GAMESCENES

EVENT: COLL.EO (OCTOBER 11 – 24, 2024, ONLINE)

REASONABLE TOO

digital video (3840 x 1632), color, sound, 10’ 03”, 2018 (2024), United States/Italy

created by COLL.EO

October 11 - 24 2024

vral.org

 

The second in a series of machinima by COLL.EO examining social and racial tensions in the United States produced between 2018 and 2020, Reasonable Too depicts a fatal encounter between a young man and law enforcement, set against a stark urban backdrop. Utilizing the digital environment of Grand Theft Auto V, the piece juxtaposes the overwhelming force of authority with the vulnerability of the victim, culminating in an execution. The progression of events – from the initial pursuit to the officer’s use of force – offers a pointed critique of systemic violence and power imbalances. By presenting this narrative within the context of a video game, Reasonable Too heightens the sense of helplessness and alienation often tied to real-world tragedies, underscoring the complex relationship between virtual worlds and lived experiences.

COLL.EO (est. 2012) is the dynamic duo of Colleen Flaherty and Matteo Bittanti, whose artistic practice can best be described as a tiresome exercise in recycling other people’s ideas. Known for their breathtaking lack of innovation, COLL.EO specializes in taking the work of others, throwing on a thin veneer of irony, and calling it subversion. After spending an extended period shuttling between San Francisco and Milan, they’ve managed to carve out a niche in Los Angeles, where the air is thick with their smug displays of so-called “appropriation” and “intervention.” Like an art world cover band, they rehash the past with neither flair nor purpose, but somehow they persist.

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EVENT: GAMES @ BERKELEY (OCTOBER 11 2024, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA)

press release

GAMES @ BERKELEY

Friday, October 11, 2024
9:00 AM — 5:00 PM

Banatao Auditorium (310 Sutardja Dai Hall)

Berkeley University

History and Theory of New Media special event co-sponsored by the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

with Jane McGonigal, Director of Game Research and Development, Institute for the Future; Greg Niemeyer, Data Artist and Professor of Media Innovation, UC Berkeley; Alex Leavitt, Principal Researcher, Roblox; Scotty Hoag, Interactive Software Engineer, Sphere Entertainment; Bo Ruberg, Professor, Film & Media Studies, School of Humanities, UC Irvine; Alenda Y. Chang, Associate Professor, Film & Media Studies, UC Santa Barbara; Christopher J. Goetz, Associate Professor, Cinematic Arts, University of Iowa; Rob Curl, Museum Historian and Research Manager at the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment; Phil Salvador, Library Director, Video Game History Foundation; Danny O'Dwyer, Founder, Noclip; Henry Lowood, Harold C. Hohbach Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections and Curator for Film & Media Collections, Stanford University Libraries

Video games are one of the most influential media technologies of the 21st century, and the Bay Area has long been a critical hub for game development, scholarship, and preservation. To celebrate BCNM's 20th anniversary, we're taking a look back to help us imagine what the future of game design and game studies can look like at UC Berkeley. This free day-long conference will explore the past, present, and future of video games, bringing together scholars, archivists, and industry-connected professionals to discuss their work and the unique role that UC Berkeley has played in it. We’re inviting you to the conversation - how can games and gaming be part of the next 20 years of BCNM?

Schedule

9:00-10:00 - Doors open, coffee and tea available

10:00-10:15 - Welcome from hosts

10:15-12:15 - Scholars Panel (Bo Ruberg, Alenda Y. Chang, Christopher J. Goetz)

12:15-1:30 - Lunch

1:30-3:00 - Archivists Panel (Rob Curl, Phil Salvador, Danny O'Dwyer, Henry Lowood)

3:00-3:15 - Break

3:15-4:45 - Industry Panel (Jane McGonigal, Greg Niemeyer, Alex Leavitt, Scotty Hoag)

4:45-5:00 - Wrap-up

LINK: GAMES @ BERKELEY

EVENT: MALITZIN CORTÉS (CNDSD) AND IVÁN ABREU (OCTOBER 1 - 10 2024, ONLINE)

