GAMESCENES

ART GAME: ALAN KWAN AND ALLISON YANG'S FORGETTER (2021)

Alan Kwan and Allison Yang Jing recently completed the experimental game Forgetter in collaboration with DSLCOLLECTION. In the game the player works for a tech company that cleans all the trauma or dark memories in dead artist brains, and then recycles and sells these artistic brains to parents who want their newborns to be super creative but pain-free artists. This project combines the form of walking simulator games with a janitor cleaning mechanic to create a weird, artistic interactive experience. 

 

Forgetter looks a game designed by the ultimate collab: Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor).

 

 

Alan Kwan is an artist, technologist, and researcher. He is primarily interested in exploring new artistic and technical possibilities of real-time 3D technologies and game engines that depart from the traditional video game paradigm and typical tech fantasies of AR/VR. His projects, including VR experiences and experimental video games were presented at international venues such as Ars Electronica Center in Austria, ZKM Centre for Art and Media in Germany, Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, etc. and were featured in media including Discovery Channel, Popular Science, and Boston Globe. Previously, 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). One of his video games was acquired by the Hong Kong M+ Museum as part of its permanent collection. Alan holds a Master of Science in Art, Culture, and Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently exploring the construction of impossible architecture and psychological spaces in the virtual world. He also co-founded the independent video game label Sometimes Monastery with Allison Yang Jing to create experimental & emotional art games that also have high production quality, and try to push them to mainstream platforms. Among his projects is the innovative Bad Trip (2012) and Scent (2018). We interviewed Alan a while back. Alan will be giving a talk about his latest project, Forgetter, at IULM University on April 22 2021, as part of the 2021 GAME TALK series.

 

Allison Yang Jing is a writer, curator and designer of video games. She is interested in the intersection between the industry of art and that of game. She is currently based in Hong Kong and making a game called Forgetter with Alan Kwan and DSL Collection. 

 

Founded in 2005 by Paris-based couple Sylvain and Dominique Lévy, the DSL Collection is one of the rare Chinese contemporary art collections in France. Now aided by daughter Karen Levy, the collection continues to explore new ways of reaching audiences across the world through VR technology and gaming media.  

 

Forgetter is available on Steam 

 

LINK: ALAN KWAN (all images courtesy of the artist)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: A MAZE. / BERLIN 2021: HYPER HYBRID (DEADLINE: APRIL 30 2021)

10th International Games and Playful Media Festival from July 21 – 24, 2021.

Award submissions are open now, until April 30, 2021.

HYPER Birthday, A MAZE. / Berlin!

Press release:

One of the few things that are sure this year? A MAZE. / Berlin is celebrating its 10th birthday with a Hyper Hybrid edition from July 21 - 24, 2021. For this year’s edition, A MAZE. has booked Urban Spree as the festival studio location. The festival is planned in a completely digital version, but if smaller gatherings are allowed this summer, there will be a beautiful space for the 10 years birthday party of A MAZE. / Berlin:

Hyper Birthday. <3

As in the past years, A MAZE. / Berlin invites game designers and artists to submit their games or playful installations until April 30, 2021. People with expertise and interest can also register for the Selection Committee, which helps reviewing all entries. For all the details and the submission, click here

The award show will be streamed live from Berlin on July 23, 8pm. The winner is selected by an interdisciplinary, international and 100% independent jury. A MAZE. / Berlin 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”. Plus: This is going to be the 4th year of our Diversity Award, the “Humble New Talent Award” in collaboration with Humble Original.

"Since 10 years, A MAZE. is nominating artistic creations from around the globe. Works that underline the rise of interactive arthouse productions. All the A MAZE. Award winners create milestones in the history of independent games and playful media. We love to experience works based on meaning, experiments, story, expression, change, interdisciplinarity, social/cultural/political impact, aesthetics and fun,” says Thorsten S. Wiedemann, artistic director of A MAZE.

Matthias Löwe, head of the A MAZE. / Berlin Awards, adds: “Starting this year, we also want to provide a spotlight to creators who usually can't enter the contest with our new community- sponsored supporter tickets. In addition to better accessibility, we hope to showcase even more hidden gems this way.”

