GAMESCENES

MOD: 2GIRLS1COMP'S F*** THE POLICY (2023)

The rumors are true. The elusive collective 2girls1comp strikes back with a new mod for Grand Theft Auto V that makes the police read the player's rights - that is, Rockstar Games' End User License Agreement (EULA)-  when their avatars are being actively sought by the cops. We can't think of a more punitive measure.

Download the mod here and start informing your best friends about this very important policy because they might be infringing it without even knowing it (imagine that!).

Live life at its fullest potential: embrace modding. 

Last but not least, if you enjoy this kind of tactical subversion via popular culture, we strongly recommend Robert Sikoryak's masterful graphic novel Terms and Conditions.

previously, by 2girls1comp: Every Thing, Towards and Philosophy of the Photo Daddy and The GTA V Piano of the Dead. 

LINK: F*** The policy

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: PHOTOGRAPHY IN VIRTUAL CULTURE (DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 18 2023)

Following the first successful Virtual Photography Symposium held at the University of Westminster, London in 2022, the University of Westminster are delighted to announce the call for contributions to a new International Conference Photography in Virtual Culture in May 2024. The conference is organised in collaboration with The Photographers’ Gallery who will co-host the event. The aim is to develop a communal space for discussion, forming critiques, thinking and making what can be called ‘virtual photography’.

The last decade has seen a clear shift in the operational frameworks for the production, dissemination and consumption of photographs in contemporary computerised societies. The representational function of the medium is progressively converted to algorithmic and generative processes through computerized connectivity and control. Recent developments of AI systems and expanded reality technologies have exponentially changed the possibilities for image making and the ways in which photographic images might be created and used within, and beyond, virtual space. While this might be exciting times for creators, thinkers and developers, it is also a pivotal moment in the history of the photographic medium, with debates about its materiality, social function and essence taking place.

We invite proposals presenting the following subjects:
• AI, Generative and Synthetic Images
• Digital Communities and Critical practices
• Datasets and Ethics
• Computation and Virtual Space
• Theories of Virtuality
• Digital Labour and Environments
• Sexuality and Vision
• Games and Narratives
• Photography Education
• Virtual Image Systems

We invite conference papers in the form of 20-minute presentations, talks, collaborations, critical essays and visual arguments, addressing any of the above or related topics. We also invite proposals for participatory workshops and demonstrations.

Please send a 200-word proposal, alongside a 50-word biography of each participant, by no later than 18th September 2023 to: [email protected]

If you are proposing a practice or artist talk, please include relevant examples of your work and a link to the project when possible. Selected proposals will be announced in October. All presented papers will be considered for publication in an edited volume.

Unfortunately, we are unlikely to be able fund any travel, visa or accommodation expenses. Registration fees, lunch and refreshments will be covered for participant speakers by the organisers. We plan to hold the event at both the University of Westminster (Regent St Campus) and The Photographers’ Gallery in London. A fee is available to speakers/performers/workshop leaders who aren’t in institutionally-affiliated or in full-time employment.

Should you have any questions, please contact:
[email protected]

Download the call as a .pdf

Conference Convenors
Dr. Paula Gortázar, Lecturer in Photography, University of Westminster Prof. David Bate, Professor of Photography, University of Westminster
In partnership with Digital Programme at The Photographers’ Gallery

LINK: Unthinking Photography

EVENT: LEVEL UP: PIXELS, PLAY & PROGRESS (JUNE 6 - SEPTEMBER 24 2023, ATLANTA, GEORGIA)

Level Up: Pixels, Play, and Progress delves into how game designers view their creations as avenues for fostering empathy, forging human connections, promoting healing, and driving activism. (Image courtesy: Liv Donaldson)

Level Up: Pixels, Play & Progress

June 6-September 24, 2023

Museum of Design Atlanta

1315 Peachtree Street Northeast
Atlanta, GA, 30309
United States

A new exhibition featuring a variety of indie games including Assemble with Care, Gone Home, Season: A letter to the future, Bury Me, My Love, Atuel, Eliza, Before Your Eyes, Endling. Extinction is Forever, Inua: A story in pixel and ice, The Artful Escape, Oxen Free, Thomas Was Alone, I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, Dots Home

press release

We think, remember, and convey our experiences through storytelling. The narratives we weave possess immense power—they inspire change, challenge norms, and shape our collective consciousness.

