GAMESCENES

EVENT: GAME TALK #1_JAKE ELLIOTT & TAMAS KEMENCZY_HOW TO GET LOST IN A CAVE (FEBRUARY 27 2019, MILAN, ITALY)

JAKE ELLIOTT & TAMAS KEMENCZY

HOW TO GET LOST IN A CAVE

February 27 2019, 18:00 - 19:00

Aula Seminari

Università IULM

Via Carlo Bo, 1

2014 Milano Italy

Free and open to the public, Please RVSP

The presentation is in English

Indie studio Cardboard Computer drew up a simple outline for their magical realist adventure game Kentucky Route Zero, but over the nearly 8-year development process they found themselves lost in a twisty maze of passages, all different. In this conversation about Kentucky Route Zero, Cardboard Computer co-founders Jake Elliott and Tamas Kemenczy will lead a guided tour back through these electronic tunnels and nocturnal highways, paying special attention to the little detours and dead-end tunnels.

Jake Elliott is co-founder of Cardboard Computer, where he is a writer, programmer, and designer on the game Kentucky Route Zero. His work is characterized by playful text, reflective pacing, and human-scale drama. He has taught videogame design, programming, and experimental animation at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, DePaul University and Northwestern University. He lives in central Kentucky.

Tamas Kemenczy is co-founder and one-third of Cardboard Computer, an award-winning studio known for Kentucky Route Zero, where he does game design, visual art and graphics programming. His visual work on the game has received awards from both Independent Game Festival and IndieCade, and has been shown at the Art Institute of Chicago, Victoria & Albert Museum, Museum of Pop Culture (EMP), and The Museum of the Moving Image in New York. His visual art takes an art-historical approach, calling back to early video hardware and computer graphics efforts by artist-programmers. He has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied new media and art games.

LINK: GAME TALKS 2019

EVENT: VACATION SPOT IN GENT (BACK TO ROME) (FEB 14- 21 2019, ROME, ITALY)

Fcderica Di Pietroantonio

VACATION SPOT IN GENT (BACK TO ROME)

February 14-21 2019

 

RUFA Space

Via Degli Ausoni, 7

Rome Italy

 

Vacation spot in Gent is an attempt to dismantle the perceived safety we experience in our daily lives and a search for meaning in traveling. The project also questions the role of painting and the artist’s function in society. Developed with EA's The Sims and shared via Instagram, Vacation spot in Gent is an ongoing dialogue between Rome, her hometown, and Ghent, in Belgium, where she spent four months, organizing play dates and meetings in order to collaborate with local artists and expand her project, both in real life and in the virtual realm. After the first stage in Ghent, the second takes place in Rome between February 14 and 21. For the last round, in March, she will return to Gouvernement Atelier.

Rome-based Federica Di Pietrantonio is trained as a painter and temporarily moved to Ghent for further investigation of her thesis project. While always on the verge of virtual reality, her artistic research focuses on the chiasm between the virtual world and tangible reality and evokes painting’s classic iconography. She experiments with different media such as painting and installation art, oscillating between virtual worlds and web design. 

LINK: Federica di Pietroantonio

EVENT: POLYMORPHISM: QUEER ENCOUNTERS OF INTIMACY IN GAMES (JANUARY 18 - APRIL 28, 2019, CHICAGO< USA)

Ali Krouse, KMG Tournament: Kiss More Girls

Polymorphism: Queer Encounters of Intimacy in Games
Curated by Brice Puls
January 18 - April 28, 2019
2418 W Bloomingdale Ave Apt 102, Chicago, USA

Opening Reception Friday, January 18, 6-9pm

VGA Society Private Cocktail Preview and Tour: 5-6pm 

Intimacy in games has been traditionally conceived by developers as a means to reward the player, as relationships can often only be developed after completing a given task. Within this largely heteronormative lens, games frame emotional bonding and sexual intercourse as a goal to be achieved, rather than positioning relationship development as a core mechanic of the game itself. While these experiences can expand and develop the language of romantic narrative in games, it may also obscure the medium’s ability to directly engage with the mechanics of attraction and desire.

This exhibition explores the burgeoning field of interactive queer art, which gamifies the mechanics of intimate relationships and reinterprets traditional game concepts as a means to experience affection, desire, and love. While queer desire has been marginalized and pathologized in the mainstream, within LGBTQIA+ culture, a more inclusive acceptance of kink and diverse relationship structures is being articulated. Whether in the context of long-term romance, intimacy with multiple partners, or casual sex, these artworks place the practice of acting on attraction in the hands of the player, furthering our ability to express the personal experiences of an underserved culture and drawing a wider audience into conversations about gameplay and desire.

Artists in the exhibition include:

• Salem Dockery
• Ryan Rose Aceae and Heather Robertson
• Anna Anthropy
• Ali Krouse
• Pierre Corbinais
• Eddie Cameron
• RiotJayne_
• empty fortress
• Kara Stone
• Robert Yang
• Fernando Ramallo
• Sean Wejebe
• Tale of Tales

*NOTE: Please be advised that this is an explicit show and content warnings may include nudity, sex, violence, mental illness, and suicide.

