GAMESCENES

CALL FOR ARTWORKS: FILE SP 2025 (DEADLINE: JANUARY 15 2025)

FILE 2025 – Open Call – Art and Technology

FILE is now accepting applications for the 2025 edition, inviting artists, creators, developers and researchers to submit their projects. This is a unique opportunity to exhibit your work in São Paulo, from July 15 to September 7, 2025, at the renowned FIESP Cultural Center.

We seek innovative and creative projects that integrate art and technology, both national and international, covering diverse areas such as installations, robotics, CGI, virtual and augmented realities, animations, mobile art, games, kinetic art, public art and much more. We value proposals that explore interaction with the public and the use of Artificial Intelligence, in various formats of artistic expression.

As a non-profit cultural organization, FILE promotes experimentation and development in the field of Art and Technology, providing a platform for artists to connect with new audiences. In this 24th edition, the festival continues its commitment to exploring the boundaries between technology and art.

You can also take advantage of the chance to participate in the FILE LED SHOW, exhibited annually at the FIESP Digital Art Gallery, or to lead a session at the FILE WORKSHOP. Sign up using the form and check the guidelines in the regulations.

Project submission: until January 15, 2025

FILE SP 2025: from July 15 to September 7, 2025

Read more about the submission

FILE FESTIVAL

EVENT: LUKE CASPAR PEARSON (NOVEMBER 8 - 21 2024, ONLINE)

Reyner Banham Loves Los Santos

digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 5’ 15”, 2016, United Kingdom

created by Luke Caspar Pearson

vral.org

 

Reyner Banham Loves Los Santos reimagines Banham’s original exploration of Los Angeles through the virtual lens of Grand Theft Auto V. In this adaptation sui generis of a 1972 BBC documentary, Banham’s vision of a city defined by mobility over monumentality is amplified within the sprawling, simulated metropolis of Los Santos. Just as Banham embraced the freeways and fluidity of LA’s urban fabric, Los Santos takes this mobility to an extreme, where the ability to instantly commandeer any vehicle represents a new kind of urban experience, rooted in speed, freedom, and fluid motion. Luke Caspar Pearson’s machinima reflects Banham’s fascination with the paradoxes of the city – its chaotic structure and capacity for personal liberation. The narrative juxtaposes Banham’s celebration of LA’s automotive culture with the lawless nature of Los Santos, transforming Banham’s intellectual engagement with LA into a playful yet critical examination of the intersections between urbanism, architecture, and video game spaces.

Luke Caspar Pearson is a London-based architect, academic, and co-founder of the design research practice You+Pea, where he explores the intersection of video game technologies and architectural design. As an Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, he founded and co-directs the new Cinematic and Videogame Architecture MArch programme, emerging from his work with the innovative Videogame Urbanism studio. His research focuses on how digital tools can engage new audiences with architectural design. Luke is the co-author of Videogame Atlas: Mapping Interactive Worlds (Thames & Hudson, 2022) and his work has been widely published in journals such as eflux Architecture, Design Studies and Architectural Research Quarterly.  His design projects have been featured in exhibitions at venues like the Royal Institute of British Architects, Somerset House.

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CALL FOR PAPERS: ARTS AND GAMES (DEADLINE: DECEMBER 13 2024)

The fields of arts and games are continuously and progressively intersecting, creating hybrids and cultural frames, mutually influencing each other. This is not new; arts have been using games as subject and material for millennia from depictions of athletes in ancient Greek sculpture to Yoko Ono’s All White Chess Set (1966) and from Caravaggio’s Cardsharps (1594) to Harold Hejazi’s game performance series Adventures of Harriharri. Weiqi, or as it is named in the West, Go, was one of the four arts a scholar should master in ancient China. However, games are increasingly recognized as having artistic qualities after the cultural ascendancy of digital games.  

Games as a form of expression, and gaming as a performative practice, hold significant artistic potential. They are used for artistic self-expression, both within recognized art worlds and in alternative and emerging fan-based art practices across different forms of media. These renegade art worlds challenge traditional curatorial practices. Popular triple-A digital games have been placed within artistic discourse and practice, both when existing games are used as platforms for artistic interventions, such as Joseph DeLappe’s dead-in-iraq (2006-2011) or Brent Watanabe’s San Andreas Streaming Deer Cam (2016), but also in the aesthetic experience they create without additional modding.  

