GAMESCENES

EVENT: THOMAS WEBB'S WORLD WIDE WEBB (AUGUST 14 2020- AUGUST 14 2021, ONLINE)

 

press release:

 

THOMAS WEBB

EXERCISE IN HOPELESS NOSTALGIA – WORLD WIDE WEBB

14 August 2020 – 14 August 2021

Opening: Friday, 14 August, 7pm CET

 

Online tour through the multiplayer simulation with Webb: Friday, 14 August, 9pm cet

 

http://twitch.tv/webblive 

 

Instagram Live – Webb in conversation with Johann König: Thursday, 20 August, 4pm cet Uhr, @koeniggalerie

 

This Friday, 14 August 7pm cet, KÖNIG GALERIE launches the digital solo show by the British artist Thomas Webb who is following the footsteps of his father, programmer Martin Webb.  His WORLD WIDE WEBB is a virtual world driven by Artificial Intelligence and real-time data. Webb created a world in which data is a common property. What if companies collecting data aren’t allowed to sell the data but are required to share it? What if data is not used in the interest of a company? How do people feel when an AI tailors a life for them based on their personality, choices they make, and things they enjoy through technology?  The digital visitor enters through the browser on a smartphone, and is invited to do an exercise in hopeless nostalgia. The WORLD WIDE WEBB is a multiplayer simulation, a digital exhibition space, and a world full of art and characters the visitor interacts with. Webb also recreates the social spontaneity of the world pre-Covid-19. 

 

Cambridge Analytica had Facebook users take quizzes designed to summarize their personality, using the harvested data to sway voters during the 2016 US presidential election. Webb instead trains artificially intelligent avatars that are capable of sensing the players emotional and logical decisions, allowing these in-game characters to change their narratives in real-time. Upon completion of the simulation (ca. 1h), Webb reveals insights into his algorithm. The algorithm is based on the same personality test theorem used by Cambridge Analytica, categorising players by their openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism through the lens of Webb’s experience in the digital age. 

 

EXERCISE IN HOPELESS NOSTALGIA is part of the exhibition series THE ARTIST IS ONLINE, curated by Anika Meier and Johann König, which focuses on art in the digital age. The exhibition can be experienced via the app KÖNIG GALERIE and the following link: https://webb.game/ There's an ad hoc app for the iPhone

Thomas Webb is an artist, hacker and coder. His artworks question systems, social media and technology, identifying the consequences of our daily dependence on software and hardware. He harnesses electrical engineering and computer programming to create AI, deep learning, microelectronics and real-time data as mediums. He juxtaposes a reflection on technology and contemporary life to explore the social dynamics of the digital age.

 

 

LINK: Thomas Webb's World Wide Webb

GAME ART: NILSON CARROLL'S UNTITLED (DRAGON WARRIOR GLITCHES) (2020)

The latest project by Rochester-based artist and curator Nilson Carroll is titled Untitled (Dragon Warrior glitches),

an evolving HTML hypertext collection of captured handmade hex glitches from the NES titles Dragon Warrior II, III, and IV paired with prose poems that explore game mechanics, narratives, and genre legacies, queering each through the glitch process. Themes questioned include heteronormativity, binary thinking, colonization, and the neoliberal values inherent in these and all games’ mechanics and goals. Not only are the games’ digital/physical boundaries broken and expanded, but the implied ones, too. The myth of the hero is shattered, the protagonist finally made vulnerable

The artwork was created as part of Carroll's digital art residence with Welcome to my Homepage, and it is the result of a month long exploration of Dragon Warrior's glitches.

LINK: Nilson Carroll

EVENT: PLAY SOCIETIES: WOLVES, LYNX AND ANT (JUNE 16 - SEPTEMBER 9, 2020, HYUNDAI MOTORSTUDIO BEIJING, BEIJING, CHINA )

PLAY SOCIETIES: WOLVES, LYNX AND ANT

(JUNE 16–SEPTEMBER 9, 2020, HYUNDAI MOTORSTUDIO BEIJING, BEIJING, CHINA )

Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing
Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, E-1, 798 Road
798 Art Zone, Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District
100015 Beijing, China
Hours: Monday–Sunday 10am–7:30pm
motorstudio.hyundai.com.cn
T +86 10 5394 5200

Curator: Chen Min & Zhang Yehong (Winner of "Creativity" Hyundai Blue Prize 2019)

Artists: Angela Washko, Chen Baoyang, Chen Xin & Huang Yuwen, Lao Jiahui, Loopntale, Molleindustria, Nicky Case, Pied la biche, Tang Chao, Yao Qingmei, Zhang Wenxin, Zhao Bang, Zheng Da, Zhou Pengan

The award-winning exhibition of the 2019 Hyundai Blue Prize—Play societies: wolves, lynx and ants had its grand opening on June 16, 2020 in the Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing. This exhibition is curated together by Chen Min & Zhang Yehong, who won the “Creativity” prize in the 2019 Hyundai Blue Prize .