LINK: Polymorphism: Queer Encounters of Intimacy in Games

See also: RAINBOW ARCADE

GAME ART: BIRDWATCHING IN RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2

This project does not qualify as Game Art, no matter how elusive the definition is. Nonetheless, it is one of those performative fringe activity that take place within a video game that evoke many of the attributes of the artistic gesture. There's video, there's photography, there's documentation, there's whimsical obsession and playful seriousness... And it's definitely more interesting than torturing suffragettes. Birdwatching in RDR2 reminds me of Jonne Hansson's machinima, Outcast.

As Audubon's contributor Nicholas Lund writes,

I spent most of my time finding birds, and was impressed with the breadth and relative accuracy of the species represented. Birds change with habitat: Roseate Spoonbills and Great Egrets feed in the bayous of Saint Denis. Laughing Gulls and Red-footed Boobies roost along the coast, while eagles and condors soar over mountain peaks. Each of these are crafted with accurate field marks and habits. There are dozens of species I couldn’t even find, including Carolina Parakeets, Ferruginous Hawks, and Pileated Woodpeckers. Like real life birding, you’re never guaranteed to see anything.

I wonder what Jonathan Franzen would make of birdwatching in gaming.

LINK: Birdwatching in Red Dead Redemption (via Kottke)

VIDEO ESSAY: RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 AND THE HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL OF PAINTING

In this short video essay, Polygon's contributor Clayton Ashley describes the relationship between the Hudson River School style of landscape painting and the vistas of Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2. It's more about ideology than aesthetics: art is not neutral. He discusses light and perspective, documentation vs. representation (manifest destiny), observation vs. immersion (opera glasses as proto-VR goggles), among other things.

As Clayton writes:

Red Dead Redemption 2 can’t avoid a connection to these paintings because it can’t avoid its connections to the cultural history that created the western genre. Or as Wendy Ikemoto, associate curator at the New-York Historical Society, put it in our video, art is not “a passive reflection or document of history, but it is, rather, an agent of history.”

File under: comparative media studies.

Kudos to Clayton and Polygon.

LINK: Painting styles in Red Dead Redemption 2

EVENT: IN A GAMESCAPE. LANDSCAPE, REALITY, STORYTELLING AND IDENTITY IN VIDEO GAMES (DECEMBER 15, 2018–MARCH 10, 2019, TOKYO JAPAN)

IN A GAMESCAPE. LANDSCAPE, REALITY, STORYTELLING AND IDENTITY IN VIDEO GAMES

An exhibition co-curated by DOI Nobuaki and TANIGUCHI Akihiko

December 15, 2018–March 10, 2019, 11:00am–6:00pm 

NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC] Gallery A

Tokyo, Japan

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Among other works, video games as a form of contemporary culture are being awarded at the Japan Media Arts Festival, and continue to exert an ever-growing influence on society. As a matter of fact, video games reflect the present state of society, and one can say that they also serve as a means for predicting future developments.

With a particular focus on indie games and video game art as two distinctive recent trends, this exhibition inspects the latest video games along with the original culture they help define, to see what hints they may offer regarding social currents and individual positions.

The term gamescape as used in the exhibition title was coined to refer to the (social) landscape mapped out through games, and to express the novel views and values that video games inspire in their creators and players alike.
________________________________

ARTISTS:

LINK: IN A GAMESCAPE

EVENT: PARALLEL WORLDS 2019 (FRIDAY 25 2019, LONDON, UK)

Parallel Worlds 2019 – A Conference on Videogame Design and Culture
Friday 25 January 2015, 10:30 -17:30
Victoria and Albert Museum, London Tickets
£35 full price, £30 concessions, £15 student

Parallel Worlds, the V&A’s conference dedicated to videogame design and culture, will be back for more critical conversations on Friday 25 January 2019, in conjunction with the V&A’s headline autumn exhibition Videogames: Design / Play / Disrupt. This day long international conference brings together talks from leading game designers, artists, engineers and thinkers on the design of videogames and playful immersive worlds.

Speakers include Chris Kujawski, Principal Designer of the Xbox Adaptive Controller; Amanda Johnston-Batt from Framestore’s rides team and independent game designer Jenny Jiao Hsia, whose work features in ‘Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt’. You can find out more about our stellar speaker line up below, with more to be announced before the big day alongside a full schedule.

The event will continue into the evening with a Friday Late looking at the future of videogame design and culture where you’ll be able to get hands on with a host of arcades, workshops and demonstrations across the Museum. To see the full list of speakers, click the link below. 

LINK: Parallel Worlds 2019 – A Conference on Videogame Design and Culture (Poster Artwork by Yuk Fun)

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

CALL FOR GAMES: A.MAZE 2019 (DEADLINE: FEB 4 2019)

A MAZE./Berlin 2019 Awards: 

CALL FOR GAMES IS OPEN UNTIL FEB. 4th 2019

*  new award: Explorer Award * selection committee is starting its work *  new location * early bird tickets available until February 28th 2019

From April 10-13 A MAZE. / Berlin 2019, the 8th international games and playful media festival, invites general public visitors and professionals to explore the best new independent video games, Virtual Reality experiences and Playful Media projects. In public exhibitions visitors will discover the 25 nominees for the A MAZE. Awards, engaging with with new technologies and ways of digital storytelling.

