GAMESCENES

CALL FOR ENTRIES: FILE 2023 (DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 15 2023)

 

One of the most exciting digital arts festivals in the world, FILE - Electronic Language International Festival has recently launched its 2023. After a three years hiatus, FILE is back in grand style. Applications will be open from December 19th to February 15th.

 

The 22nd Edition of the Electronic Language International Festival will take place at the FIESP Cultural Center, in São Paulo, from July 5th to August 27th 2023. The selected projects will also be able to collaborate in parallel events in different states of Brazil, also taking place in 2023. The submission is free of charge.

FILE 2023 focuses on four  categories: Electronic Sound, Interactive Art, Digital Language (including video games and machinima, VR and AR) and Educational.

Click here for more information about the submission process. (Thank you Clarissa!)

EVENT: I’LL BE YOUR MIRROR: ART AND THE DIGITAL SCREEN (FEBRUARY 12-APRIL 30 2023, FORT WORTH, TEXAS)

Nam June Paik, Video Flag Y, 1985. 84 ten-inch television sets, three Plexiglas cases, fans, LaserDisc players, LaserDiscs, and video tapes. 72 x 144 x 50 inches. JPMorgan Chase Art Collection. © Estate of Nam June Paik.

I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen
February 12–April 30, 2023

Curated by Alison Hearst 

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
3200 Darnell Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76107 USA

press release

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth presents the landmark I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen, a thematic group exhibition that examines the screen’s vast impact on art from 1969 to the present. This exhibition surveys more than sixty works by fifty artists over the past five decades. The artists included examine screen culture through a broad range of media such as paintings, sculpture, video games, digital art, augmented reality, and video. Organized by Curator Alison Hearst, I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen will be on view at the Modern February 12 through April 30, 2023.

Screens affect nearly every aspect of life today. Their pervasiveness has bred a 24/7 breaking news cycle, the looming corporate-sponsored virtual-reality “Metaverse,” unlimited accessibility and content, and an ease in how ideas and images are distributed, undoubtably shaping culture in profound ways. This exhibition starts in 1969—the year of the televised Apollo moon landing and the launch of the internet’s prototype, ARPANET—as this was the watershed year where collective connectivity through screens was first mobilized in modern society. This era forged what the media theorist Marshall McLuhan presciently deemed in the 1960s a “global village,” a place where distance is collapsed and people from across the world readily interact. Following this trajectory, contemporary life is hybrid and increasingly mediated through screens. These flat and finite surfaces embody more than what meets the eye—they hold up a mirror to society and contribute to forming meaning in life and mainstream culture.

I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen is organized into nine key themes:

liminal space: From the late 1960s to the late 1990s, several artists were working alongside the early major technological developments of the screen: Gretchen Bender, Nancy Burson, Harold Cohen, Vuk Ćosić, Peter Halley, Frederick Hammersley, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Eduardo Kac, Tatsuo Miyajima, Nam June Paik, Lillian F. Schwartz, and Andy Warhol. These artists’ works are highlighted in this section for their innovative processes.

connectivity: Screens connect us with incredible ease to friends, colleagues, a network of other users and players, apps, news, and streaming services. We share—and are shared with—through screens. As culture courses through society via these means, screens are at the axis of most of our interactions, and these connections are a topic interrogated by many artists, including Cory Arcangel, Liss LaFleur, Eva and Franco Mattes, Cassie McQuater, Jacolby Satterwhite, Frances Stark, and Wickerham & Lomax.

surveillance: While we find community through technology, we simultaneously become linked to broader systems of data extraction through our devices. Our information is captured for national security purposes, geo-mapping, and corporate surveillance capitalism, where targeted ads are deployed based on purchases and browsing history. Hasan Elahi, Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Jon Rafman investigate the positive, negative, and humorous aspects of surveillance today.

the repository: Today’s constant stream of data has led to round-the-clock ingestion of content. This informational sphere is made even more accessible via handheld devices. Speaking to a vast and complex array of image and information circulation in the screen age are the artists Morehshin Allahyari, Kahlil Robert Irving, Trevor Paglen, Jason Salavon, Skawennati, and Penelope Umbrico.