Since its establishment in 2017, the Hyundai Blue Prize, hosted by Hyundai Motor Company, has always been pursuing the vision of cross-border sharing, national innovation and enjoying life. It sparks a public discussion on art, innovation and technology, while bringing the public closer to the emerging art ecology. The Hyundai Blue Prize serves as a foothold for outstanding young curators to step onto the world stage and stands as a vanguard of supporting young curators in China.

The exhibition aims to take audiences on a journey from the time when personal computers became ubiquitous, through the beginning of the Internet in the 1990s to the current era of smart devices, thereby exploring the social interaction/social intelligence problems faced by individuals. The exhibition uses play as a behavior and a medium, asking whether we can imagine a kind of "pan-intelligence" that combines human, animal and artificial intelligences.

The two curators said, “Playing is an instinctive act for animals and humans alike, and is the method as well as the medium of this exhibition. As Johan Huizinga once wrote, play predates culture and society; civilization arises in and as play. But what we have seen today is screens reducing desires into symbols and signs, game rules taking the place of intuition, data replacing the individuals, and algorithms eliminating chance. By constantly revising and iterating the rules inherent in collective plays, artists hope to introduce an incalculable quality to different communities and society overall, so that play and games will no longer be dominated by rules of competition and conflict, but filled with purer liquidity and spontaneity. At the same time, play is undoubtedly sociable; even “players” in the “console games” can talk to the creator (the game designer) through the game’s interface. Group plays help humans to explore the rules of how the world works, learn from each other and achieve unity through group collaboration.”

The three animals—wolves, lynx and ants—which symbolically represent the human society are shown through the different developmental stages of media technology, revealing the contradictions between the interconnected society and individuals. Meanwhile, “superhighway,” “refuge island,” and “arcade” are taken as cues for the overall design of the space. The exhibition is composed of artworks by 14 artists and game designers both from mainland China and abroad, and uses different interpretative forms, such as video art, paper painting, multimedia interactive installations, video games and other forms of interaction to show the concept of “play.”

Cornelia Schneider, the head of Global Experiential Marketing, mentioned “This exhibition will display many artworks with deep interaction and collective participation among audiences who can play, watch, or even do both simultaneously to experience the interactive electronic games designed by the artists.”

Meanwhile, to control the number of visitors attending the offline exhibition amid current travel restriction, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing has launched a virtual reality exhibition that overcomes the limitations of time and space. (press release)

LINK: Play Societies 

EVENT: GAMEPLAY. VIDEO GAME CULTURE (DECEMBER 19 2019 - AUGUST 30 2020, BARCELONA, SPAIN)

If you have not had the chance to check out GAME PLAY VIDEO GAME CULTURE, you have until August 30. This excellent exhibition organized by the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain (an extended adaptation of Gameplay. The Next Level, designed by and first presented at the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe) and curated by Jérôme Nguyen and Óliver Pérez Latorre is accompanied by an array of events, workshops, videos, and conversations round the notion of games, art, politics, and identity. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the new version of the exhibition GAMEPLAY replaced the in situ interactives with original audiovisual contents which can be accessed online. The interactive part of the project, the selection of games, new activities, debates and workshops can be found here.

The available online games include:

• Ambush. Developed by Tecfri | Published by Nippon Amuse |1983
• La pulga.Developed by Paco Suárez i Paco Portalo |Published by Indescomp / Investrónica | 1983
• September 12th. Developed by Gonzalo Frasca i Sof.a Battegazzore | Published by Powerful Robot Games| 2010
• Passage. Developed by Jason Rohrer | 2007
• Sísif (Let’s Play: Ancient Greek Punishment). Developed by Pippin Barr | 2011
• Limbo. Developed by Playdead | Publicació: Playdead | 2010 (demostración gratuíta)
• Crayon Physics Deluxe.Developed by Petri Purho | 2009
• Phone Story Developed by Paolo Pedercini |Published by Molleindustria | 2011
• DYS4IA. Developed by Anna Anthropy | 2012
• Unmanned. Developed by Molleindustria (Jim Munroe) | Published by Molleindustria | 2012

Photo by Marti Berenguer, (c) CCCB, 2019

Although some events did raise some eyebrows - like the involvement of the Emperor of Midcult himself, Alessandro Baricco - most are terrific, like this conversation between Mary Flanagan and José Louis de Vicente, titled "New Perspectives on Digital Leisure"

 

Also check out the inevitable film/game connection here.

