collection of virtual photography, showcasing the artistry found within video game screenshots. This tongue-in-cheek exhibition replete with quotes from Neil Postman and Jean Baudrillard and Guy Debord among others drawn from a diverse community of gamers and artists, featuring a wide array of styles and subjects will blow your mind. What's selection deliberately avoids marketing-driven imagery known as "bullshots". Instead, the curator focus is on celebrating the uniquely kitsch, the everyday moments, the beautifully bizarre, the easily missed, and the delightfully unexpected within the virtual worlds of video games. This collection currently parked on itch.io boasts 3,219 images, collected in five mega folders, all in stunning shiny and new 4K resolution, culminating in a total size of 3.9GB. Seriously, take a look!

LINK: Alternative Videogame Screenshot Art Exhibit 

LINK: Robert What

BOOK: AYOUNG KIM: SYNTHETIC STORYTELLER (2024)

press release

Title: Ayoung Kim: Synthetic Storyteller
Category: Contemporary art, art critic, artist monograph
Language: Korean, English
Publication Date: January 2024
Pages: softcover, 400 pages, color illustrations, black and white, 112 x 183 mm
ISBN: 979-11-985617-0-1 (93600)
Publisher: The Floorplan, Seoul
Authors: Nanna Heidenreich, Chien-Hung Huang, Jinshil Lee, Ayoung Kim, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Wonhwa Yoon
Editor: Gye Taek Gon (James Gui)
Design: Shin Shin
Contact: [email protected]

The Floorplan is pleased to announce the publication of Ayoung Kim: Synthetic Storyteller, the first and most comprehensive monograph encompassing the artist’s practice. Visual and media artist Ayoung Kim weaves reality anew through a tapestry of hybrid narratives while integrating geopolitics, mythology, technology and futuristic iconography in her work. The outcomes of synthesized narratives result in far-reaching speculation, establishing connections between biopolitics and border controls, the memories of stones and virtual memories, and ancestral origins and imminent futures in the forms of video, moving image, virtual reality (VR), game simulation, sonic fiction, diagrams and texts.

As the hitherto most extensive introduction to the artist’s work, this monograph presents a selection of artworks produced between 2007 and 2022 through still images and installation views together with several critical voices. It includes Ayoung Kim’s text and scripts from various projects which are the foundation of her work, an interview with curator Hyunjoo Byeon, accompanied by analytical essay contributions from Nanna Heidenreich, Chien-Hung Huang, Jinshil Lee, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein and Wonhwa Yoon.

Ayoung Kim is a recipient of the Golden Nica Award, Prix Ars Electronica, Austria (2023); Terayama Shuji Prize, 37th Image Forum Festival, Japan (2023); Best Film Award, Chuncheon SF Film Festival, Korea (2020); a finalist of the Korea Artist Prize, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (2019); and a recipient of the Young Artist of the Year Award, Ministry of Culture, Korea (2015). She has presented solo and group exhibitions and projects worldwide at the Sharjah Biennial (2023); Ars Electronica Festival, Linz (2023); HEK (House of Electronic Arts), Basel (2023); International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) (2023), CPH:DOX Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (2023); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul and Gwacheon (2023, 2022, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016); Kuandu Biennial, Taipei (2022); Asian Art Biennial, Taichung (2021); Videobrasil, São Paulo (2021); Berlin International Film Festival (2020); Busan Biennale (2020); Gwangju Biennale (2018), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2016); and the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), among others.

This book is published with the support of the “2023 ARKO Selection Visual Art.

LINK: The Floorplan

LINK: Ayoung Kim

EVENT: SILICON VALLEY TALKS: HENRY LOWOOD, REPLAYED (NOVEMBER 14 2023, STANFORD, CALIFORNIA)

Silicon Valley Talks: Henry Lowood, "Replayed"
November 14, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm PST
Hohbach Hall Presentation Room, Green Library (East Wing)

Stanford University, Stanford, California

Since the early 2000s, Henry Lowood has led or had a key role in numerous initiatives devoted to the preservation and documentation of virtual worlds, digital games, and interactive simulations, establishing himself as a major scholar in the field of game studies. His voluminous writings have tackled subject matter spanning the history of game design and development, military simulation, table-top games, machinima, e-sports, wargaming, and historical software archives and collection development. Replayed consolidates Lowood's far-flung and significant publications on these subjects into a single volume.

LINK: Silicon Valley Talks: Henry Lowood, "Replayed"

EVENT: PRIDE AT PLAY (JUNE 3-24 2023, MELBOURNE)

Pride at Play celebrates thoughtful queer games

June 3-24 2023, Melbourne Australia

carlisle street arts space, st kilda town hall

9:00am – 4:00pm, Monday to Friday.
10:00am – 3:00pm, Saturday.
Please note the gallery is closed on Sundays.

