GAMESCENES

ART GAME: ALAN KWAN'S SCENT (ONGOING)

Eight years ago we shared on GameScenes Alan Kwan's groundbreaking project Bad Trip in which the artist connected a small camera to his glasses in order to develop a videogame about my virtual memories. It remains one of the most inventive project at the crossroads of technology, gaming, and digital art. At the time, Kwan was a student. Now he is a full time artist. For the past few years, Kwan has been making experimental games and VR games while researching at MIT, in Boston. His latest project, Scent, is a video game that takes place near the border of a city undergoing a massacre. A stray dog follows scent trails of human fear and carries out its job to help human souls reincarnate. The game uses stealth mechanics and a contemplative, meditative gameplay. 

This game focuses on delivering an interactive cinematic experience with simple control. While using the mouse to look around, players control the dog to walk/sprint/hide/stop and the steering is automated. A bit similar to the control of a 2D platform game like Mario but the players can also look around in a 3D environment. For most of the gameplay, players are walking, hiding, or witnessing.

As Kwan wrote in an email, "In this chaotic world right now, I wanted to create this game to invite players to contemplate on fear, deaths, and the collapse of a city. " Indeed, Scent is a timely project. 

 

Kwan is developing Scent for Windows-based platforms. 

Alan Kwan is an artist, game designer, and technologist. After completing his master's degree at MIT, he has been developing video games and virtual reality environments to build worlds, stories, and immersive experiences that lie outside of the traditional gaming paradigm. He is also deeply interested in how 3D virtual world, as a spatial medium, can help people organize or learn complex information by leveraging their spatial cognition. He started experimenting with the idea of building virtual memory palace in 2011, and then in 2016 he collaborated with architect and designer Meng Sun to make an interactive 3D educational tool. These projects were presented at venues including Ars Electronica Center (Austria), International Bauhaus Colloquium (Germany), ZKM Centre for Art and Media (Germany), and Museum of Contemporary Art (Shanghai), and were featured in media including Discovery Channel, Popular Science, and The Boston Globe. Alan was awarded the first prize of the MIT Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize, Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council Award for Young Artist (Media Art). Recently, Alan completed two permanent installations for the museum Historic New Orleans Collection and one permanent installation for Taylor Education Center in collaboration with interaction designer and artist Xiao Xiao.  

LINK: Alan Kwan 

ART GAME: AKIHIKO TANIGUCHI'S ARTSPEED (IN DEVELOPMENT)

Here's an update on ARTSPEED, Akihiko Taniguchi's racing game featuring conceptual artworks competing on the art circuit (no, really). The game is looking increasingly polished and avantgarde. Alas, R.T: Mutt aka Marcel Duchamp's Fountain is not doing great and Umberto Boccioni's L'homme en mouvement is currently last, but I have so much faith in the Futurists, I mean, the whole spiel about speed etc. Where's F.T. Marinetti when you need him? Jeff Koons has invested lots of (his own) money to win the race and it shows but Orozco's Citroen still has a chance. I'm waiting for Maurizio Cattelan's Audi-cum-tree (Untitled, 2000).

Akihiko Taniguchi is and artist and full-time lecturer of Tama Art University and part-time lecturer of Musashino Art University. His practice includes installations, performances and video works using self-built devices and software.

LINK: Akihiko Taniguchi

EVENT: SYSTEM LINK: VIDEO GAME AS MEMOIR (JANUARY 24 - APRIL 25 2020, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS)

Jenny Jiao Hsia, Consume Me, 2018

System Link: Video Game as Memoir

Curated by Brice Puls
January 24 - April 25, 2020

Opening Reception Friday, January 24 2020, 6-9pm

VGA Gallery
2418 W Bloomingdale #101
Chicago, IL 60647

Video games have historically been a product catered to the player. A focus on engagement, replayability, and general entertainment value has guided design strategies that create impersonal pieces, appealing to the widest range of players possible. While film, music, writing, and other media have historically been vehicles of memoir and personal storytelling, games often maintain a trajectory as products of their audience and not their creator. The voices of the individual artists have recently begun to break through the standards of generalization in the medium, creating stories where players are able to experience the emotional perspectives of the creator. In doing so memoir games reveal that assumptions about the general audience skew toward specific perspectives, and exclude others. This exhibition seeks to highlight those works, exploring how a range of game makers and artists have translated their personal experiences into the interactive context. Each work is designed to allow the player to understand, empathize with, and connect to other lived realities, using the participatory advantages of video games to express a story as no other medium can. The different projects showcased in this exhibition offer different answers to the question “What happens when you let the player of games into your story?”

