GAMESCENES

Event: Video Game Suite (October 23, 2014, Stanford University)

Video Game Suite
Thursday, October 23, 2014, 7:00 pm
Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University, Stanford, California

"Video Game Suite is an evening of three short "pop up" dance pieces on the theme of video games created by Bay Area choreographers and staged informally in an art gallery setting. Three short dances by: Marcos Vedoveto, Tracy Hazas, Diane Frank with Elise Knudson"

Producer Erik Flatmo's statement:

"I posed a challenge to three young choreographers: create a short dance piece based on a video game. Video game animation and technology has become amazingly sophisticated. Unlike the clunky old games of yesterday, they're cinematic, almost photorealistic. People, landscapes, and objects are rendered so convincingly that viewers (and gamers) often believe they’re witnessing events and actions firsthand. They've crossed a line, from representational and symbolic to a believable virtual reality. From a dance perspective, I’m less curious about how video games are similar to real life, more interested in how they’re different. How does a real human being versus a digital one move? What’s the difference and what does that say about the limitations and possibilities of digital technology?"

LINK: Video Game Suite

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti

Game Art: lamegame's "STREETfight" (2012-ongoing)

lamegame, STREETfight performance in Hamburg, 2013

Irresistible street performance by Kathleen Rappolt and Nils Deventer, directed by Stefanie Rejzek and Gwendolin Lamping aka lamegame, whose goal, motto and mantra is to invent "low tech/no tech streetgames and performances" (my kind of games). Rejzek and Lamping met at the University of Arts of Berlin, where they were getting their degree in Theater Pedagogy. Lamegame was launched in 2011. Their first performance, "Celebrity Stalking", debuted at the You Are Go! Festival in Berlin. Their second game, STREETfight, went public for the first time in 2012 at the Playpublik Festival in Berlin. Since then, STREETfight, has been invited to various theater and urban streetgame festivals including 100° Berlin, Let's Play Poznan in Poland and Kaltstart Festival Hamburg. This makes Oculus Rift look even lamer than it already is.

So what is STREETfight,about? Here's the official description

You don’t find avatars in computer games anymore, you find them on the streets around your corner. So get your team together, chose the character of your avatar and start entering the real world. But be aware… you’re not alone. There are techniques to be learned and fights to be fought. (lamegame)

LINK: lamegame

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti (Images and video courtesy of the artists)

Game Art: Fabien Prioville's "Jailbreak Mind" (2009-2011)

"What kind of process is a person running amok going through just before he is going to kill people? What kind of effects has a computer game like “Grand Theft Auto” on these people and the way they are observing reality? For his solo Fabien Prioville, former dancer of Tanztheater Wuppertal and the company La La La Human Steps, was inspired by an article widely publicized in the press concerning a man suddenly has randomly stabbed dozens of people in Tokyo. In his choreography Fabien Prioville is searching for an abstract perspective without disregarding the emotional aspects. Which consequences do images with such a suggestive power have on a person’s mind?"

I find the two questions raised by the artist - "What kind of process is a person running amok going through just before he is going to kill people?" & "What kind of effects has a computer game like “Grand Theft Auto” on these people and the way they are observing reality?" - badly formulated, quite disconnected - a non sequitur - if not openly dishonest. And yet, that does not prevent me to find Prioville's performance truly hypnotic. 

LINK: Fabien Prioville

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti (video by Uli Sigg)

Game Art: Jake Jonghwa Kim et al.'s "Space Maestro" (2013)

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Image credit: Handmade Studios



"Space Maestro is an interactive Kinect experience that enables players to create their own musical universe through free-form movement in physical space. By spatially moving both hands like a maestro conducting an orchestra, players fuse gas clouds in space into stars. As new stars are born, collide, and die, they trigger musical stingers that compose a unique audio-visual experience"

Designed by Jake Jonghwa Kim (a game designer from Korea studying Interactive Media at USC, which played the role of Creative Lead & Kinect Engineer for this project), Julian Kantor (Audio Director/Engineer), Michael Murdock (Art Director), Alexa Bona Kim (Producer), Steven Gernes (Composer), David Bertok (Composer) and Michelle S Lee (Composer) at USC Interactive Labs, Space Maestro will be on display at USC, in Los Angeles between 5/9 to 5/16 2013 and it will also be showcased at IndieCade during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

LINK: Space Maestro

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti

Event: "A MAZE. Interact the 1st International Games/Media Art Festival" (Johannesburg, South Africa, August 28 - September 02 2012)

 

"A MAZE. Interact the 1st International Games / Media Art Festival in Johannesburg. Video by Emily Völker. Footage selection out of past A MAZE. Events. Festival takes place from August 28 to September 2, 2012 in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Music: Close to me - Sabrepulse (Henry Homesweet Remix) - Thanks to Bleepstreet Record. Main partner: Goethe-Institut Johannesburg.

A MAZE.Interact is part of the Goethe-Institut’s New Imaginaries, a series of festivals, which imagine Johannesburg’s public spaces anew though artistic means. 