From oral storytelling to the written word, theater to film, and television to virtual reality, our capacity to tell and share stories has evolved hand-in-hand with technology. Video games mark a significant shift in this intertwined history. Game designers create realities that empower players to shape stories as they explore fantastical realms, experience different viewpoints, and embark on extraordinary adventures. 

The immersive nature of video games blurs the lines between the physical and digital. Contemporary games tap into human emotions and fill needs. They bring people together by transcending boundaries, building communities, and creating opportunities for collaboration across diverse backgrounds.

The stories told in video games — and how players interact with those stories — provide a lens into how humans navigate and understand the world. With this exhibition, we invite you to explore the potential of game design to make the world more empathetic, inclusive, and interconnected. 

Related events: Guided Tour of Level Up: Futuristic Fiction (August 20 2023) and Guided Tour of Level Up: Nature's Narratives (September 9 2023), both in person.

LINK: Level Up: Pixels, Play & Progress

EVENT: NSFW (AUGUST 4 2023, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, USA)

NSFW

Friday August 4th, 2023
7-11 PM
During the Unblurred gallery crawl

205 North Evaline St
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

press release

An evening of X-rated games dealing with sex work, pornography, internet censorship, gay hookup culture and much more.
All the projects in the exhibition, while not pornographic, challenge the notion of games as children’s entertainment, and push at the boundaries of what is thematically accepted in a playable form. Viewer discretion is advised.

Works by: Robert Yang /// Fellatia G /// Lena Chen, Goofy Toof, Maggie Oates, Avatar Lilith /// Pierre Corbinais /// Seemingly Pointless /// Heather Kelley

LINK: LIKELIKE

EVENT: PETRA SZEMÁN OPENINGS !!! (29 JULY – 12 AUGUST 2023, LEICESTER, ENGLAND)

Petra Szemán
Openings !!!
29 July – 12 August 2023
Opening Night, Friday 28th July
Two Queens
2 Queen Street
Leicester
LE1 1QW

press release

Inhabiting the interstitial zones of anime credit sequences, video game loading screens and regional train journeys, Openings !!! (2022) intensifies the gaps between the layers of animated imagery in an attempt to grasp the kinds of experience that may lie beyond human perceptual boundaries. The video follows the protagonist ‘Yourself’ as they ride local trains through intermedial landscapes. From this uniquely conceived and drafted kinetic viewpoint, fragments of different worlds segue into view, signalling perceptual ruptures that seemingly force subjectivity outside of itself, into strange new relationships of interdependency and intoxication with the moving image. Part of the artist’s ongoing exploration of the radical potential of animation and fandom, Openings !!! rejects its own filmic boundaries, surrendering instead to the free play of a multi-planar and ultimately elusive meta-worldview.

Petra Szemán is a moving image artist working with animation and game-like landscapes. Their practice focuses on the murky borderlands along the arbitrary line separating real and fictional, and the kind of lives and experiences that are possible there. Using a virtual version of themself as a protagonist journeying through animatic realms, they explore liminal spaces and threshold situations, looking to dissect the ways our memories and selves are constructed within a landscape oversaturated with fiction (both on- and off-screen). Turning away from thinking of the cyberspace as a radically ’other’ realm, Petra hopes to walk the line situated between dystopian and utopian frameworks, eyes set on new queer horizons.

The exhibition will be supported by an Artist Talk and Artist Development Workshop.

Details for the Artist Development Workshop on Sunday 6th August can be found here.

This project is made possible by public funding from The National Lottery through Arts Council England.

LINK: Petra Szemán's Openings !!!

LINK: Petra Szemán

EVENT: MIKHAIL MAKSIMOV (JULY 28 - AUGUST 10 2023, ONLINE)

The New Game Is Over

video walkthrough (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 10’ 15”, Russia

Created by Mikhail Maksimov

VRAL is delighted to present an artist walkthrough based on Mikhail Maksimov’s latest project, The New Game Is Over, an interactive experience which revolves around a remarkable machine that generates emotions and desires, allowing players to take on the role of a demiurge. In this position of power, players can develop, preserve or even destroy self-sustainable systems. The New Game Is Over is a commentary on the intricate interplay between creation and destruction, growth and decay.