 

Pride at Play was launched during Sydney WorldPride festival.

 

Don't miss the catalogue curated  by Xavier Ho, Lecturer in Interaction Design, featuring 20 interviews with LGBTQIA+ game designers from Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne, Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Canada, United States, and Argentina. You can purchase a paperback copy here, or browse the PDF online for free. Every penny goes to three charities focused on the LGBTQIA+ community in Australia and the Asia Pacific. This includes Oogachaga (Singapore), Human Rights Watch Malaysia, and the Black Rainbow (First Nation Australians).

LINK: Pride at Play

 

EVENT: THE PRIVILEGE OF PLAY: CONNECTING GAMES AND RACE IN THE 20TH CENTURY (JUNE 9 2023, STANFORD)

Aaron Trammell

The Privilege of Play: Connecting Games and Race in the 20th Century

Friday, June 9, 2023
4pm to 5pm PT
Hohbach Hall, 123
557 Escondido Mall, Stanford, CA 94305

The Silicon Valley Archives will host an online version of this talk via Zoom on June 9, 2023, at 10:00 am PDT. To register for the online version of this talk, please RSVP here. The in-person talk will be held in Hohbach Hall on June 9, 2023, at 4:00 pm PDT. To register for the in-person version of this talk, please RSVP here. 

The histories of race and games in the 20th century have long been siloed. Popular histories of games often render invisible the race of the white men that they celebrate, thus inviting readers to take for granted the somewhat homogenous demographics of the games industry. Far from being coincidental, I argue that race has been central to the history of games. I will present historical research in this talk that shows how the early leaders of the game industry were able to thrive due to their community ties. I term these white communities "networks of privilege" and offer evidence for how these networks developed of the course of the 20th century and used dog whistles to keep BIPOC people out. Thus, in this talk I will foreground how the invisible politics of whiteness have shaped the history of games itself. 

Aaron Trammell is an Assistant Professor of Informatics at UC Irvine. He is interested in how tabletop games further values of white privilege and hegemonic masculinity in geek culture. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Analog Game Studies and the co-editor for the Tabletop Gaming series at University of Michigan Press. He has two books Repairing Play (2023 MIT Press) is a theory of play that centers BIPOC people and The Privilege of Play (2023 NYU Press) is a history of games and race in the 20th Century.

LINK: The Privilege of Play

LINK: Aaron Trammel

EVENT: SILICON VALLEY TALKS: ATARI DESIGN (MAY 2 2023, STANFORD, USA)

Silicon Valley Talks: Atari Design

Sponsored by Stanford Universities Library

Tuesday, May 2, 2023
12pm to 1pm PT

Free and open  to the public

Hohbach Hall, 123
557 Escondido Mall, Stanford, CA 94305
View map

press release

Join the Silicon Valley Archives in welcoming author Raiford Guins as he and the Harold C. Hohbach Curator for the History of Science and Technology Collections, Henry Lowood, discuss his latest book, Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines.

Drawing from deep archival research and extensive interviews, Atari Design is a rich, historical study of how Atari's industrial and graphic designers contributed to the development of the video game machine. You may purchase a copy of the book here.

Raiford Guins is Chair and Professor of Cinema and Media Studies in the Media School at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author of Game After: A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife (MIT Press, 2014) and Atari Design: Impressions on Coin-Operated Video Game Machines (Bloomsbury, 2020). Guins is currently writing a book on the popularity of the English Premier League in the US. He co-edits MIT Press's Game Histories Book Series with Henry Lowood.

 

Read more: Atari Design @ Stanford

CALL FOR ARTWORKS: THE ART OF GAMES IN GREECE 2023

The Athens Digital Arts Festival (ADAF) and the Game Developers Association of Greece (GDA Greece) are organizing The Art of Games in Greece (A.G.G.) 2023, inviting creators to reimagine digital games in Greece.

This joint project aspires to promote game development in Greece and contribute to the recognition of digital game as a form of contemporary art while encouraging creators and audiences to engage in this field. A.G.G. consists of three complementary parts: the “Crown” and “Blossoms” competitions, and the “Pollen” series of seminars and workshops.

The competition section is focused on games related to the theme of ADAF 2023, “Welcome to the Uncanny”. Both competitions are exclusively for digital games made in Greece, accessible from computers. Winners and finalists, selected by a five-member jury, will exhibit their works on the festival’s online platform, where the audience can play and vote for their favorite games.

CROWN
Crown invites developers with existing games, which they have already announced or published, related to the theme “Welcome to the Uncanny” to submit them through the relevant form to claim mentions and promotion on the festival’s online platform during the event.