AUTOCONSTRUCCIÓN

digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 13’ 52”, 2024, Mexico

created by Malitzin Cortés (CNDSD) and Iván Abreu

vral.org

 

Originally conceived and performed as a live-coded audiovisual concert and real-time video game animation, Autoconstrucción was collaboratively created by Malitzin Cortés (CNDSD) and Iván Abreu. The project, executed through algorithms and unfolding across four distinct chapters, was performed in Mexico City (2022), Madrid (2023), Utrecht (2023), and Shanghai (2023). The segment presented on VRAL features a generated version of episode 2, entitled Floating City - Floating Population. This episode explores the concept of a transient population inhabiting cities, with AI creating hybrid architectural facades that reflect the empty character of many peripheral cities during the day.

Malitzin Cortés (CNDSD) is a renowned musician, live coder, and creative technologist. Her multifaceted work encompasses live coding, live cinema, installation art, virtual reality, creative coding, sound design, experimental music, and sound art. In 2020, she was awarded the Latin American Prize for Virtual Reality “Realmix” for her immersive piece “Hyper_D.” Malitzin is currently a workshop instructor in live coding with functional programming using Tidal Cycles on the educational platform of CMMAS. She has showcased her work at prominent venues and events including the Multimedia Center, Alameda Art Laboratory, Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, Digital Cultural Center, Medialab Prado, Spain Cultural Center, CMMAS, Vorspiel, Spektrum Berlin, Transpiksel, Aural, Transmediale Berlin, ISEA, CYLAND MediaArtLab Saint Petersburg, ADAF, Ars Electronica, Currents, as well as MUTEK in Mexico, Montreal, and Japan. CNDSD’s soundscapes are crafted for experimental environments, characterized by granular landscapes, algorithmic vocal experiments, hypnotic noise improvisations, live coding, and asymmetric patterns, pushing the boundaries of musical and sonic exploration. Cortés lives and works in Mexico City.

Iván Abreu is an esteemed audiovisual artist and creative technologist based in Mexico City. His interdisciplinary practice spans a diverse array of media, including digital graphics, photography, electronic devices, software development, music and sound experimentation, expanded film and video, and industrial design. Abreu's innovative work has garnered numerous accolades and support from prestigious institutions. These include the Prix Ars Electronica (2012, Linz, Austria), the CINTAS Foundation Award in Visual Arts (2011-12, New York/Miami), and the ZKM Production and Research Residence – Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany (2021). He has also been supported by the National Fund for Culture and the Arts, through the National System of Art Creators (2012-2014, 2017-2019, and 2022-2025, Mexico). Abreu's audiovisual creations have been showcased at prominent international festivals dedicated to sound art, experimental music, and media art. His work has been featured at the International Conference of Live Coding in Madrid, Aural, Transmediale Berlin, MUTEK in Mexico and Montreal, the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), and the Asia Culture Center in Korea.

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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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EVENT: GIATH TAHA (AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 12 2024, ONLINE)

BECOMING A GHOST

digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 21’ 09”, 2022, Syria

created by Giath Taha

vral.org

Originally a four-channel video installation and presented on VRAL as a single-channel video, Becoming a Ghost documents Syrian-born artist Giath Taha’s emotional reunion with his brother in the online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). Separated for ten years due to the Syrian conflict, Taha and his brother reconnect in this digital warzone, which mirrors the real-life violence that forced Taha to flee Syria. Although the game involves players competing to be the last one standing, it paradoxically becomes a safe space for the brothers to discuss topics censored elsewhere. The work explores themes of presence and absence, reality and simulation, and how virtual spaces can offer temporary escape from harsh realities. Through their mediated interaction in PUBG, Taha and his brother create counter-narratives and find moments of connection despite their physical separation. Becoming a Ghost explores themes of presence and absence, reality and simulation, and the interplay between virtual and real-life experiences.