Mikhail Maksimov is a Moscow-based artist and filmmaker whose multimedia practice bridges architecture, technology, and moving image. After receiving degrees in Architecture and Photography, Maksimov began exhibiting experimental films and installations that investigate game aesthetics, 3D graphics, algorithms, and neural networks. His works have been featured internationally at Manifesta 10 (2014), Locarno Film Festival (2018), Hamburg KurzFilmFestival (2019), Riga Biennial (2020), Venice Architecture Biennale (2021), Art for the Future Biennale (2022), and DA Z festival in Zurich (2022), among others. Blurring the real and virtual, Maksimov’s practice contemplates emerging technologies and their role in shaping our social environments and collective imagination.

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MOD: 2GIRLS1COMP'S EVERY THING (2023)

Developed by the elusive collective 2girls1comp - a tragic pun on the infamous 2girls1cup meme - "Every Thing" is a modification for Grand Theft Auto V "that sequentially spawns every object from the game's prop database until the program ultimately crashes under the weight of every thing". Basically, it's a reverse Katamari Damacy. The antithesis of Jenga. Also: this Every Thing is not to be confused with David O'Reilly's Everything. The video above shows Every Thing in action and it's a trip.

 

 

As usual, 2girls1comp documented the process with a series of making-of videos. Here are two:

 

 

You may remember 2girls1comp's previous exploits, including the hilarious Towards a Philosophy of the Photodaddy, a mod inspired by Vilém Flusser and boomer photographers, and the equally meta Piano of the Dead, all released in 2023.

 

For the record, users of GTA5-Mods are going insane in the membrane. Here are some comments: "This must be most weird mod in the site :D", "Contemporary Art", "One must be fully drowned in LSD to make such a script." and "I want to smoke what you're smoking".

 

Try Every Thing at our own risk and do share your videos with us.

 

P.S: We're eagerly awaiting the collective's upcoming project F** THE POLICY.

 

LINK: 2girls1comp

EVENT: HUGO ARCIER (JULY 14 - 27 2023, ONLINE)

Ghost City

originally, two-channel video installation, 22’ (loop), 2016, France

hereby presented as a single channel video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 22’, 2023, France

Created by Hugo Arcier

WORLD PREMIERE

 

Ghost City, an immersive installation inspired by Lucretius’s De rerum natura, blurs the boundaries between reality and virtuality, presenting a captivating reinterpretation of Los Santos, the iconic setting of Grand Theft Auto V. With a masterful blend of architectural and graphic elements, the viewer is immersed in a hauntingly desolate landscape, devoid of human presence. As the camera explores this evocative environment, the city’s structures fade away as if consumed by an invisible force. Through the juxtaposition of architectural details, the deliberate removal of living presence, and the render-like aesthetics, Ghost City invites viewers to contemplate the interplay of memory, the digital domain and the epistemological foundations that shape our perception of the world. 

Hugo Arcier transcends the conventional boundaries of artistic practice, positioning himself as an “artist in a digital world.” Harnessing the expansive potential of 3D computer graphics, Arcier channels his creative vision into a diverse range of mediums, seamlessly weaving together videos, prints, and sculptures. While his initial foray into the artistic realm was through the realm of special effects for renowned feature filmmakers such as Roman Polanski, Alain Resnais, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, it is through this trajectory that he cultivated an unparalleled mastery of digital tools, particularly in the realm of 3D graphic imagery. Arcier’s artistic prowess has garnered global acclaim, with his works showcased in prestigious international festivals, including Elektra, Videoformes, and Némo. His creative explorations have further permeated the hallowed walls of Magda Danysz and Plateforme Paris, alongside art venues like the New Museum and the New Media Art Center of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. Notably, Arcier’s distinctive artistic voice has resonated across the global art landscape, finding a home in revered institutions like Le Cube, Okayama Art Center, and the iconic Palais de Tokyo. He lives and works in Paris.

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EVENT: BETWEEN WORLDS (JUNE 23 - SEPTEMBER 24 2023, LONDON)

Second Life (still), 2023, Courtesy of The Photographers’ Gallery

Between Worlds

June 23 - September 24 2023

The Photographers’ Gallery

16–18 Ramillies Street London W1F 7LW

United Kingdom

 

press release

What happened to your first online game, website, social platform or virtual world?