LINK: System Link: Video Game as Memoir

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: VECTOR FESTIVAL 2020 (DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 1 2020)

VECTOR FESTIVAL 2020: AFTER GAMIFICATION

TORONTO, ON | JULY 16-19, 2020

OPEN CALL FOR ARTWORKS AND CURATORIAL PROPOSALS 

Vector Festival is an annual media arts event dedicated to showcasing experimental art works that engage critically with digital technologies.
The festival is proudly participatory and community-oriented. Hosted by InterAccess and co-curated by Katie Micak and Martin Zeilinger, Vector Festival takes place at arts venues and in public spaces across the City of Toronto.

Since its inception, Vector Festival has been innovative in its inclusion of game-based digital art alongside other new media disciplines. Continuing this focus for the 2020 edition, the festival’s curators pose a deceptively simple question: what comes after gamification?

Now that game culture and game technologies have become so pervasive in popular culture, how do experimental media artists respond critically to the rampant gamifying of everyday life? From online social interaction to digital finance, from education to military conflict, from politics and environmental issues to the ways in which humans (and machines) express themselves creatively, what comes after gamification?

The Festival will take place between July 16-19, 2020, with the flagship exhibition extended until August 22, 2020.

Please note that Vector Festival does not charge submission fees to artists applying to participate.

All artists and curators selected for participation will receive fees in accordance with the up-to-date CARFAC Fee schedule, as well as support to apply for external funding.

We invite art submissions of digital – and post-digital – works for the following festival categories:

Flagship Exhibition
Digital and post-digital art works including interactive installations, experimental game mods, sculptural work, screen-based work, sound art, etc.

Online Projects
Web-based projects and digital artworks that can be presented online, including experimental interactive and time-based digital projects.

Festival Screening
Experimental film/video/machinima works.

Performance
Performance-based proposals including chiptune, sound art, live coding, A/V performances, and telematic performances for virtual and public spaces.

Site-Specific Outdoor Screening
To be presented on two large-scale (4.88 x 8.64 m) outdoor LED screens for a public audience of all ages.

GIFs
Animated GIFs intended for presentation on public screens across Toronto.

Curatorial Submissions
This year, we also invite curators/curatorial collectives to submit proposals for machinima screenings (on a theme of your choosing). If you are considering a curatorial submission, we encourage you to contact the Vector Festival team for additional practical details.

Deadline: February 01, 2020

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Please submit the following details using our online application form:

• Project description (approximately 300 words)
• Documentation (maximum of five images, and/or link to audio/video documentation)
• Description of technical requirements (please outline materials provided by the artist and materials required from the exhibiting venue)
• Artist biography (approximately 100 words)
• Please indicate if your work has a thematic, conceptual, or historical connection to Toronto, or if you have a biographic connection to the Greater Toronto Area
• Current CV

If you have questions about submitting your application please contact [email protected].

About Vector Festival
Vector Festival is a participatory and community-oriented initiative dedicated to showcasing experimental media art practice. Presenting works across a dynamic range of exhibitions, screenings, performances, lectures, and workshops, Vector Festival acts as a critical bridge between emergent digital platforms and new media art practice. Vector Festival was founded in 2013 as the “Vector Game Art & New Media Festival” by an independent group of artists and curators: Skot Deeming, Clint Enns, Christine Kim, and Katie Micak, who were later joined by Diana Poulsen and Martin Zeilinger. In 2015 Vector Festival announced that longtime presenting partner, InterAccess, would be taking over responsibility for the festival as part of its regular programming.

About InterAccess
Founded in 1983, InterAccess is a non-profit gallery, educational facility, production studio, and festival dedicated to emerging practices in art and technology. Our programs support art forms that integrate technology, fostering and supporting the full cycle of art and artistic practice through education, production, and exhibition. InterAccess is regarded as a preeminent Canadian arts and technology centre.