The cross-pollination between arts and games is particularly strong right now. Art history has been a constant inspiration for visual and sound design in games, establishing structures of expectation and shaping player experience through points of reference, or by directly utilizing various aesthetics such as, surrealism, renaissance paintings, and medieval illumination. Furthermore, interest in what games can offer art practices has been strengthening. Features such as structured participation, instruction-based performance, 8-bit aesthetics, virtual co-presence, exploration, and simulation have made games a significant part of contemporary media arts. From JODI’s Untitled Game series (1996-2001) to Zach Gage’s Lose/Lose (2009), Harun Farocki’s Serious Games I-IV (2011), or Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s The Lack: I Knew Your Voice before You Spoke (2023), digital games have become medium, topic, and site of artistic practice. Similarly, live action role-playing is used both as a generative engine in visual arts, like in Brody Condon’s Twentyfivefold Manifestations(2008), and as the heart of the performance as in Pihla Lehtinen’s Do Crime (2019) or Signa’s Das 13. Jahr (2023).  

Arts and Games are coming together all kinds of ways. Games are also a way for art museums to show their collections or offer alternative paths to art, with games about art, artists, and art worlds – like Reiner Knizia’s Modern Art (1992). The aesthetics and functions of digital games also allow for idea-historical perspectives. By pointing out the intersections and parallels between experience, design, and reception of digital games and historical phenomena of arts (ranging from painting and literature to theater and architecture) entirely new perspectives on existing works of art can be enabled. 

To play around with all this, the spring seminar of Game Research Lab wants to carve a space for a discussion of artistic approaches to games and ludic approaches to art. We are not looking to discuss if games fit in the arts, but how the multiple fields of games and arts intersect and tickle each other. As always, we encourage interesting interpretations of ‘games’ and ‘arts’.  

With all that in mind, the list of possible topics includes but is not limited to: 

• • (Playing) games as expressive forms 
  • Artistry of games 
  • Games in art 
  • Artistic vibes in games 
  • Art on games 
  • Games as material and/or medium in arts 
  • Curating/exhibiting/presenting game art 
  • Application of theoretical and methodological approaches from the field of art practice and theory 
  • Aesthetics and experience 
  • Curatorial practices/research in relation to games 
  • Diegetic Art in games 
  • Games as art 
  • Artistic appreciation of games 
  • Artistic praxis in games 
  • Games in the cultural heritage sector 

Seminar information 

Arts and Games is the 21st annual spring seminar organised by the Tampere University Game Research Lab. The seminar emphasises work-in-progress submissions, and we strongly encourage submitting late-breaking results, working papers, as well as submissions from graduate and PhD researchers. The purpose of the seminar is to have peer-to-peer discussions and thereby provide support in refining and improving research work in this area. The seminar is organised in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies and Games as Art Center. 

The papers to be presented will be chosen based on extended abstract review. Full papers are distributed prior to the event to all participants, in order to facilitate discussion. There will be two invited expert commentators to provide feedback on the papers. 

The seminar is potentially looking into partnering with a publisher so that the best papers would be invited to be further developed into publication. In the past, we have collaborated with e.g. Analog Game Studies, Games and Culture, Games: Research and Practice, International Journal of Role-Playing, Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, Simulation & Gaming, and ToDiGRA journals. 

The seminar will be held at Tampere University, Finland, on 26-27 March 2025. The event is free of charge. 

Submission guidelines 

The papers will be selected for presentation based on extended abstracts of 500–1000 words (plus references). Abstracts should be delivered in PDF format. Full paper guidelines will be provided with the notification of acceptance. 

Our aim is that all participants can familiarise themselves with the papers in advance. Therefore, the maximum length for a full paper is 5000 words (plus references). The seminar presentations should encourage discussion, instead of repeating the information presented in the papers. Every paper will be presented for 10 minutes and discussed for 20 minutes. 

Submissions should be sent through this form.

All information will be updated on the seminar website: https://springseminar.org 

Organisers can be contacted at: [email protected]  

Important dates 

• • Abstract deadline: 13 December 2024 
  • Notification of acceptance: 10 January 2025 
  • Full paper deadline: 5 March 2025 
  • Seminar dates: 26-27 March 2025 

 Organising team

Aska Mayer, Mark Maletska, Leland Masek, Jaakko Stenros, Essi Taino, & Heikki Tyni 

LINK: Arts and Games Seminar

EVENT: X VIRTUAL GATHERING: HONEY (NOVEMBER 1 2024 - FEBRUARY 14 2025, BEJING)