TIMELINE A MAZE. / BERLIN AWARD SUBMISSION

Mar 19: Start of Submissions and Jury-Registration Apr 15: Judging starts

Apr 30: Submission Deadline May 31: Judging ends

Jun 14: Announcement Nominees Jun 15: Final Judges starting reviews Jul 21: A MAZE. / Berlin starts

Jul 23: Award ceremony
 
Submit here: - Submission for the 10th edition of the A MAZE. Awards are open until April 30, 2021

A MAZE. / Berlin 2021 is funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and part of gamesweekberlin. Thanks to our sponsors and partners Humble Original, Game - Verband der deutschen Game- Branche, Kickstarter, Leibniz Association.

A MAZE. is a unique and cultural investigating international platform for games and playful media that invites professionals and creatives from various fields to exchange their knowledge and visions, presenting their projects, playing, making contacts to collaborate on future projects. The festival A MAZE. / Berlin represents games beyond the mainstream and celebrates the art-form and the rise of arthouse. 

LINK: A MAZE

EVENT: NOW PLAY THIS! 2021 (MARCH 25-28 2021, ONLINE)

NOW PLAY THIS! A Festival of Experimental Game Design

March 25-28

Online

"This year, Now Play This explores the relationship between play, games and the climate crisis. Due to the pandemic, we are once again running a fully online festival. Join us for a four-day programme of games, workshops and conversations, where each day shifts a different aspect of the festival’s theme into focus!"

A wonderful line-up for one of the best Festivals of Experimental Game Design on this very planet. The 2021 edition is curated by Sebastian Quack, Sophie Sampson, Nick Murray andJo Summers. It features, among other things, Chris Crawford's seminal 1990 simulation Balance of the Planet, Safe Place's Venice 2089, Elizabeth La Pensée's Honour Water, and SCRNPRNT's Garden of Earthly Delights. 

LINK: NOW PLAY THIS!

ART GAME: COSTANTINO OLIVA'S OTOGARDEN (2021)

OTOGARDEN is a musical game about free improvisation designed by Costantino Oliva. Players can explore their musicality in a Japanese garden atmosphere, control a mischievous kappa, a traditional yokai spirit, and feel the musical possibilities of your surroundings. The game was created for research purposes as a tool to demonstrate musicality in digital games. OTOGARDEN is inspired by the musicking concept introduced by musicologist Christopher Small, the works of media artist Toshio Iwai, and the Japanese musical soundscape. The development team included Marvin Zammit (Mighty Box) who did the programming and Fabrizio Calì who worked on Animations and Art.

 

Costantino Oliva is a Lecturer at the Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta, and is intended as a playable support to music and game research. Through an intuitive game interface, OTOGARDEN explores the topic of musical improvisation, "an activity of enormous complexity and sophistication, or the simplest and most direct expression” (Derek Bailey, 1993).

 

 

LINK: Costantino Oliva (all images and videos courtesy of the Artists)

RESEARCH PROJECT: BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY'S PARTICIPATORY WORLDS (2020-2021)

Participatory Worlds was launched in 2020 thanks to an effort by Bournemouth University in the UK and supported by Arts Council England. The project is led by José Blázquez.

"This project investigates three creative practices (‘machinima’, in-game photography and gamics) performed by audience members, normally end-users, which make use of videogame assets to convey stories and produce works of art. ‘Press Start’ aims to raise public awareness of the possibilities of these practices for creative expression and educational purposes by engaging with the general public, artists, scholars and teaching professionals. The project will produce four publications, an art exhibition displaying works from United Kingdom and international artists, practice-based workshops, and a seminar. "

Check their website for resources and activities, featuring artworks by Joshua Lee, JBS Gaming; Logic Films; Beatriz Vigario; CrazyFox; Frans Bouma; Akumath; Megan Miller; Irregular Saturn among others.

LINK: Participatory Worlds

EVENT: ANGELA WASHKO'S POINT OF VIEW (FEBRUARY 18 - APRIL 25 2021, LEUVEN, BELGIUM)

Angela Washko

Point of View

February 18–April 25, 2021

STUK — House for Dance, Image & Sound

Naamsestraat 96, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

STUK.BE

Curator: Karen Verschooren, STUK

STUK is delighted to present the first European survey exhibition of American artist and interventionist Angela Washko (b. 1986).