For more information contact:
Festival Curators, Katie Micak and Martin Zeilinger
[email protected]

Follow us for updates!
facebook.com/VectorFestivalTO
twitter.com/VectorFestival
instagram.com/interaccessto

LINK: VECTOR FESTIVAL

EVENT: GAMEPLAY. VIDEO GAME CULTURE (DECEMBER 19 2019 - MAY 3 2020, BARCELONA, SPAIN)

GAMEPLAY. Video Game Culture

19 December 2019 - 3 May 2020

Centre de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona

Inauguration
18 December 2019 - 19.00

7.00 pm Audiovisual performance by Alba G. Corral & Tutu

 

Dates and hours
19 December 2019 - 3 May 2020
From Tuesday to Sunday, 11.00 - 20.00

Curated by Óliver Pérez Latorre, Jérôme Nguyen

Gameplay journeys to the origins of video games, analyses their language and highlights the impact they have had on popular digital culture and on art and society. The exhibition is designed as a space for recreation and reflection where visitors can play and (re)discover video game culture. Since their popularisation in the seventies and eighties, video games have developed as an expressive and entertainment medium and now occupy a central space in our imaginary to the point that, today, it is impossible to understand contemporary society and culture without relating them with video gaming.

Gameplay takes a look at the history of the medium, video game language, experimentation and artistic innovation, and critical and political video games.vThe exhibition also raises the issue of the increasing gamification of society: from mobile games to YouTubers and electronic sports (esports) to so-called serious games, educational video games with applications that go beyond entertainment. With 28 game points, from the first arcade and historic computer games to the new immersive options, Gameplay is devised as an exhibition where visitors can play and, at the same time, understand and enjoy video game culture from a critical viewpoint. The show pays particular attention to Catalan production, especially pioneering works, recent indie creations and local artists, and university projects.

Gameplay. Video Game Culture is an extended adaptation of Gameplay. The Next Level, designed by and first presented at the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

LINK: GAMEPLAY

EVENT: GAME ON: EL ARTE EN JUEGO 2019 (NOVEMBER 22-30 2019, BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA)

Game On! El arte en juego, Sixth Edition

November 22 - 30 2019

Cultural Center San Martín

Sarmiento 1551, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Entrance is free and open to the public

The sixth edition of Game On! will take place from November 22 till 30 2019 at the Cultural San Martin in Buenos Aires, within the framework of the Festival of Digital Culture Electronic November. Game On! is the only exhibition in Argentina addressing the artistic and cultural impact video games. The exhibition will feature more than 40 international works, including machinima, interactive experiences, experimental art and video games, alternative controls and more. 

Game On! El arte en juego celebrates its tenth anniversary, coinciding with the rise of festivals and exhibitions of experimental art and video games globally. To celebrate such impressive achievement, within the framework of the event GAIA (Game Arts International Assembly) will take place the first think tank at the international level bringing together 20 curators and producers recognized and alternative festivals worldwide, including the creators of exhibitions in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and festivals such as Berlin's A MAZE and many more. 

For this sixth international edition a team of Diego Maté (Bachelor Critique of Arts, PhD in Arts from the UNA, researcher, critic and teacher), Agustin Perez Fernandez (developer of independent video games, multimedia artist and selected curatorial committee was created by the experimental Gameplay Workshop of the Game Developers Conference 2011) and María Luján Oulton, director and curator of Game on! since its inception.

The first edition was held in 2009 and has established itself across five different editions and traveling exhibitions in the country and in the rest of the region. In these ten years, more than 200 Argentine and foreign artists presented their works to an audience of over 60,000 visitors, cultural venues such as San Martin Cultural Center, Planetarium Galileo Galilei, the CCK, the Recoleta Cultural Center, Technopolis, the CCEBA and Subject to the gallery, among others. Game On! It is directed by María Luján Oulton, specializing in game art curator.