X Virtual Gathering: Honey
November 1, 2024–February 14, 2025

X Museum
Chaoyang District
Langyuan Station, E1 (Building 10), No.53 Banjie Tower Road
Beijing China

press release

Although the Chinese pictograph  and title of the project refers to “honey,” it also morphologically entails its originator, the “bee” and its natural habitat, the “hive.” “X Virtual Gathering: Honey” focuses on the expanded network of bees and its implications—ecological biogeography, human civilisation, and capitalisation. In recent years, resource depletion and ecological crises have resulted in a net loss of biodiversity, which has dramatically affected the living conditions of many species. Here, humans are no exception, and are never excused from these systems. The space occupied by “Honey” is not merely one of nature and ecology, but also a space shaped by totems and human activity that impacts wildlife. “X Virtual Gathering: Honey” is an interdisciplinary research project that commissions visual artists and music producers to explore organisms, ecosystems, food supply chains, cultural heritage, organisation and sharing. All of the works in this exhibition are new commissions, including a video game, eight music tracks, and an art installation. The game Honey will be available for download through X Museum’s online platform. At the end of 2024, the project will also release an eponymous vinyl record which will be distributed globally.

Humans created a nexus of civilisation, slowly deepening the division between civilisation and nature through technological revolutions. From reverence to exploitation, our shifted minds towards natural resources have disenchanted nature’s spirituality. Inorganics have been replacing the organics, continuing its claim as the centre of the capitalistic society. As of late, the delicate and dynamic balance amongst organisms has been disrupted against the backdrop of capitalism and the Anthropocene. The network of “Honey” symbolises a fluid environment, connecting humanity with “Otherness’, and capitalism with exploitation. This exhibition highlights and challenges a series of ecological predicaments coming towards us—artificial sugars, pesticides, intensive agriculture, and colony collapse disorder. Through various styles ranging from experimental electronic and dance music to free jazz and ambient music, this exhibition offers an interdependent soundscape. Sampled music from China’s ethnic minority regions trace an alternative perspective on the paradoxes of memories and loop back to the emotions of these interrelated communities.Techniques such as granular synthesis are used to further transcribe bee colonies and terrestrial ecosystems within the technological environment. As an abstract medium, music alters and challenges the participants” senses, urging us to rethink ecological justice and species justice.

“Honey” also symbolically alludes to the sacred—it flows from the material world to the immaterial realms with a golden gleam. It washes over human minds, and extends to eternity. Since the Stone Age, honey has been one of the oldest substances cultivated, managed and distributed by humans. It is a natural sweetener, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antibacterial agent, which reflects upon human prosperity and longevity, embodying our quest to speculate on the unknown and the cosmos. In this exhibition, each individual music work from the artists represents a specific event throughout levels in the game-build. As the space shifts, these pieces are triggered by visitors, immersing them during real-time gameplay. Visitors are invited to participate through the perspectives of bees, engaged in a dynamic, unstable environment that enhances and augments the sensory experience. “Honey” unfolds as a fluid, generative virtual space where “you” influences the honey, and the honey influences “you.”

Bee colonies are organised by an effective social structure that manifests collective decision making. Their ways of collaboration closely resemble the neuron interactions of the human brain. To study the behaviour of bees is to study ourselves. These social insects collectively decode complex tasks and are guided by instinct and order, while humans tend to pursue independence and freedom. In response, the game Honey spreads its multiple story lines around this organisational aspect, challenging the stereotypical concepts of order and autonomy, civilisation and nature. Here, we explore the trans-dimensional space that “honey” occupies in visual culture through the construction of a series of totemic symbols, and a mix of organic and inorganic landscapes. From discursive sound environments, installations and virtual worldbuilding to text, images, and gamified spaces, “X Virtual Gathering: Honey” systematically unpacks the intricate network of civilisation embodied by these insects. Through the lens of honey, the project takes a multi-species ethnographic approach in a dialectical exploration of the primordial, non-Western-centric ecological futures lurking beneath the “human” crisis.

Artists

33EMYB W00 Zhang Gooooose Alex Zhang  Hungtaigogoj Hyph11 EABADIRDJ  Marcelle Jana Rush

About X Virtual

Launched by X Museum in 2019, X Virtual is a digital art platform that fosters new artistic 3D spaces within virtual worlds. We commission artists to create new digital works and organise online and offline exhibitions, workshops, and talks. As a museum affiliate initiative dedicated to cultivating virtual worlds, X Virtual aims to promote new thoughts, discussions, and interdisciplinary practices in relation to the emerging Web3 centred technologies, including XR, AI, and game engines. By collaborating with artists, technologists, architects, game designers, filmmakers, and other digital creators from diverse backgrounds, we are committed to building an accessible digital art platform that caters to the fast-evolving Web3 virtual worlds, for everyone.