Angela Washko is devoted to creating new forums for discussions of feminism where they do not exist. She actively seeks out new ways to facilitate or enter into conversation with individuals and communities who have radically different ideas and opinions in an attempt to create spaces for discussion, productive dissent and complexity. Throughout her practice, she investigates how power structures are embedded into our collective consciousness through media. A life-long gamer, her work takes the form of performance (in both virtual and physical spaces), actions, interventions, video games, videos, prints and books.

In her solo exhibition in STUK, Point of View, Washko is presenting four bodies of work: The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft (2012-2016), Heroines with Baggage (2011-2014), BANGED (2015-2017) and The Game: The Game (2016-2019).

In 2012, Washko founded The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft with a goal to facilitate discussions with other players about the misogynistic, homophobic, racist and discriminatory language used within the game space. Instead of just continuing to "go on quests and kill stuff," she created a series of video-documented performances—two of which are included in the show—in which she initiated and facilitated conversations about gender and discrimination within World of Warcraft.

For her video series "Heroines with Baggage," Washko started to replay the 1990s role-playing video games which were formative to her as a child. Upon replaying these games, it became clear to the artist that the women represented were frequently portrayed as collapsing, running scared, afraid of being alone, and always in need of rescue by a male protagonist. By constructing videos featuring only scenes focused on female characters from these games, Washko makes the presence of these stereotypes and oversimplified gender binaries visible and woefully obvious.

"BANGED" is a series of works Washko created around the figure of Roosh V, "the Web’s most infamous misogynist" and a professional pick-up artist. A leader of the manosphere (an online anti-feminist network mobilized around the notion that men are more oppressed than women), Roosh V has written numerous books on how to have sex with women across cultural barriers as quickly as possible. His tales of sexual conquests were widespread, however never giving voice to the women involved. During the process of soliciting stories from these women to create a parallel compilation to his stories and texts, Washko ended up doing a video interview with the manosphere figurehead himself. The interview video along with performances and books about her experience with the manosphere community afterward make up the "BANGED" project.

 

Resulting from continued research into the pick-up artist (PUA) community is the last body of work presented in the exhibition: The Game: The Game. Composed entirely of scenarios, techniques, and language from texts and instructional videos created by pick-up artists, The Game: The Game is a feminist dating simulator video game designed to give players the experience of interacting with a series of infamous pick-up artists and seduction coaches. It is accompanied by a haunting musical score composed by Xiu Xiu.

The exhibition Point of View is part of a series of solo exhibitions in STUK by contemporary visual artists who have a particular affinity for the moving image and spatial video installations. Previous exhibitions in this series include Mircea Cantor - Am I really free?; Sebastián Díaz Morales - TALK WITH DUST; Mika Taanila - THE END; Nevin Aladağ - ROLLIN’; Omer Fast - Appendix; Joachim Koester - Maybe this act, this work, this thing; Emre Hüner - Neochronophobiq; John Akomfrah - Auto Da Fé; and Bjørn Melhus - The Theory of Freedom.

Angela Washko
(b. 1986, Reading, USA)

Angela Washko is an artist who creates new forums for discussions about feminism in spaces frequently hostile toward it. Her practice spans interventions in mainstream media, performance art, digital works, video and video games. She recently finished a documentary film about RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Mrs. Kasha Davis titled Workhorse Queen.

Currently Associate Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, Washko is the recipient of a.o. the Creative Capital Award and the Impact Award at Indiecade. Her practice has been highlighted in The New Yorker, Frieze Magazine, Time Magazine and more, and her projects have been presented internationally at venues including Museum of the Moving Image (New York), Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Milan Design Triennale, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki), and Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennial.

On February 18, Angela Washko will host an online artist talk on the opening night. In the lecture, Angela will walk the audience through her research and practice, focusing on the works in Point of View. The talk will close with a participatory play-through of Washko’s feminist video game about pick-up artists, The Game: The Game, facilitated by the artist. Please register via this link.