LINK: GAMEPLAY

GAME ART: BARDUU'S PHOTO TUTORIALS FOR THE LAST OF US PART II (2020)

Petri Levälahti aka @Berduu is making super short photo mode tutorials for The Last of Us Part II on Twitter. Check'em out!

 

 

Petri Levalhati currently works at EA DICE as a Screenshot Capture Artist.

 

You may remember his brilliant machinima that we covered a few years ago. 

 

LINK: Petri Levälahti aka @Berduu (Thanks to Pietro Righi Riva for the heads up)

 

GAME ART: ROBERT ROBINSON'S SEATTLE (2020)

The compare-and-contrast reality vs simulacra trope is one of the most popular in game photography and The Last of Us Part II does not disappoint. Robert Robinson is remapping Seattle by juxtaposing photographs from the real thing and the game. The result looks, oddly, like an episode of Dark.

Check out the full album here.

EVENT: A MAZE. / BERLIN 2020: FESTIVAL GOES “TOTAL DIGITAL“ (JULY 22-25 2020)

Press release:

Due to the development of the Corona situation, A MAZE. / Berlin 2020 - 9th International Games and Playful Media Festival has decided to cancel the festival in July 2020 in its physical version. But there will be an alternative – the festival will happen virtually:

A MAZE. / Berlin is going “Total Digital“ on July 22-25, 2020.

The whole festival will be online, virtual and remote and a bit ‘too much of everything’.

It will happen on many different platforms at the same time to embrace the international community and the highly creative power of each individual game maker and world builder from around the globe. Now the festival can be even more international and better connected than ever before. It is an amazing chance to create a better presence for developers and event makers.

“Let’s work closer together. For us it’s important to create a loud and visible platform for all the game authors and developers who would have been at A MAZE. / Berlin or people who never have experienced it before. No borders, no visa requirements this time. This festival edition will be a little bit different from the others, but still amazing and full with surprises. We want you to celebrate with us towards colorful prospects and enjoy your time in our unique A MAZE. Space.“ Thorsten S. Wiedemann, artistic director of A MAZE.

The physical version of A MAZE. / Berlin is not replaceable: It is crucial to meet, talk, exhibit, celebrate and find opportunities for the artists’ works and their studios. Tickets will remain valid either for 2021 or 2022 if visitors are not able to join in the next year.

The modules of A MAZE. / Berlin 2020 - Total Digital - 9th International Games and Playful Media Festival can be explored in regular newsletters and social media posts. The status towards the final festival settings will be published online on a regular basis.

Exhibition

There will be a downloadable open A MAZE. space programmed by Moshe Linke, Gianluca Pandolfo and Stephan Insam. Our new interactive space is built on Linke’s museum experience “Brutalism: Prelude on Stone”. The A MAZE. Space is a multiplayer exhibition and festival space where participants can jump in to interact with this year’s A MAZE. selection and experience the digital soul of A MAZE.. The selection is featuring the nominees, honorable mentions and other digital surprises.

Award

The 9th A MAZE. Awards are planned as a fully digital show on Friday July 24, 2020. It is the highlight of the festival. In this honor A MAZE. would like to send again best wishes to all the nominees and honorable mentions including the selected nominees for the 3rd Humble New Talent Award, the Diversity Award.

Full list of games including our 5 jury members: https://amaze-berlin.de/award

Knowledge

On the knowledge side A MAZE. will have talks, masterclasses and workshops to exchange skills and thoughts which are inspiring and filled with deep insights on the work process of the creators. Every talk will end with a moderated Q+A chat where the speakers will have time to answer questions.