Our everyday lives have been digitised and scattered through different spaces since the internet was created. Opening on 23 June 2023 – the 20th anniversary of virtual world Second Life – Between Worlds examines the digital folklore created by online communities and worlds. The social exchanges, digital artefacts and politics that inform our current experiences of online life are all explored in the exhibition.

Many virtual worlds – like Second Life and PlayStation Home – have been created and inhabited online, bringing close-knit user communities together. Second Life is a rarity to still be active – many virtual worlds appear and disappear within a few years. The end of many of these worlds, often linked to profits, have been marked by ‘end of the world’ parties – one last community get-together before the servers are switched off.

Despite many virtual worlds ending, improved usability has led to a resurgence of interest in online communal spaces. All helped by significant increases in domestic computer capacity, changing social attitudes; as well as the rise of VR headsets, metaverses and Web3 technologies.

Between Worlds traces the development from Maze, considered the first 3D first-person game ever made, and the influence these early games had on the development of virtual communities. In Preserving Worlds, a documentary series through aging and beloved virtual worlds, Derek Murphy and Mitchell Zemil invite users, developers and preservation communities to discuss historically important spaces such as WorldsChat, Myst Online and ActiveWorlds.

Second Life (still), Courtesy of Preserving Worlds

Reflecting more recent developments, Between Worlds includes screenshots from viral ‘meeting my internet best friend’ videos where relationships formed in virtual communities spill out of virtual spaces; and the EU-funded metaverse Global Gateway, an initiative designed to engage young people in topics such as climate, connectivity, health, which highlights the increasing interests of governments in virtual worlds.

Between Worlds also includes a newly commissioned video game with Glasgow-based creative developers Benjamin Hall and Frances Lingard. In the World Imagining Game, you are invited to create new and alternative virtual worlds while exploring the power dynamics, aesthetic possibilities, and legacies at play. Imagine your own visuals, characters, modes of gameplay in your world, and think about who your world is for, how it is moderated, and how it operates economically.

Second Life (still), 2023, Courtesy of The Photographers’ Gallery

Between Worlds marks a new strand of programming and research through The Photographers’ Gallery digital programme into the structural and socio-political issues around online worlds, and precedes a new PhD collaboration with the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University.

LINK: Between Worlds

EVENT: JUAN OBANDO (JUNE 30 - JULY 13 2023, ONLINE)

Pro Revolution Soccer

Custom PC, modified game, two controllers, two custom-made gaming seats, sound system, projector, and vinyl screen structure, 2019 hereby presented as a gameplay video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 21’ 23”, Colombia, 2019

Created by Juan Obando

 

Pro Revolution Soccer is an interactive installation that deftly reimagines the popular football simulation Pro Evolution Soccer (PES). Drawing inspiration from the profound bond between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the Italian soccer club Inter Milan, this artwork ingeniously introduces the EZLN as an enthralling new feature within the simulation. Evoking the enigmatic essence of a mythical football match, the work unfurls an intriguing narrative where EZLN daringly challenges the Italian team, forever suspended in the realm of imagination. Originally presented as an interactive installation based on a modified version of Konami’s soccer simulation, the artwork is presented on VRAL as a one channel gameplay video.

Juan Obando is an artist from Bogotá, Colombia, specializing in interventions within social systems. Through video performances, post-digital objects, and screen-based installations, Obando explores the collision of ideology and aesthetics, sparking the emergence of speculative new worlds. Obando’s work has garnered international recognition, with exhibitions held in Mexico, France, Colombia, Germany, and the United States. Notable solo shows include “Fake New” at General Expenses (Mexico City, México), “Summer Sets” in Faneuil Hall (Boston, MA, 2022),  “DEMO” at Museo Espacio (Aguascalientes, MX, 2022), and  “La Bodeguita de La Concordia” at Galería Santa Fé for the Luis Caballero National Art Prize (Bogotá, Colombia, 2021). Selected group exhibitions include First Place In The Table? (Trafo, Szczecin, Poland, 2022), Game Changers (MAAM, Boston, 2020), Video Sur (Palais de Tokyo, France, 2018), La Vuelta (Rencontres de la Photographie,  Arles, France, 2017), and MDE15 (Medellín, Colombia, 2015). Obando was also awarded a Rhizome commission from The New Museum in 2012, a MassArt Foundation grant in 2017, and an Art Matters fellowship in 2019.

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