digital abstraction: While painters of all genres use technology in their work, artists such as Cory Arcangel, Wade Guyton, Jacqueline Humphries, Laura Owens, and John Pomara explore the intersections of the digital screen and formal abstraction. Historically compared to windows and mirrors, the often flat, rectangular format of paintings also acts like a screen in today’s world—a passageway that disrupts the viewer’s physical space or mirrors contemporary life.

the posthuman body: In the digital age, technology has become an extension of the body. Posthumanism, a concept arising from science fiction, is the idea that humans will be transformed by technological progress. Depictions of the human body in a media-induced world are far from monolithic, as demonstrated by the artists Caitlin Cherry, Petra Cortright, Huntrezz Janos, Guthrie Lonergan, Carson Lynn, Avery Singer, and Hito Steyerl, who traverse concepts of self and portraiture in the technological era.

automation and the loneliness epidemic: The relationship between man and machine is addressed by Cao Fei and !Mediengruppe Bitnik, specifically the tension of isolation in an increasingly automated world. Set in environments where human labor has been replaced by automation, Cao Fei’s and !Mediengruppe Bitnik’s works exemplify the paradoxes of human intimacy in the screen age.

ecology: Electronic debris, such as plastics, batteries, monitors, and phones, fills landfills and off-gasses toxins that contribute to water pollution. Several artists in this exhibition, including American Artist, Alice Bucknell, Simon Denny, Kristin Lucas, Rick Silva, and Elias Sime, demonstrate the complexities of ecology in the digital age.

turning a mirror on ourselves: Holding a mirror to society and ourselves, screens construct reality, molding many of the themes at the forefront of culture today. Through extraordinarily different works, the artists Arthur Jafa and Molly Soda make videos that shine a light on society through the lens of found, vernacular videos already circulating online.

More than 25,000 square feet of gallery space will be devoted to the exhibition, which will include iconic works by prominent national and international artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, such as Cory Arcangel, American Artist, Gretchen Bender, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Arthur Jafa, Nam June Paik, Hito Steyerl, and Andy Warhol, as well as several leading artists living in Texas, including Liss LaFleur, Kristin Lucas, and John Pomara. Several new and never-before-seen works by key artists Caitlin Cherry, Simon Denny, Hasan Elahi, and Kahlil Robert Irving will debut in this exhibition. This is the most in-depth show of its kind in the Southwest region and is one of only a few presentations exploring art and digital technology in the past decade at this scale.

Curator Alison Hearst notes, “Artists have long shone a light on the world and the human experience, and the artists in I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen respond to, challenge, and probe new technologies and the cultural conditions these technologies have shaped. Using the screen as a tool and formal device, many of the artists in this exhibition expand the parameters of artmaking through the digital language unique to their generation.”

Publication
The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue featuring contributions by Alison Hearst, curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Dr. Omar Kholeif, director of collections at Sharjah Art Foundation; Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan, Assistant Curator at Buffalo AKG Art Museum; and professor and cyberpsychologist Dr. John Suler. 180 pages, 100+ illustrations; published by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and distributed by DelMonico Books/D.A.P.

There will be an online platform for the exhibition.

Artists in the exhibition:
Morehshin Allahyari, Cory Arcangel, American Artist, Gretchen Bender, Alice Bucknell, Nancy Burson, Caitlin Cherry, Harold Cohen, Petra Cortright, Vuk Ćosić, Simon Denny, Hasan Elahi, Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0, Cao Fei, Wade Guyton, Peter Halley, Frederick Hammersley, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Jacqueline Humphries, Kahlil Robert Irving, Arthur Jafa, Huntrezz Janos, Eduardo Kac, Liss LaFleur, Guthrie Lonergan, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Kristin Lucas, Carson Lynn, Eva and Franco Mattes, Cassie McQuater, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Tatsuo Miyajima, Laura Owens, Trevor Paglen, Nam June Paik, John Pomara, Jon Rafman, Jason Salavon, Jacolby Satterwhite, Lillian F. Schwartz, Rick Silva, Elias Sime, Avery Singer, Skawennati, Molly Soda, Frances Stark, Hito Steyerl, Penelope Umbrico, Andy Warhol, Wickerham & Lomax