Since 2012, A MAZE. awards The Most Amazing Game. The winner is selected by an interdisciplinary, international and 100% independent jury. A MAZE. extended and changed awards in the many years since the categories are now: Most Amazing Award, Human Human Machine Award, Long Feature Award, Digital Moment Award, Explorer Award and Audience Award. 

The A MAZE. Awards always try to reflect important current topics.  Matthias Löwe, the award coordinator : “With the Other Dimensions Award, we focused on the artistic use of emergent VR technologies and with the Collider Award, we highlighted creations by interdisciplinary teams. Now, with the new Explorer Award, we want to combine those two thoughts: This is the award for all forms of experiences beyond the boundaries of contemporary ways to play or develop games.“ 

Thorsten S. Wiedemann, the artistic director adds: “To strengthen our interest in progressive playful media content we are exploring with the new award category alternative controllers, interactive installations, creative coding experiments, robotics and tech performances, as well as collaborations with science, makers, engineers, researchers, theater and writers. Can’t wait for all the inventions coming!“

Developers can register or use a previously used account to submit their game (for all award categories - those are chosen by the jury, submission-fee €30 – €50) between November 19th, 2018, and February 4th, 2019. 
Judges can register or reactivate a previously used account to test games as part of the selection committee between November 19th, 2018, and February 11th, 2019. Reviewing 5 or more games will allow judges to get a discount at the festival tickets.

TIMELINE:

Nov 19: start of game submission and jury registration
Dec 31: submission-fee switches from Early Bird to Regular
Jan 14: judging starts 
Feb 04: submission deadline
Feb 18: judging ends
Mar 04: announcement of nominees
Apr 10: A MAZE. starts! 

NEW Location: After an amazing time (2013-2018) at Urban Spree we are moving to the legendary SEZ at Landsberger Allee 77. The new location gives us the great opportunity to bring the A MAZE. experience and exhibition to an unbelievable level.

Submission link: https://2019.award.amaze-berlin.de/

EVENT: VIDEO GAME ART 1970-2005 (OCTOBER 19 - JANUARY 12 2019, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA)

Michael Smith, Mike Builds a Shelter (1983), Photo by AND/OR gallery

VIDEO GAME ART 1870-2005

AND/OR GALLERY
980 S ARROYO PKWY #200
PASADENA, CA 91105

Show #32 explores the history of experiments in art video games. Today, there is a booming indie game industry, and experimental video game courses are taught at universities; but these fields largely emerged in the last decade. Before 2005, instances of experimental or art video games are limited, and before the 1990s, they are quite rare. Whether created by artists, programmers, or hobbyists, what often separates these games from their commercial counterparts is their departure from the typical goal-and-reward model of gameplay, and many of the games presented in Show #32 are anticlimactic, unwinnable, un-fun, or all of the above. Some works presented in Show #32 subvert conventional video game mechanics and aesthetics by being outright modifications of popular commercial works like Quake or Super Mario Bros. (AND/OR Gallery)

Featured artists:

Including work by Cory Arcangel, Myfanwy Ashmore, John Horton Conway, JODI, Joan Leandre, David Maynard, Penn and Teller, and Michael Smith, plus rare games on loan from the Supercade collection and a set of Commodore 64 crack intros curated by Beige Records and Radical Software Group.

featured artworks

Conway's Game of Life (1970) by John Horton Conway with Video Life (1981) by Commavid
Untitled Game: CTRL-Space (1998) by JODI
Mig 29 Soviet Fighter Plane and Clouds (2005) by Cory Arcangel
Super Mario Trilogy (2000-2004) by Myfanwy Ashmore
The Glob (1983), NATO Defense (1982), Slither (1982), and 
Boxing Bugs (1981) on loan from the Supercade collection
Mike Builds a Shelter (1983) by Michael Smith, game design and graphics by Dov Jacobson, cabinet design by Alan Herman 
Desert Bus (1995) by Penn and Teller
Worms? (1983) by David Maynard
Low Level Alls Stars (1986-1989) Commodore 64 crack intros curated in 2003 by Beige and RSG
RC-100 (2000) by Retroyou (Joan Leandre)

JODI, Untitled Game: CTRL-Space (1998)

Cory Arcangel, MIG 29 Soviet Fighter Plane and Clouds, 2005, 2 hacked Nintendo Entertainment System game cartridges, 2 Nintendo Entertainment System game consoles, artist software (Photo: Lisson Gallery, Art Basel 2017)

Myfanwy Ashmore, mario_battle_no.1 (mario battle no-one), 2000

LINK: AND/OR GALLERY (Show #32) (Thanks to Kieran Nolan for the tip)