Giath Taha was born in Syria in 1982 and studied Photography and Applied Arts at the Walled Izzat Institute in Damascus and Literature at the University of Damascus, Syria. He subsequently graduated from the MA Artistic Research at the Royal Academy of Arts (KABK) in The Hague in 2021. He received both the MA Artistic Research Department Award 2021 as well as the Royal Academy Master Award 2021 for his graduation work Becoming a Ghost (2021). Taha lives and works in Amsterdam.

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EVENT: GROUP HUG (SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 20 2024, NEW YORK)

Concept art for Feral Metaverse by Connor Willumsen, courtesy of ONX Studio

Group Hug

curated by Julia Kaganskiy in partnership with Serpentine Arts Technologies and Rhizome

161 Water St, Floor 4 - Entrance on Water & John Street, New York

September 26 to October 20, 2024

Opening and Public Hours: To be announced

 

Group Hug is an ambitious exhibition that aims to redefine the boundaries of video game installations. Held in collaboration with Water Street Projects and curated by Julia Kaganskiy in partnership with Serpentine Arts Technologies and Rhizome, this exhibition transforms the London gallery space into a dynamic playground where visitors are invited to explore and engage with large-scale, site-specific works.

Group Hug challenges the conventions of individualistic gameplay by promoting radical collaboration. Through a selection of pioneering works by leading artists in the field, the exhibition foregrounds cooperative experiences where communication, shared discovery, and mutual reliance are essential for navigating unfamiliar worlds. Visitors will find themselves immersed in multi-sensory environments that blur the lines between player and participant, artist and audience.

The exhibition is a testament to our evolving curatorial model, which emphasizes collective curation and diverse perspectives. Alongside the installations, Group Hug will feature a series of public programs, set to be announced in early September, that further explore the themes of collaboration and community.

Featured artists: Theo Triantafyllidis, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, and Tale of Tales

Artworks

Still from Feral Metaverse courtesy of Theo Triantafyllidis and ONX Studio

Theo Triantafyllidis – Feral Metaverse Triantafyllidis’s Feral Metaverse drops players into a chaotic landscape where survival depends on disinhibition and cooperation. Breaking away from traditional gaming logic, the work invites participants to navigate a world that prioritizes collective action over competition. The installation, anchored by a custom-built medieval catapult, embodies the artist’s vision of a “feralized” society where synchronicity and shared experience take precedence. Feral Metaverse is curated for Group Hug by Julia Kaganskiy.

Theo Triantafyllidis (b. 1988, Athens) is an artist who blends digital and physical media to explore space and embodiment in hybrid realities. His work, characterized by awkward interactions and precarious physics, invites viewers into uncanny and poetic environments. Using monster theory, Triantafyllidis delves into themes of isolation, sexuality, and violence, often incorporating computational humor and AI improvisation. He holds an MFA from UCLA and a Diploma of Architecture from the National Technical University of Athens. His work has been exhibited in institutions such as the House of Electronic Arts, Hammer Museum, and NRW Forum, and he has participated in events like the Athens Biennale, Sundance New Frontier, and the Venice Biennale.

Still from THE LACK: I KNEW YOUR VOICE BEFORE YOU SPOKE courtesy of Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and ONX Studio

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley – THE LACK: I KNEW YOUR VOICE BEFORE YOU SPOKE Brathwaite-Shirley’s THE LACK is a deeply personal exploration of Black Trans identity through the lens of a choose-your-own-adventure game. The installation incorporates performance elements, with bespoke dance mats serving as controllers and soundscapes generated by player interaction. In this space, the audience becomes a crucial part of the work, blurring the line between creator and participant. Curated by Serpentine Arts Technologies, THE LACK transforms the gallery into a site of active engagement.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (b. 1995, London) is a Berlin/London-based artist working in animation, sound, performance, and video game development. Their practice creatively retells the stories of Black Trans people by blending lived experience with fiction. Brathwaite-Shirley's work has been featured in solo exhibitions and performances at venues including Fundació Joan Miró, LAS, Studio Voltaire, and SCAD, and in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Julia Stoschek Foundation and Barbican. They received a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2019.