LINK: Angela Washko

PROJECT: HUGO MONTEMBEAULT'S THE BUG HUNTER (2021-)

Hugo Montembeault has just started a new postdoctoral game design research-creation project at the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) laboratory of Concordia University, Canada, funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et Culture (FRQSC). Montembeault's project is entitled Bug Hunter. Mapping Glitches Trajectories in Game Design Space: From the Poetical to the Political (2020-2022). His goal is to study the aesthetic and rhetorical potential of video game glitches. Montembeault has recently launched a dedicated website to document, share, and discuss his research-creation activities. There, you’ll find his art manifesto, the game design document, a design journal in the form of a blog, and an archive of glitches captured in the wild, which is accompanied by several social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and GitHub. Here's an excerpt from the manifesto:

Bug Hunter qualifies itself as a media-archaeological videoludic experimentation devoted to gaming glitches. The object of study is understood as neglected and repressed ontological parts of the video game art form. The goal is to proceed to the gamification of a materialist and historiographical investigation of the poetic and politic of glitches. In that context, glitchy aesthetic, mechanics, and gameplay become the engines that drive players to playfully engage with this research-creation through their senses, body, and intellect.

LINK: The Bug Hunter 

EVENT: THE OVERKILL FESTIVAL (NOVEMBER 27 - DECEMBER 6 2020, ONLINE) [updated and amended]

The Overkill Festival

Opening: Friday November 27th 2020, 19:00 

Festival: Friday November 27th - Sunday December 6th  2020

Time Schedule: www.theoverkill.nl

The might collective Sickhouse  - founded by Aike Lutkemuller and Marie Janin - is organizing The Overkill Festival, a smosgaboard of game-related content and events comprising of three different programs: an exhibition room curated by The Rodina, an online exhibition space, featuring the works of the artists and game developers co-curated by Isabelle Arvers , and a series of YouTube streams. This killer package - framed by the theme “The end of the world as we know" - looks phenomenal.

For instance, check out the ART SELECTION...

...And the GAMES program

Sickhouse is a playful art space focused on the impact of digital & popular culture on society. It's also an exhibition space, a room for VR experience, a workshop area and our retro living room office located at the top floor of Warp Technopolis at Stationsplein 1 in Enschede, The Netherlands. Sickhouse present and co-produce crossover projects combining art, gaming, pop culture, science, music, philosophy…

LINK: THE OVERKILL FESTIVAL

VIDEO ESSAY: EUROTHUG4000'S THE ART OF GAME PHOTOGRAPHY (2020)

Great video essay on game photography by eurothug4000, which quotes, among other things Eva and Franco Mattes's 13 Most Beautiful Avatarsand Leo Sang's Virtual Reality Photography project which was featured in the TRAVELOGUE exhibition in 2016.

Also: check out the incredibly detailed The Last of Us II Photo Mode features on the Sony PlayStation Blog.

LINK: The Art of Video Game Photography (Via Critical Distance)

GAME ART: NEILSON AND MILAN KOERNER-SAFRATA'S THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS (2020)

The Garden of Earthly Delights is an online chatroom for the creatures living within the world of Age of Empires II created by SCRNPRNT, that is Neilson Koerner-Safrata (Virtual Virtual Reality, Dustnet, Irrational Exuberance among others) and his twin brother Milan (Heart, Puzzlegami, Alien Garden among others). Gloriously absurd, like a Ionesco's play, it redefines the very notion of "frame" and "window" by upgrading Hieronymus Bosch's triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490-1510) to the digital age. SCRNPRNT's deconstruction of video game spaces and mechanics is both an example of pseudo-forensics architecture and appropriation art. Players can embody different characters within the cosmology of Age of Empires II - human animals or non-human animals - by pushing the arrow key. There are also literal arrows in the game, so you'd better watch out. This fascinating non-game can be experienced in a browser and would work great as an installation in a white cube.  

SCRNPRNT was founded by twins Milan and Neilson to work with video game engines and virtual worlds to form new connections between the screen and the self. Their work has shown internationally at festivals such as A MAZE, Now Play This, VIFF, Independent Games Festival, IndieCade, and Ludicious.

LINK: SCRNPRNT