Community

The A MAZE. network of festivals, initiatives, game creators, musicians, playful media artists are invited to become part of the 4 days festival program. A MAZE. wants to bring the artistic games world closer together and mirror the diverse, artistic and playful culture. #positivechaos

Opportunities

The A MAZE. Game Bazaar in cooperation with gamesweekberlin is meant to be a market for arthouse games and playful media productions which gives authors and artists the opportunity to meet with publishers, funding institutions or collaborators. The market will be open on Wednesday July 22nd from 4 p.m. to 8p.m. There will also be a Press Bar where journalists can schedule interviews with the game creators. A MAZE. - Submission will open beginning of June.

Celebration & parties

Music? It is planned to create a mix of streamed concerts and live performances - some from Urban Spree Club - some from the kitchen or the living room of the musician.

Tickets

Already bought 2020 tickets will stay valid: Guests who want to experience the physical edition can choose to use their tickets for either 2021 or 2022.

Meanwhile follow the A MAZE. social media channels with features of the games selected and the #wildhearts interviews.

PARTNERS & SPONSORS: A MAZE. / Berlin 2020 is funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and part of gamesweekberlin. Supported by Musicboard. Thanks to our sponsors and partners Humble Original, Geier-tronic, Game - Verband der deutschen Game-Branche, Warsteiner, Fritz Cola, Thunderful, Landfall Games, Free Lives, Grover, Indie Village and Indie Area Booth, SAE, Kickstarter, Support by #amazenotdead Kickstarter campaign.

LINK: A MAZE.

ART GAME: OLIVER MAUCO AND ABDEL BOUNANE'S PRISME7 (2020)

A new game from Oliver Mauco and his team is about experiencing art in an immersive, engaging way, navigating through the enormous online collection of the Musée national d’art moderne, and interact with the artworks in a playful way. Developed for the Centre Pompidou on contemporary and modern art by Olivier Mauco of Game in Society and Abdel Bounane, Prism7 is free and supported by the French Ministry of Education. Researchers from the Ircam worked on the sound design. Prisme7 is available for both smartphone/tablets running iOS and Android) and computers (PC/Mac).

 

Here's a description of the gameplay:

As they make their way between colour and light, players explore an organism that is constructed gradually as they discover the physical and sensory properties of the works of art. As they interact with Le Rhinocéros by Xavier Veilhan, New York City by Piet Mondrian, Andy Warhol’s Big Electric Chair or the famous “pipes” of the Centre Pompidou building imagined by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, players progress on their way through the game. After an initial introductory level (to familiarise themselves with the gameplay), there are six game worlds where they can explore a selection of 40 iconic works from the Centre Pompidou collection, through the relationships between colour and function, colour and emotion or light and immersion.  

 

LINK: PRISME7

PROJECT: PAOLO PEDERCINI'S ONLINE MUSEUM OF MULTIPLAYER ART (ONLINE)

As always, Paolo Pedercini is ahead of the curve. oMOMA is a playful lo-fi multiplayer online gallery of art installations. Unmissable. 

LINK: oMOMA (screenshots by Paolo Pedercini)

ART GAME: AAA COLLECTIVE'S UTOPIAS: NAVIGATING WITHOUT COORDINATES" (2020)

Utopias: Navigating Without Coordinates is a videogame network comprising nine different worlds, each one developed by a member of Berlin-based AAA collective.

 

As they explain on their website,

Each world in Utopias is a site of crystallization where our ideas and how we work as a group have gathered and grown. The process of creating Utopias was a collective deep dive into things like group decision-making, the economics of care (for oneself and others), the sharing of resources and information, generating and maintaining sustainable momentum and examining personal wounds left from living in a hyper-individualized economy of scarcity. A major motivation for our collaboration is to find alternative methods for making video games while avoiding the exploitative and creatively stultifying software industry. We think CGI should be taken out of the hands of the industry - culture should be made by people, not just companies. By pooling individual skills, we enable collective members with differing levels of technical ability to make video games collaboratively. We work without designated roles or tasks and no-one's technical or creative vision is considered more important than another's. Although we created a series of individual utopian visions, each of us worked on each other’s world, helping one another to realize them. This is our attempt to roleplay our way to utopia.

 

Active in Berlin, the AAA Collective comprises an eclectic cohort of artists, designers, and creators from all over the world. Its founding members are Merle Leufgen, a software artist, curator and independent researcher, Gabriel Helfenstein, a French transmedia artist, curator, and writer, Troy Duguid, and Australian artist working with game engines, and Jessica Palmer, a Canadian multimedia artist interested in neuroscience. Other members are Chloê Langford, Fedya Balashov, Jack Perkins, Matias Brunacci, Nick Morrison, and Tristan Neu.

LINK: AAA Collective