BLOSSOMS
Blossoms invites developers to create new games inspired by the theme of ADAF 2023 and claim a cash prize of €1000, in addition to the awards and the promotion on the online platform of the festival.

POLLEN
Pollen, the educational component of A.G.G., consists of a series of sessions aimed at introducing new creators to game development by established professionals in the field. These sessions will be freely accessible on the festival’s online platform.
The detailed program of Pollen will be announced soon.

 •••

The Athens Digital Arts Festival and the Game Developers Association of Greece are working together to highlight the digital game as a work of art. The Art of Games in Greece aspires to create a new point of interest for the development of digital games in Greece and promote them both locally and internationally.

Find more information click here

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*/ The Art of Games in Greece 2023: Κάλεσμα Συμμετοχής

Το διεθνές φεστιβάλ ψηφιακών τεχνών της Ελλάδας, Athens Digital Arts Festival (ADAF) και ο Σύλλογος Δημιουργών Ψηφιακών Παιχνιδιών Ελλάδος (GDA Greece) διοργανώνουν το The Art of Games in Greece (A.G.G.) 2023 και καλούν τους δημιουργούς να επανοραματιστούν το ψηφιακό παιχνίδι στην Ελλάδα.

Η κοινή αυτή δράση φιλοδοξεί να προωθήσει τη δημιουργία ψηφιακών παιχνιδιών (game development) στην Ελλάδα και να συμβάλει στην ανάδειξή τους ως μορφή σύγχρονης τέχνης, παροτρύνοντας συγχρόνως δημιουργούς και κοινό να εμπλακούν με το πεδίο των ψηφιακών παιχνιδιών. Το A.G.G. απαρτίζεται από τρία συμπληρωματικά μέρη: τους διαγωνισμούς “Crown” και “Blossoms”, και τη σειρά σεμιναρίων και workshops “Pollen”.

Το διαγωνιστικό κομμάτι αφορά σε παιχνίδια που σχετίζονται με την θεματική του ADAF 2023 “Welcome to the Uncanny”. Και οι δυο διαγωνισμοί είναι αποκλειστικά για ψηφιακά παιχνίδια made in Greece, προσβάσιμα από ηλεκτρονικούς υπολογιστές. Νικητές και φιναλίστ, που θα επιλεγούν από πενταμελή κριτική επιτροπή, θα εκθέσουν τα έργα τους στην διαδικτυακή πλατφόρμα του φεστιβάλ όπου το κοινό θα μπορεί να παίξει και να ψηφίσει τα αγαπημένα του παιχνίδια.

CROWN
Tα Crown προσκαλούν developers με ήδη ανακοινωμένα ή δημοσιευμένα παιχνίδια που σχετίζονται με τη θεματική “Welcome to the Uncanny” και διαθέτουν δωρεάν demos να τα καταθέσουν μέσω της σχετικής φόρμας για να διεκδικήσουν μνείες και προβολή στην διαδικτυακή πλατφόρμα της διοργάνωσης κατά την διάρκεια του φεστιβάλ.

BLOSSOMS
Tα Blossoms καλούν τους developers να δημιουργήσουν νέα παιχνίδια που εμπνέονται από τη θεματική του ADAF 2023 και να διεκδικήσουν χρηματικό έπαθλο της τάξης των 1000€, επιπρόσθετα με τα βραβεία και την προβολή των έργων στην online πλατφόρμα του φεστιβάλ.

POLLEN
Tο Pollen, το εκπαιδευτικό τμήμα της διοργάνωσης, θα αποτελείται από μία σειρά συνεδριών με σκοπό την εισαγωγή νέων δημιουργών στην παραγωγή ψηφιακών παιχνιδιών (game development) από καταξιωμένα άτομα του χώρου. Οι συνεδρίες αυτές θα είναι προσβάσιμες δωρεάν στην διαδικτυακή πλατφόρμα της διοργάνωσης.
Το αναλυτικό πρόγραμμα του Pollen θα ανακοινωθεί σύντομα.

 •••

Το Athens Digital Arts Festival και ο Σύλλογος Δημιουργών Ψηφιακών Παιχνιδιών Ελλάδος συνεργάζονται για να αναδείξουν τα ψηφιακά παιχνίδια ως καλλιτεχνικά έργα. Το The Art of Games in Greece φιλοδοξεί να δημιουργήσει έτσι μια νέα κοιτίδα ενδιαφέροντος για την ανάπτυξη του ψηφιακού παιχνιδιού στην Ελλάδα και την προώθησή τους τόσο σε εγχώριο όσο και διεθνές επίπεδο.

Περισσότερες πληροφορίες για τη συμμετοχή σας μπορείτε να βρείτε στο online.adaf.gr/GDA_the_art_of_games_in_greece_2023