GAMESCENES

GAME ART: LARRY ACHIAMPONG AND DAVID BLANDY'S GENETIC AUTOMATA (2019)

GENETIC AUTOMATA

Larry Achiampong | David Blandy

12.00pm, Thu 24 January 2019 - 6.00pm, Sat 30 March 2019

Arts Catalyst
74-76 Cromer Street
London
WC1H 8DR

Commissioned by Arts Catalyst, Genetic Automata (2019-) by Larry Achiampong and David Blandy forms the first part of an ambitious new body of works by the artists, exploring race and identity in an age of avatars, video games, and DNA Ancestry testing.

In the artists' new video installation combining animation, spoken word and text interspersed with microscopic topographies of varied shades of skin, digital renditions of skin from video games, and film footage of taxidermied bird life from Darwin’s bird skin collection at the Natural History Museum. [...]

Weaving together imagery and narratives from various popular cultural interpretations of genetic manipulation, from Metal Gear Solid to Resident Evil to Final Fantasy and the Metroid series, the artists will explore the legacy and language of concepts around eugenics and human agency.

Read more on Arts Catalyst, a nonprofit contemporary arts organisation that commissions and produces transdisciplinary art and research located in London.

An Artists Talk is scheduled for February 20 2019.

LINK: Genetic Automata (Images courtesy of Arts Catalyst)

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.
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ARTISTS:

LINK: IN A GAMESCAPE

GAME ART: THEODORE DARST & COLLIN LEITCH, ALL MANNER OF THINGS SHALL BE WELL (2018)

Theodore Darst & Collin Leitch, All Manner Of Things Shall Be Well, 2018, 2-Channel HD Video, 9.45 minutes, Dimensions Variable

All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Theodore Darst and Collin Leitch is a vertical video framed across two HD televisions about religion's aesthetics and ideology. The video incorporates footage from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. and 3D animation. As Ida Pruitt writes on the Brooklyn Rail:

Religious imagery punctuates the video’s landscape, which was partially built with footage lifted from the role-playing video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This open-world game allows players to freely explore its virtual realm and shape their own narratives, a feature Darst and Leitch exploited in the tradition of Machinima (a filmmaking technique where players use the graphics engine of a game to capture footage for a cinematic production). The artists are in dialogue with this practice, but elaborate on the richly textured aesthetic of Skyrim with originally rendered 3D graphics, manipulated video sourced from the internet, digital painting, and other techniques too inventive to pin down. The result is a frenetic montage of imagery that either fragments or evolves as soon as it begins to make sense.

Theodore Darst & Collin Leitch, All Manner Of Things Shall Be Well, 2018, 2-Channel HD Video, 9.45 minutes, Dimensions Variable, installation view. King's leap Projects

Collin Leitch (b. 1993) is an artist and filmmaker living and working in New York. He earned a BA in Film & Electronic Arts at Bard college in 2016. He has participated in screenings internationally including Channels Video Art Festival in Melbourne (2017), Microscope Gallery, Brooklyn (2017), The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016), and has had a solo presentation of his work at Mothership, Woodstock (2016).

Theodore Darst (b. 1986) is an artist living and working in Manhattan. In 2017 he presented a solo show Cult Trash at Magenta Plains, NYC. Recently, Darst has presented work in “THIS KNOWN WORLD” at The Museum Of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, CA; and the Artists’ Film Biennial at Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, England. Darst has exhibited his work in New York at East Hampton Shed, 83 Pitt, Microscope, The Museum of the Moving Image and in Chicago at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Roots and Culture, Public Works, and MANA Contemporary. His first book, Cult Trash, was published by Soft City Publishing on the occasion of his exhibition at Magenta Plains.

LINK: Collin Leitch & Theodore Darst 

GAME ART: KARA GUT'S WAYSHRINES I, II & III (AN AVATAR MANIFESTO) (2016)

Kara Gut's Wayshrines is a video essay about exploration, navigation, and getting lost in virtual worlds, constructed as a video essay/manifesto via split-screens and multiple windows. A fascinating assemblage of appropriated media, screen recordings, and performance in digital environments about the function (and dysfunction) of bodies that deserves repeated views. 

Also by Kara Gut: Intimacy Mods.