Features artists and designers of the 2019 edition include Ignacio Puccini, Juliàn Palacios, Gerrònimo Pellicer, Mario von Rickenbach and Michael Frei, and Ip Yuk-Yiu, Pippin Bar, Paolo Pedercini, Laura Palevicino, Daniel Benvergui and Jeremias Babini, Joaquin Castro, Connor Sherlock, Douglas Wilson and David Kanaga, Alejandro Cura, Ida Toft and Amani Naseem, Robin Baumgarten, Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux, Paloma Dawkins, Ashley Obscura & Casa Rara Studio, Gabe Cuzzillo, Aruna Collective, Papacorps Team, Nicolás Recabarren, Nicolás Saraintaris and Fernando Martínez Ruppel, JRPG Combat Systems, Moshe Linke, Johan, Gorm, Marco And Martín, Moshe Linke and Aaron Oldenburg, Alex Myers, Sam Barlow, Mez Breeze, Accidental Queens, Jonne Hansson, Lorenzo Redaelli, Romina Luna and Elizabeth Lapenséé, among others. 

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Del 22 al 30 de noviembre en el Cultural San Martín, dentro del marco del Festival de Cultura Digital Noviembre Electrónico, se realizará la sexta edición de “Game On! El arte en juego”, única exhibición en Argentina dedicada a abordar los videojuegos artísticos - culturales.

La exhibición se alojará en las salas A/B del Cultural San Martín y desplegará más de 40 obras nacionales e internacionales, entre las que se encuentran videos machinima, instalaciones lúdicas interactivas, videojuegos artísticos y experimentales, controles alternativos y variedad de piezas y actividades relacionadas con los campos del arte y los videojuegos

“Game On! El arte en juego” festeja 10 años desde su creación, coincidiendo con el auge de los festivales y exhibiciones sobre videojuegos artísticos y experimentales a nivel internacional. Para celebrarlo, dentro del marco del evento se desarrollará GAIA (Game Arts International Assembly), el primer think tank a nivel internacional que reunirá a 20 curadores y productores de festivales reconocidos y alternativos de todo el mundo, incluyendo a los creadores de exposiciones en el Victoria & Albert Museum de Londres, y festivales como A MAZE de Berlín y Print Screen de Israel, entre otros.

Para esta sexta edición internacional se creó un comité curatorial integrado por Diego Maté (Licenciado en Crítica de Artes, doctorando en Artes por la UNA, investigador, crítico y docente), Agustín Perez Fernandez (desarrollador de videojuegos independientes, artista multimedia y seleccionado por la Experimental Gameplay Workshop de la Game Developers Conference 2011) y María Luján Oulton, Directora y curadora de Game On! desde sus inicios.

“Game On! El Arte en Juego” se exhibirá del 23 al 30 de noviembre, de 15:00 a 21:00 horas, en el Centro Cultural San Martín, Sarmiento 1551, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. La entrada es libre y gratuita.

Acerca de Game On! El arte en juego: se trata de la única exhibición en Argentina de videojuegos como una expresión artística. La primera edición fue realizada en el año 2009 y se ha consolidado a través de 5 ediciones y diversas muestras itinerantes en el país y en el resto de la región. En estos diez años más de 200 artistas argentinos y extranjeros presentaron sus obras para un público de más de 60.000 visitantes, en espacios culturales como el Centro Cultural San Martín, el Planetario Galileo Galilei, el CCK, el CC Recoleta, Tecnópolis, el CCEBA y la galería Objeto a, entre otros. Game On! es dirigido por María Luján Oulton, curadora especializada en videojuego artísticos.

LINK: GAME ON 2019

EVENT: PLAYMODE (SEPTEMBER 11 2019 - FEBRUARY 17 2020, LISBON, PORTUGAL)

PLAYMODE

 

11 September 2019 - 17 February 2020

Curated by Filipe Pais and Patrícia Gouveia

MAAT

Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology

Av. Brasília, Central Tejo

1300-598 Lisboa

Open from 11 AM to 7 PM

Closed on Tuesdays

The artists understood early on the transformative power of play, and began integrating it into their works for various purposes – escaping reality, social construction and transformation, subversion or as a criticism of game and play mechanisms themselves. The exhibition Playmode offers a reflection on these aspects and on the era of ludification that contemporary societies are now experiencing, bringing together pieces by several artists, such as Brad Downey, Gabriel Orozco and Ana Vieira, who incorporate the theme while exploring new ways of seeing, participating and transforming the world, using gaming in a critical light.