Still from The Endless Forest courtesy of Tale of Tales and ONX Studio

Tale of Tales – The Endless Forest In The Endless Forest, players inhabit the tranquil world of a multiplayer online game where they explore a vast forest as deer. Devoid of traditional goals or objectives, the game encourages peaceful interaction and exploration. This dreamlike environment, sustained by a dedicated community for nearly two decades, is curated for Group Hug by Rhizome.

Auriea studied sculpture at Parsons in New York, and Michael graphic design at Sint-Lucas in Ghent. They began their digital art careers with entropy8.com and zuper.com, meeting in 1999 through the hell.com artists collective. As the duo Entropy8Zuper!, they created notable net.art projects like Skinonskinonskin and The Godlove Museum, earning the SFMOMA Prize for Excellence in Online Art in 2000. Transitioning to video games as Tale of Tales, they released influential titles such as The Endless Forest, The Graveyard, and The Path. Their game Luxuria Superbia won the IGF Nuovo Prize in 2014, and they received Indiecade's Trailblazer award in 2018. Since 2015, Michael has focused on virtual reality and Auriea on digital sculpture. They relocated from Ghent to Rome in 2019 and married in 2024.

Exhibition Partners

Water Street Projects An interdisciplinary platform dedicated to amplifying creative voices across performance, visual arts, and more, Water Street Projects operates with a fluid and expansive approach that invokes the spirit of Cedric Price’s unrealized Fun Palace—a laboratory of fun and a university of the streets.

Julia Kaganskiy As a curator and cultural strategist, Julia Kaganskiy has been at the forefront of art, science, and technology since 2009. Her work explores the intersection of these fields through exhibitions and commissions that challenge and expand our understanding of contemporary art.

Serpentine Arts Technologies A leading force in exploring the impact of technology through art, Serpentine’s Arts Technologies program fosters innovation and supports projects that navigate the intersection of art, science, and technology. Through dedicated research labs and knowledge-sharing initiatives, the program nurtures new art ecologies.

Rhizome A pioneering organization in the digital art space, Rhizome has been integral to the development and preservation of digital art since its founding. With initiatives like the 7x7 art and technology program and a longstanding partnership with the New Museum, Rhizome continues to champion digital art for all.

LINK: Group Hug @ ONX Studio

LINK: Theo Triantafyllidis

LINK: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

LINK: Tale of Tales

EVENT: MACHINE LOVE: VIDEO GAME, AI AND CONTEMPORARY ART (FEBRUARY 13 - JUNE 8 2025, TOKYO)

Sato Ryotaro, Dummy Life #11, 2022, Inkjet print, 12.4 ｘ 14.8 cm

MACHINE LOVE: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art

February 13 - June 8 2025

Mori Art Museum

6-10-1, 六本木ヒルズ 森タワー 52F, 六本木, JP 106-6150

Curated by Kataoka Mami, Martin Germann, Yahagi Manabu

press release

With the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and the integration of the virtual and real worlds, the latest cutting-edge technologies have quickly penetrated our daily lives. This tendency has become especially apparent since the COVID-19 pandemic, when many human activities shifted towards virtual space. Looking back, the progress of art and technology has run parallel to each other throughout the course of history, which is especially evident in the field of computer art and video art. While recent innovations in video game engines and AI offer unprecedented possibilities for artists, the advent of generative AI also has raised significant concerns. Such developments are now attracting considerable attention in various fields and industries, including the contemporary art world.

MACHINE LOVE introduces contemporary artworks that employ game engines, VR and AR, and other innovative technologies that have the capacity to extend human creative power, such as algorithms and generative AI. These works explore new aesthetics and image-making through the use of various data-sets that exist in the digital space, while demonstrating novel approaches to art making made possible by interactive networks of countless individuals. Other works examine how online avatars and characters can nurture new types of gender and racial identities that lie beyond the reach of social norms. By adopting these methods, artists delve into the most pressing challenges facing contemporary society, including the environmental crisis, historical interpretation, humanity, ethics, and diversity.