LINK: Kara Gut

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

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)

EVENT: LONGITUDE EXHIBITION (OCTOBER 17-NOVEMBER 25 2018, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA)

LONGITUDE EXHIBITION

Curated by Hugh Davies

October 17 to November 25th, 2018

Library at the Dock

107-117 Victoria Harbour Promenade

Docklands, Melbourne Australia

https://longitude-exhibition.net

Featuring artists from across the Asia-Pacific Region, the Longitude exhibition presents cultural, experimental, design and arts practices in the medium of games. Running alongside the exhibition is an event program featuring analog and digital gameplay, films, interactive objects, workshops and panel presentations. 

The Longitude exhibition celebrates games and play as a broad and persistent aspect of culture with the capacity to connect diverse groups. The playful works highlight games as activities beyond escapist entertainment but as nuanced, challenging and inspiring forms of cultural expression that bring a broader understanding to the world and the people it. 

The Longitude exhibition presents cultural, experimental and arts practices in the medium of games. Showcasing artists from across the Asia-Pacific Region working with games and play, the exhibition will also include workshops, film screenings, and presentations. Central to this project is the invigoration of games as activities inclusive of a broad range of audiences. This means absolutely everyone is welcome.

The title of the exhibition longitude refers to the timezone shared by Australia with the Asia Pacific region. These temporal rhythms see the entire Asia Pacific playing together at the same time. Our play is connected, not just through Internet cables, but via lines of longitude.

Curator Hugh Davies has organized a series of terrific events related to Longitude. Click here for the full list.

Featured artists

Sun Yu

Toshio Iwai

Ojiro Fumoto

Dinosaur Polo Club

Paper House

Mojiken

Spotlights Interactive

Triple Day Studios

Lauren Stellar

Neko Games

Ip Yuk-Yui

Troy Innocent

Yesterday is a 3D Puzzle Game that explores love and encounter from a girl’s perspective.

Appearing at the Kuso Game Jam in 2018, Sun Yu's The Hole is brutal in simplicity, gradual in difficulty and high in addition. It's creator, Sun Yu graduated is a graduate of Digital Media Design and works as a planner in a game company in Taiwan.

Combining design, art practice and location-based gaming, Troy Innocent's WAYFINDER LIVEE drags gameplay out of the computer console and into the city space.

She and the Light Bearer is a beautiful point and click adventure game from Indonesian Independent developer team Mojiken Studio.

IP Yuk-Yui's To Call A Deer A Horse (指马为鹿) is an experimental videogame about hand-eye coordination, truth-bending and acts of complicity.

LINK: Longitude Exhibition

GAME ART: DAVID OREILLY'S EYE OF THE DREAM (2018)

EYE OF THE DREAM by DAVID OREILLY

26.09.2018, 16: 00-21: 00 (opening)
27.09.-04.10.2018 
11: 00-15: 00 & 16: 00-21: 00

Mobile Dome 
Mariannenplatz, Berlin, Germany

music BEN LUKAS BOYSEN & SEBASTIAN PLANO
programming DAMIEN QUARTZ & EZRA HANSON WHITE
Sound Design EDUARDO ORTIZFRAU
narration: ALAN WATTS
Idea & curatorial consulting STEPHAN SCHWINGELER

Schedule 2018

September 26-October 4th - Berlin, Mariannenplatz (The New Infinity)
October 13-15 - Los Angeles (David Lynch's Festival of Disruption)
October 25-27 - Hamburg Planetarium (The New Infinity)

The creation of the universe in less than two hours - the new interactive work of artist and game designer David OReilly takes us on a journey through billions of years of history from the moment before the Big Bang through the evolution of life to our modern world. The result is a multi-layered experience that oscillates between dramatic and meditative, abstract and familiar, chaotic and orderly. Real-time simulation is driven by a series of interconnected systems inspired by musical compositional processes. Always moving and producing infinite variations, they create complex and evolving shapes and structures - each moment unique and unrepeatable.

Video courtesy of Berlin Art Link, produced by Anna Russ, filmed by Peter Cairns, and edited by Lena Kocutar.

Images courtesy of David OReilly.

First presented at Berliner Festspiel 2018.