LINK: X VIRTUAL GATHERING

EVENT: CAO FEI: MY CITY IS YOURS (NOVEMBER 30 2024 - APRIL 13 2025, SYDNEY)

Cao Fei, Oz, 2022

Cao Fei: My City is Yours曹斐: 欢迎登陆
30 November 2024 – 13 April 2025
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery Road
The Domain
Sydney NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA

official website

press release

In the largest exhibition of her work ever seen in Australia, Cao Fei (pronounced tsow fay) 曹 斐 brings the energy of the contemporary metropolis into the Art Gallery of New South Wales with a retrospective that includes two new commissions.

Cao was recently voted one of the most influential artists in the world. Born in Guangzhou in 1978 and based in Beijing, she has documented China’s rapid urbanisation and digital revolutions for over two decades. Her acclaimed films, photography and large-scale installations offer thrilling encounters with the disorienting, quick-fire transformations of the new millennium.

My City is Yours 欢迎登陆 is an invitation into a world of neon, street dance and pop music; a city both familiar and warped, real and virtual. Enter the exhibition via a replica 1960s Beijing cinema foyer, and exit through a homage to a popular Sydney yum cha restaurant.  

Designed by the artist and Beau Architects of Hong Kong, the exhibition takes the form of a cityscape. It’s a space of play and self-reinvention, where cosplayers and hip-hop dancers take over sidewalks in Fukuoka and New York. It’s a city of screens and pixels, mediated by gaming technologies, VR and the metaverse. It’s a city under construction, where neighbourhoods are razed overnight and workers compete for jobs with robots.

The exhibition is made possible with the support of the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW. Along with Magritte, also at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Julie Mehretu, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Cao Fei is part of the Sydney International Art Series, bringing the world’s most outstanding exhibitions to Australia, exclusively to Sydney.

LINK: Cao Fei: My City is Yours曹斐: 欢迎登陆

EVENT: HUGO ARCIER (OCTOBER 25 - NOVEMBER 7 2024, ONLINE)

LIMBUS IV

single channel video (UHD), color, sound,  8’ 27”, 2024, France

created by Hugo Arcier

 

Limbus by Hugo Arcier is an ongoing machinima series that explores inaccessible spaces within video games such as Rage, Grand Theft Auto V and now Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II through the use of glitches and modding. By positioning the camera in impossible perspectives, such as beneath the ground, Arcier reveals hidden layers of these virtual worlds, transforming glitches from technical errors into aesthetic opportunities. Drawing on the concept of “limbo” as a state of ambiguity and incompleteness, the series presents these digital environments as fragile and transient, exposing the hollowness of the virtual spaces we inhabit. Like its predecessors, Limbus IV invites viewers to reflect on the nature of virtual reality, subverting the conventional structures of video games to offer a philosophical meditation on presence and absence, unrealized potential and shadows of lost data.

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: ALONA RODEH: INTERZONE (NOVEMBER 9 - MARCH 2 2025, GELSENKIRCHEN, GERMANY)

Alona Rodeh
Interzone
November 9, 2024–March 2, 2025

Opening: November 8, 7pm

Light performance: November 8, 8:30pm, The Mood Organ, on the façade of Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen

Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen
Horster Straße 5-7
D-45897 Gelsenkirchen
Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–6pm

press release

Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen is pleased to present to an exhibition with new works by the Berlin-based artist Alona Rodeh (b. 1979). In her largest museum exhibition to date, the artist delves into a new medium with numerous computer-generated works, while intensifying her years-long inquiry into the architecture of light in public spaces. The exhibition title, Interzone, is a nod to the eponymous location of William S. Burroughs’s book Naked Lunch and describes a threshold state in which the laws of physics, social commitments, and societal structures have become unhinged.

The artist has taken over the entire basement of the museum to stage a sonic and visual spatial installation inspired by the nocturnal city. In doing so, she draws on the pictorial language of science fiction and the narrative style of computer games. The works, created in a gaming engine, tie in with the museum’s stimulating architecture to create night-time fictional spaces inhabited by surreal, autonomous, and, in part, absurd machines. In Rodeh’s choreography of light, sound, and movement we encounter e-scooters that put on a light show, ATMs spewing banknotes, a dump site surveilled by a swarm of drones, and more.

Alona Rodeh, Wasted, 2024. Production still from computer game. © Alona Rodeh, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2024.