By exhibiting artworks jointly created by “machines” and artists, and offering immersive spatial experiences through large-scale installations, this exhibition provides a platform to contemplate the relationship between humankind and technology, which evokes emotions of love, empathy, elation, fear, and anxiety. Join us in a space where reality and virtual space overlap in order to envision better ways to live out an uncertain future.

Participating Artists: Kim Ayoung, Lu Yang, Sato Ryotaro, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Adrián Villar Rojas, and others

Advisors: Hatanaka Minoru (Chief Curator, NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]), Taniguchi Akihiko (Media Artist)

LINK: MACHINE LOVE: Video Game, AI and Contemporary Art

EVENT: DANIELLE BRATHWAITE-SHIRLEY’S THE SOUL STATION (JULY 11 - OCTOBER 13 2024, BERLIN)

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, THE SOUL STATION, 2024. Installation view at Halle am Berghain, Berlin. Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation. Courtesy the artist; LAS Art Foundation. Photo: Alwin Lay

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley
THE SOUL STATION
July 12–October 13, 2024

Episode I, YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING: July 12–September 8

Episode II, ARE YOU SOULLESS, TOO?: September 12–October 13

Halle am Berghain
Am Wriezener bhf
Am Wriezener Bahnhof
10243 Berlin
Germany

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s new game-based installation, THE SOUL STATION, has opened in Berlin and will remain open until October, offering visitors an immersive experience in a fictional universe. Through interactive choices, visitors confront biases and exclusions, gaining insights into an archive of voices from the past and present.

Presented by LAS Art Foundation, this is Brathwaite-Shirley’s first solo exhibition in Germany, unfolding in two episodes: YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING (July 12–September 8) and ARE YOU SOULLESS, TOO? (September 12–October 13, 2024). The installation debuted on July 11 at Halle am Berghain, attracting over 1,000 visitors within three hours.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, THE SOUL STATION, 2024. Installation view at Halle am Berghain, Berlin. Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation. Courtesy the artist; LAS Art Foundation. Photo: Alwin Lay

THE SOUL STATION includes a newly commissioned, two-part work and a retrospective of the artist’s video games from the past five years. The new game, played collaboratively in an arena-like setting, guides visitors through the exhibition, challenging them to reflect on their experiences and biases.

In YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING, the first episode, a parallel society’s cataclysmic event leads to a revolution against globalized slavery. The second episode, ARE YOU SOULLESS, TOO?, introduces new characters migrating between universes and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the people and conversations that shaped the first episode.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, THE SOUL STATION, 2024. Installation view at Halle am Berghain, Berlin. Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation. Courtesy the artist; LAS Art Foundation. Photo: Alwin Lay

Visitors receive a SOUL CODE to track their progress and choices throughout the games. SOUL STATIONS, similar to video game checkpoints, are available throughout the exhibition and online, facilitating a personal and introspective journey. Visitors answer questions and decipher symbols, as suggested by the artist, to cleanse their souls.

THE SOUL STATION showcases a comprehensive survey of Brathwaite-Shirley’s work, featuring key pieces from the past five years. The selection varies with each episode, highlighting the artist’s blend of lived experience and speculative fiction to reveal overlooked histories. Notable works include INTO THE STORM (2021), NO SPACE FOR REDEMPTION (2024), and I CAN’T FOLLOW YOU ANYMORE (2023).

Co-curated by Boris Magrini, Senior Curator at LAS Art Foundation, and Guest Curator Mawena Yehouessi, with Assistant Curator Agnessa Schmudke, THE SOUL STATION is accompanied by a public program of workshops and performances at Halle am Berghain.