LINK: A MAZE Interact

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti

Game Art: Alberto Novello a.k.a. JesterN's "Post-Modern Fragmentation" (2012)

 

In Alberto Novello a.k.a. JesterN's "Post-Modern Fragmentation", the performer a butoh dancer, controls sound and visuals using his brainwaves. The first clip is from a live performance at the Royal Conservatory, Den Haag on 2/2/2012. "Alberto Novello a.k.a. JesterN is a scientist, composer, sound and video artist born in Udine, Italy. He studied piano and double bass at the Conservatory of Udine, and played electric bass with several Italian bands."

LINK: Alberto Novello a.k.a. JesterN

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti  

Game Art: Jennie Robertson and Dan Veint's "Super Kakkoi Fighting Kitten Friends" (2011)

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Jennie and Dan Veint's "Super Kakkoi Fighting Kitten Friends", 2011 (Photos courtesy of aerygrrrl) 

 

 

(video from moirabot)

""OK - get ready - (we know we are late) - but this is one of those cases where exceptions should be made - after all, the dream that inspired this masterpiece happenned after the cut off date. You can't schedule inspiration, sorry. But what we would like to do is make a giant GAMEBOY console out of cardboard. Now this GAMEBOY is going to be pretty big. It has to be - because we are going to be performing on a stage inside it - we are going to be portraying characters in our very own version of a NINTENDO GAMEBOY game!!! SUPER KAKKOI!!!! We want to don neon flourescent costumes - which glow under black light - and fight monsters, which will be projected on to our giant GAMEBOY screen - being animated in Argentina by MAXX VOLT productions. Thank you. This will be accompanied by adrenalin inducing GAMEBOY-esque music as we seemingly run through exciting terrain and fight monsters using special power ups as we collect coins and help each other through obstacles. We will have our audience holding their breath as we face extreme perils and reach new heights - we are SUPER KAKKOI FIGHTING KITTEN FRIENDS!!!!"

Jennie and Dan's performance was part of Art in the Dark, a community art event, held at night in Ponsonby’s very own Western Park on November 11 and 12. In case you did not know, Ponsonby is located in New Zealand. 

Link: Art in the Dark (New Zealand)

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti

Art Game: Pippin Barr's "Zorba" (2011)

After "The Artist Is Present" - a videogame about the recent Marina Abramovic's performance at the Museum of Modern Art in New York - Pippin Barr has created a new interactive experience that brings Zorba to a whole new level. In the game, the player can emulate Anthony Quinn in the eponymous film. On his blog, Barr explained the genesis of the game:

"In terms of its “creation myth”, the game came up because Rilla and I were in Venice for the Venice Biennale, cultured souls that we are. We were walking through the Piazza San Marco and, as there usually are, there were bands playing in a couple of the (crazy expensive) restaurants. A huge number of tourists were grouped around one particular band, which started to play the song from Zorba the Greek as we passed. Naturally, no one can resist listening to that song once it gets going, because it’s pretty addictive stuff." (Pippin Barr)

In terms of gameplay, the game features two core elements: "The mechanical part [is] about fairness and the notion of computer skill, and the aesthetic part [is] about a kind of reappropriation and negation of the aesthetics of the movie" (Pippin Barr).

Here's the orginal dance scene from Zorba the Greek (1964):

 

Link: Pippin Barr's Zorba

related: Pippin Barr's "The Artist is Persent" (2011)

Submitted by Mathias Jansson

Game Art: Tzeni Argyriou's "See You in Walhalla" (2011)

 

"Fwd: See You in Walhalla utilizes new technologies to talk about today’s human being living in a highly saturated technological environment. However the use of technology is not in itself the goal but the medium to express Walhalla voyage; A complex web of fantastical events, experienced from pre-recorded film, two interconnected performers, interactively controlled sound and video controlled by movements of the performer on stage, web and surveillance cams capture unpredictable site-specific performance of the performer in the city – all these components form the 3D game environment. A multi-media dance/theatre project that presents an unusual journey of a fictional video game “avatar” through a haunted urban landscape composed of digital fragments from the spectacle of Europe." (Tzeni Argyriou)

Link: Tzeni Argyriou

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti 

Game Art: The Impersonal Stereo's "Figure 2." (2011)

 

"‘Figure 2.’ is a multimedia post-modern dance piece presented in anaglyph 3D. It combines projected 3D visuals with live performers, attempting to create a unified physical space for both. It was performed at at the Nuffield Theatre at Lancaster University in May 2011. The piece uses motion-capture footage from a Microsoft Kinect sensor to create virtual figures which, from the audiences perspective, appear to occupy the same space as the physical performers. This effect was created by projecting onto a semi-translucent screen which allowed both the projected anaglyph images and the performers behind to be visible. By controlling the lighting in the performance area, performers could appear and disappear whilst their 'figures' in the projected image replaced them. The choreography and dance was devised and performed by Rachel Clutterbuck, Anthony Hope, Emma Smith, Libby Wade and Katherine Tate." (The Impersonal Stereo)

Link: The Impersonal Stereo

Submitted by Matteo Bittanti