Participating artists:

The Pixel Hunt, Pippin Barr, Aram Bartholl, /////////fur//// art entertainment interface, Gabriel Orozco, Priscila Fernandes, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Mary Flanagan, Harun Farocki, Molleindustria, Bill Viola and USC Game Innovation Lab, Samuel Bianchini, Eva and Franco Mattes, Lucas Pope, Joseph DeLappe, Brent Watanabe, Filipe Vilas-Boas, Shimabuku, Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn, Tale of Tales, David Shrigley, André Gonçalves, Isamu Noguchi, Ana Vieira, Miltos Manetas, David OReilly, Brad Downey, Dunne & Raby with Michael Anastassiades, Os Espacialistas, CADA.

LINK: PLAYMODE

EVENT: OPEN WORLD: VIDEO GAMES AND CONTEMPORARY ART (OCTOBER 19, 2019 - FEBRUARY 2, 2020, AKRON, OHIO)

Suzanne Treister, Fictional Videogame Still/Q, 1992 (via Akron Art Museum)

OPEN WORLD: VIDEO GAMES AND CONTEMPORARY ART

AKRON ART MUSEUM

ONE SOUTH HIGH

AKRON, OHIO 44308

United States of America

According to a 2015 Entertainment Software Association survey, 155 million Americans play video games. Visual artists are gamers too, yet video games are rarely examined as a major influence on contemporary art. Open World draws attention to this phenomenon through the presentation of artworks including painting, sculpture, textiles, prints, drawings, animation, video games, video game modifications and game-based performances and interventions by makers who self-identify as artists.

The artworks in Open World reference a broad cross-section of games, ranging from early text adventure and arcade games to modern massively multi-player online roleplaying games and first-person shooters. Participating artists are influenced by some of the most beloved video game franchises including Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, The Sims and Final Fantasy.

The exhibition’s title refers to open-world video games, which allow a player to roam through a virtual world, freely selecting their objectives. The title also draws attention to the rich opportunities video games offer for creative expression. Through games, artists build immersive, alternate words. They use digital games to create meaning through imagery, music, sound effects, animation and narrative. The rules governing the experience of playing a video game can express a viewpoint and encourage critical thinking or empathy by directing the player’s attention to systems at work within the real world.

As part of Open World, the Akron Art Museum is calling for submissions of video games and table top games from developers, students and game-creators for Open World Arcade, a day-long indie game event held at the museum on Saturday, December 7, 2019. Click here for more Information or to submit your game. 

Tim Portlock, Clone, 2012, inkjet print. (via Akron Art Museum)

LINK: OPEN WORLD: VIDEO GAMES AND CONTEMPORARY ART

EVENT: AN UNREAL UNITY (MAY 16-30 2019, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA)

Game Design...the Game: Welcome to Inspiration, Now finish the damn game!. PC game, created in Unreal Engine. Courtesy UCLA Design Media Arts.

An Unreal Unity

May 16–30, 2019 

Opening: May 16, 5pm 

UCLA New Wight Gallery 
Broad Art Center, Suite 1100 
240 Charles E. Young Drive
Los Angeles, CA 

An Unreal Unity features screen-based and interactive artwork, large-scale installations, and immersive projection. Themes include the Anthropocene, corporeal estrangement, speculative interventions, and emotional inquest. Participating artists are Hye Min Cho, Kit Kirby, Sara Drake, Isabelle Chen, Lena NW, Phazero, Maru Garcia, Carlos “L05” Garcia, Sam Congdon, Julian Stein, and Paul Carlo Esposito.

Opening reception Thursday, May 16 at 5pm. The exhibition will be open weekdays from 10am to 5pm through May 30.

This event is free and open to the public.

LINK: AN UNREAL UNITY

EVENT: RUPTURES IN VIDEO GAME CULTURE (MAY 15 2019, TORONTO, CANADA)

Ruptures in Video Game Culture

May 15 2019

From 7 to 10 PM

Toronto Media Arts Centre, 32 Lisgar St

Toronto, Canada

As part of the Unfeeling Capitalism series at the Toronto Media Arts Centre, this evening talk brings together game workers, players and artists confronting capitalism, white supremacy, and misogyny in real and virtual worlds. Presented in collaboration with Hand Eye Society, Dames Making Games, Toronto Media Arts Centre, Unifor National, and Game Workers Unite, Ruptures in Video Game Culture features Paolo Pedercini, Gaby Aveiro, SpekWork, and Jordan Sparks.

LINK: Ruptures in Video Game Culture