LINK: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

LINK: THE SOUL STATION

EVENT: ALICE BUCKNELL (AUGUST 2 - 15 2024, ONLINE)

The Alluvials

digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 38’ 05”, 2023, United States of America

Created by Alice Bucknell

 

The Alluvials is a seven-chapter video work — and video game — that delves into the politics of drought and water scarcity in a near-future Los Angeles. The narrative unfolds through diverse more-than-human perspectives, including the Los Angeles River, wildfire, a 400-year-old sycamore named El Aliso, and the ghost of the city’s famed mountain lion, P-22. Combining history, futurism, and speculative fiction, The Alluvials examines the complex interplay between engineered ecology, disaster capitalism, and nonhuman systems shaping Los Angeles. The story is presented across various media, featuring custom-built game environments, modified versions of the fictional city Los Santos from Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V, 3D scans of LA captured by drone, AI-generated “hallucinations” merging historical images of the River with future development proposals, and visualizations of GIS and pollution data of the LA River. The project acknowledges Indigenous unique relationships to water, particularly those of the Tongva People of the Greater Los Angeles Basin, emphasizing that nature is an intelligent system and a technology in its own right.

Alice Bucknell is a North American artist and writer based in Los Angeles. Working with game engines and speculative fiction strategies, their work explores interconnections of architecture, ecology, magic, and nonhuman and machine intelligence.In 2021, they founded New Mystics, a digital platform merging magic and technology. In 2022, they organized New Worlds, an experimental event series expanding on emergent worlding practices, held at Somerset House Studios in London. They have presented their work internationally, with recent exhibitions at Ars Electronica with transmediale, Arcade Seoul, the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale, Honor Fraser Gallery in Los Angeles, Gray Area in San Francisco, Basement Roma in Rome, Singapore Art Museum, The Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth, Texas, Fiber Festival in the Netherlands, and Serpentine in London. Their writing appears often in publications including ArtReview, Flash Art, Frieze, e-flux Architecture, and the Harvard Design Magazine. They are currently faculty at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles and an Associate Lecturer in MA Narrative Environments at University of the Arts London. In 2023, they are a Supercollider SciArt Ambassador in Los Angeles, a resident of Somerset House Studios in London, and a resident at transmediale in Berlin. Bucknell studied Anthropology at the University of Chicago and Critical Practice at the Royal College of Art in London.

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EVENT: NINA DAVIES’S GLITCH GUISERS (AUGUST 23 2024, LONDON)

Nina Davies: Glitch Guisers

04:00pm - 07:30pm, Fri 23 Aug 2024

The Photographers' Gallery

16-18 Ramillies St, London W1F 7LW, United Kingdom

 

London's The Photographers Gallery is hosting a free outdoor performance by Nina Davies, titled Glitch Guisers, in the streets of Soho Photography Quarter. This event builds on the fictional narrative from Davies’ film, Never Let Them Know Your Next Move, which will be screened on the Gallery's third floor throughout the evening.

Glitch Guisers features five dancers engaging in 'glitch guising' as they move through the streets to a central point where they will freeze, evoking the 2016 viral Mannequin Challenge. This performance reflects the film’s themes, where protagonists discuss the automation of labor. Workers at a distribution center reclaim agency by performing glitch-like movements, confusing the system and allowing themselves a break. Click here to learn more about Davis' practice.

Coinciding with the performance is a presentation of Nina Davies’ For An Imaginary Page. Glitch Guisers will take place on the hour from 4pm to 7pm in Soho Photography Quarter. Attendees are encouraged to film the performances and share the content online to celebrate the artist's work.

Additionally, Never Let Them Know Your Next Move will be screened on a continuous loop on the Gallery's third floor. The film is 10 minutes long. All exhibitions in the Gallery are free to enter until 8pm as part of the Friday Lates program.

Nina Davies (b. 1991) is a Canadian-British artist who considers the present moment through observing dance in popular culture. She questions how it is disseminated, circulated, made, and consumed.

LINK: Nina Davies

LINK: Glitch Guisers