GAMESCENES

EVENT: HOW TO WIN AT PHOTOGRAPHY – IMAGE-MAKING AS PLAY (JUNE 5 - OCTOBER 10 2021, WINTERTHUR, SWITZERLAND)

 

How to Win at Photography - Image-Making as Play

June 5 - October 10 2021

Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

Curated by Marco de Mutiis and Matteo Bittanti 

official site

How to Win at Photography – Image-Making as Play explores the relationship between photography and play. It investigates the notion of image play, creating unexpected connections between the history of photography, the gamification of the visible as well as practices of image making with and within computer games.

The group exhibition How to Win at Photography includes more than forty positions from contemporary and 20th century photography. Through an assemblage of multimedia artworks and vernacular images, the exhibition questions the very meaning and function of photography today.

 

Are we playing with the camera or is the camera ultimately playing us? Are we really in charge or are we mere pawns in larger technical, social, cultural and economic networks? What can a playful photographer achieve on a political and sociocultural level? Who and what is performing the act of seeing and capturing – humans, machines or a combination of both? Who is playing along? And finally, can this game be won? These are just some of the questions posed by How to Win at Photography. The exhibition invites visitors to focus on the playful aspects of photography. It looks at artists and photographers who play with – and sometimes against – the camera, document the environments of video games and question the notion of identity, gender and class.

With works by: Cory Arcangel, Aram Bartholl, Dorothée Elisa Baumann, Justin Berry, Julius Brauckmann, Alan Butler, Claude Cahun, Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, Dries Depoorter & Max Pinckers, Philipp Dorl, Constant Dullaart, Harun Farocki, Christopher Graves, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Beate Gütschow, Jon Haddock, Emily Hadrich, Florence Henri, Roc Herms, John Hilliard, Yuyi John, Rindon Johnson, Andy Kassier, Sherrie Levine, Gloria López Cleries & Sive Hamilton Helle, René Mächler, Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs, Joan Pamboukes, Steven Pippin, Michael Reisch, Tabor Robak, Ria Patricia Röder, Lorna Ruth Galloway, Ed Ruscha, Emma Agnes Sheffer, Cindy Sherman, Guido Segni, Andrew Stine, Petra Szemán, Akihiko Taniguchi, Danielle Udogaranya, Coralie Vogelaar, Tamás Waliczky and Ai Weiwei.

In collaboration with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University.

There will be several events planned between now and October, some in situ, some online, so stay tuned for more.

LINK: How to Win at Photography

EVENT: PLAYMODE (SEPTEMBER 11 2019 - FEBRUARY 17 2020, LISBON, PORTUGAL)

PLAYMODE

 

11 September 2019 - 17 February 2020

Curated by Filipe Pais and Patrícia Gouveia

MAAT

Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology

Av. Brasília, Central Tejo

1300-598 Lisboa

Open from 11 AM to 7 PM

Closed on Tuesdays

The artists understood early on the transformative power of play, and began integrating it into their works for various purposes – escaping reality, social construction and transformation, subversion or as a criticism of game and play mechanisms themselves. The exhibition Playmode offers a reflection on these aspects and on the era of ludification that contemporary societies are now experiencing, bringing together pieces by several artists, such as Brad Downey, Gabriel Orozco and Ana Vieira, who incorporate the theme while exploring new ways of seeing, participating and transforming the world, using gaming in a critical light.

Participating artists:

The Pixel Hunt, Pippin Barr, Aram Bartholl, /////////fur//// art entertainment interface, Gabriel Orozco, Priscila Fernandes, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Mary Flanagan, Harun Farocki, Molleindustria, Bill Viola and USC Game Innovation Lab, Samuel Bianchini, Eva and Franco Mattes, Lucas Pope, Joseph DeLappe, Brent Watanabe, Filipe Vilas-Boas, Shimabuku, Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn, Tale of Tales, David Shrigley, André Gonçalves, Isamu Noguchi, Ana Vieira, Miltos Manetas, David OReilly, Brad Downey, Dunne & Raby with Michael Anastassiades, Os Espacialistas, CADA.

LINK: PLAYMODE

GAME ART: HANNAH PIPER BURNS'S INTERIOR STROLL (2016)

Interior Stroll is a mixed-media interactive installation created with Unity "designed to collapse physical space and memory space, body and consciousness. More walking meditation than walking sim, it is set in a symbolic cavespace shaped by the psychic runoff from years of malignant intimacy". The artist has created an innovative interface ​featuring a silicon toy + silicon putty that reminds me of Cronenberg's gamepod in eXistenz.

 

A second controller manages the player's gaze. It's an appropriated trackball, cyberskin toy, and a chalcopyrite clitorissphere:

Hannah Piper Burns is a multidisciplinary time-based artist based in Portland, Oregon, She has spent the better part of a decade actively and collaboratively organizing art events, curating exhibitions and programming experimental media. In 2015 she co-founded Compliance Division, a project space operating out of her home in Portland, OR. Recently, she has exhibited work at Tritriangle in Chicago, IL, Reed College in Portland, OR, Indie Bits in Columbia, SC and online at ACRETV.org.

LINK: Hannah Piper Burns (photos: Courtesy of Hannah Piper Burns)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: VECTOR FESTIVAL 2019 (DEADLINE FEB 01, 2019)

Vector Festival 2019's Open Call for Submissions is now up!

Deadline: February 01, 2019

An event organized by

950 Dupont St., Unit 1.
Toronto ON M6H 1Z2
Canada

LINK: Vector Festival 2019

Game Art: Roger Ibars' Device Art (2001-2011)

An Interaction Designer working in Product Innovation, Roger Ibars specializes in Natural User Interfaces, from the social and technical explorations to defining the syntactics and semantics on early prototyping.  With the aim to explore game controllers and gesture interaction, in 2002 he began building "hard-wired devices" to create debate about the influence of gaming culture on the design of user interfaces. The result is a collection of vintage electronic devices -alarm clocks and game controllers- in which two cultures of interface blend between the computer gaming culture and the home appliance culture, which has been exhibited several times around the world. Currently Roger lives in Seattle and works as a Senior Interaction Designer at Microsoft Design Group. 

LINK: Roger Ibars