Embedded in hyper-realistic digital narrative worlds, Rodeh’s works illuminate processes that play significant roles in contemporary urban landscapes, and particularly in the local context: unregulated transactions of capital, post-industrial urbanity, automated mobility concepts, surveillance and obfuscation, as well as the ecological crisis. Also included in the works she has produced for Gelsenkirchen are, for the first time, two interactive video games designed for multiple users. With them, the artist builds an active connection to the interactive sections of the museum’s kinetic collection.

LINK: Alona Rodeh

LINK: Interzone

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: 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

CALL FOR PAPERS: GAME ENGINE CULTURE(S) (DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 15 2024)

Project overview

Game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine have transcended their initial confines in video game development, evolving into versatile platforms that now influence a wide array of creative and scientific fields. These powerful tools are not just limited to gaming; they have reshaped Hollywood visual effects, virtual production, and even pre-visualisation of movie sets, as well as contemporary art and architecture. Game engines are also utilised to create training simulations for various industries, including the military. As these engines standardise aesthetic and functional practices, they simultaneously raise critical questions about artistic authorship, expressive diversity, accessibility, environmental sustainability, and the impact of increased digital consumption.

Entitled Game Engine Culture(s), this international research initiative aims to critically examine the contemporary use of game engines within the visual arts. It seeks to explore the convergence of media studies, game studies, platform studies, curatorial practice, and art history. Through in-depth analysis and prototyping under the guidance of artists and practitioners, the project investigates methods to preserve authorship and foster critique within complex digital ecosystems. Our objective is to collaborate with scholars, artists, curators, critics, and practitioners to generate new insights into the social, aesthetic, and technical dimensions of game engines.

Call for papers details

The Department of Art, Media, and Performance “Giampaolo Fabris” at IULM University, Milan, the School of Digital Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University, and the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London, under the guidance of Matteo Bittanti, Valentino Catricalà, and Paolo Ruffino, invite scholars, artists, developers, and practitioners to submit abstracts for a forthcoming publication and series of collaborative research activities centered around the theme of Game Engine Culture(s).

We welcome submissions that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• The transformative impact of game engines on visual culture and artistic expression;
• Critical analyses of aesthetic standardization and homogeneity in production management and 'pipelines' across different fields;
• The circulation of digital assets across diverse fields of cultural production;
• Platformisation tendencies and commercial interests driving game engine development;
• The role of game engines in promoting or hindering diversity and accessibility in digital art and culture;
• Case studies on specific artists (e.g., Ed Atkins, Alice Bucknell, Ian Cheng, Jacky Connolly, Lawrence Lek, Lu Yang and many more);
• ​The use of game engines beyond gaming, including in film, architecture, and other creative industries;
• ​The accessibility of game engines for diverse populations and their role in democratizing digital art creation, including related narratives and discourses;
• The techno-ideologies and geopolitics of game engines;
• Sustainable practices and the challenge of e-waste in the context of game engine proliferation;
• Strategies for preserving artistic authorship and originality within game engine ecosystems.

Game Engine Culture(s) is fully funded by IULM University, ensuring comprehensive support throughout its development. The resulting publication, scheduled to be released in English, will be published by a leading academic publisher, guaranteeing wide dissemination and accessibility within the scholarly community. To accompany the release of the book, we are planning various events, including conferences, talks, screenings, and more.

Important dates

• Abstract submission deadline: September 15, 2024
• Notification of acceptance: October 15, 2024
• Full paper submission deadline: December 15, 2024
• Publication date: 2025

Submission guidelines

• Abstracts: Should be between 300-500 words, clearly outlining the research question, methodology, bibliography, and potential contributions to the field.
• Biographies: Please include a brief biography of the author(s) with the abstract submission.
• Full papers: Should be between 6,000-8,000 words, including references and footnotes, formatted according to MHRA style. Please use British English.
• Format: Submit your chapter as a .docx or .pdf file.
• Submission email: Send submissions to [email protected] with the subject line “Game Engine Cultures Submission”.

Contact information

For further information, please contact:

• Matteo Bittanti: [email protected]
• Paolo Ruffino: [email protected]
• Valentino Catricalà: [email protected]

This call seeks to foster innovative research trajectories both conceptually and methodologically, promoting an original and interdisciplinary approach to studying the impact of game engines on contemporary visual culture. By bringing together experts from various disciplines and creative sectors, this project not only aims to map the state of the art but also to delineate new future research directions.

We look forward to receiving your contributions and to fostering rich discussions and insights into the complex nexus of game engines and contemporary visual culture.

image: Game Engine, by Dall-E, 2024