LINK: Eye of the Dream

EVENT: KEITA TAKAHASHI: ZOOMING OUT (JANUARY 24 - JULY 14 2019, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA)

Keita Takahashi: Zooming Out

Curated by Harry DeLorme, Senior Curator of Education

January 24 - July 14 2019

Telfairs Museum

207 W. York St.
Savannah, GA 31401, USA

Telfairs Museum is hosting a major retrospective on Keita Takahashi between January 24 through July 14, 2019. Curated by Harry DeLorme and subtitled Zooming Out, this first-ever museum survey exhibition of the legendary Japanese video game designer’s work is organized in conjunction with the museum’s annual PULSE Art + Technology Festival. So far there have been a relatively scarce number of exhibitions focusing on single designers (Jason Rohrer comes to mind), which makes Zooming Out even more compelling.

Keita Takahashi, Wild Rumpus and Venus Patrol, Tenya Wanya Teens, 2013

Initially trained as an artist, Takahashi received a degree in Fine Art and Sculpture from Musashino Art University in Tokyo. At the beginning of his professional career, he was hired as a design artist at Namco, where he became the lead developer of Katamari Damacy, a now-iconic game that won awards, spawned sequels, influenced popular culture beyond the game world, and was one of the first video games acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

The exhibition highlights Takahashi’s outside-the-box approach to game development, game mechanics, aesthetics, and music. Included will be playable versions of all of Takahashi’s major games, such as the original Katamari Damacy and its newly remastered edition, KatamariDamacyREROLL, We Love Katamari, Noby Noby Boy, and the eagerly awaited Wattam (Developer: Funomena, Publisher: Annapurna Interactive). In addition to his major game releases, the exhibition includes several of his independent games and collaborative installations, including Tenya Wanya Teens, operated with two 16-button controllers, and a reimagined, immersive take on the classic game PAC-MAN (with Clement Shimizu and Babycastles). The artist’s early sculpture work, animations, and playground designs will also be on view.

Keita Takahashi and Adam Saltsman, Alphabet, 2013

Image: Wattam, 2018, Publisher: Annapurna Interactive, Developer: Funomena

Woorld, 2016, Augmented Reality Game, Developer: Funomena

LINK: Telfair Museums

EVENT: COMPUTER GRRRLS! (OCTOBER 27-FEBRUARY 24 2019, DORTMUND, GERMANY)

COMPUTER GRRRLS!

HMKV (Hartware MedienKunstVerein) at Dortmunder U, Level 3
Leonie-Reygers-Terrasse, 44137 Dortmund
, Germany

27 October 2018 – 24 February 2019, HMKV at the Dortmunder U, Level 3

Opening: Friday, October 26th at 7pm

Curated by Dr. Inke Arns e Marie Lechner

The exhibition is dedicated to Nathalie Magnan (1956-2016).

The exhibition Computer Grrrls brings together more than 20 international artistic positions that negotiate the relationship between gender and technology in past and present. Computer Grlz deals with the complex link between women and technology –  from the first human computers to the current revival of cyber-feminist movements. A comprehensive timeline covers these developments from the 18th century to the present. Invited are artists, hackers, makers and researchers who are working on how to think differently about technology: by questioning the gender bias in big data and Artificial Intelligence, promoting an open and diversified Internet, and designing utopian technologies.

Participating artists: Morehshin Allahyari, Manetta Berends, Zach Blas & Jemima Wyman, Nadja Buttendorf, Elisabeth Caravella, Jennifer Chan, Aleksandra Domanovic, Louise Drulhe, Darsha Hewitt, Lauren Huret, Hyphen-Labs, Dasha Ilina, Mary Maggic, Caroline Martel, Lauren Moffatt, Simone C. Niquille, Jenny Odell, Elisa Giardina Papa, Tabita Rezaire, Erica Scourti, Suzanne Treister, Lu Yang

The exhibition will be on view at HMKV until 24 February 2019, and will then travel further to Paris and Eindhoven in the Spring/Summer of 2019.

HMKV, Dortmund, DE (27 Oct 2018 - 24 Feb 2019) 
La Gaité Lyrique, Paris, FR (13 March - 14 July 2019) 
MU, Eindhoven, NL (August - September 2019)

An exhibition by HMKV (Hartware MedienKunstVerein), Dortmund (DE) in co-production with La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris (FR)

The exhibition is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Main funder HMKV: Dortmunder U – Center for Art and Creativity. Partner: MU Eindhoven (NL)

LINK: COMPUTER GRRRLS!