LINK: I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen

EVENT: PAUL LOUBET'S 4X—EXPLORE EXPAND EXPLOIT EXTERMINATE (OCTOBER 15 - JANUARY 8 2023, SÈTE, FRANCE)

 

Paul Loubet
4X—eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate
October 15, 2022–January 8, 2023

Curated by Marie Cozette

Centre régional d’art contemporain Occitanie/Pyrénées-Méditerranée
26 quai Aspirant Herber
34200 Sète
France

Read more about the research and game genre that inspired this work.

press release

Paul Loubet: 4 X—eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate
Paul Loubet is a prolific all-rounder who spreads his painter vocabulary all over the place: canvases, murals, fanzines, objects,  illustrations, flyers, installations in public space... His work draws from a variety of aesthetics and cultural references ranging from geometric abstraction to CGI, from history painting to video games by way of graffiti, urban cultures and science fiction.

For several years he has been more particularly exploring cartographic representations, blueprints, and aerial views, whether in the form of old maps or through new image types like those produced by drones. Paul Loubet is inspired by digital images, to which he applies an elementary rendering while using artisanal methods of production. For example, he paints on floppy discs, creates wooden drones, makes video game consoles out of backlit plexiglas, in a sense reheating the disincarnate world of robotics and computer technology through a manual rendering, a DIY aesthetic rooted in minimal art no less than in naïve art.

The exhibition that the Crac Occitanie is dedicating to his work, presented upstairs, follows his 2021 residency at the Villa Médicis as part of the prize put in place by the Occitanie region in partnership with the French Academy in Rome. In that context, Paul Loubet conducted research into Civilization II, a strategy and conquest game that consists in creating an empire, by means of nothing less than the destruction of all surrounding others. Civilization II belongs to a broader family of “4X” games (eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate). Imperialism and cultural domination, whose final stage would be extermination, are the main thrusts of these games, which reflect a long history of civilizations at their most brutal.

Alongside analysis of the game, Paul Loubet took advantage of his residency to study the iconographic resources of the Vatican’s “Galleria delle carte geografiche”, a 120-metrelong gallery painted by Ignazio Danti between 1580 and 1585, which presents obvious analogies with the isometric views of the game Age of Empires. In the course of his research, Paul Loubet has unearthed the script of a game of the 1990s, the visual inspiration for a series of new paintings. A large tryptic in the form of an altarpiece represents the end game, namely a world map that sees Rome dominating all other civilisations. Like a game archaeologist—and as if to better conjure up the horror—the artist confronts us with a depiction of the end of the world: the map produced sets out past conquests and destructions, while projecting us into a dystopian future, where a single culture reigns.

From 1990s video games, the artist has preserved the pixelated visual identity, a simple and flat colour palette, and a system of representation with no depth or base line. Across from this tryptic, five canvases zoom in on five of the game’s key dates. If the format that Paul Loubet revisits here refers to historical and religious painting, the deployed motifs stem from mass culture and entertainment as embodied by video games. Shifting our perspective on these different worlds, the artist radically and thoroughly decompartmentalises them.

LINK: Paul Loubet

LINK: 4X—eXplore eXpand eXploit eXterminate

EVENT: HYPERSCAPES – VIRTUELLE LANDSCHAFT ALS SEHNSUCHTSORT? (NOVEMBER 25 2022 - JANUARY 29 2023, BERN, SWITZERLAND)

Hyperscapes – Virtuelle Landschaft als Sehnsuchtsort?

25/11/22 — 29/01/23 (Vernissage: 24.11.2022, 18:30 Uhr)

Ausstellung
Stadtsaal 1. OG

Bern, Switzerland

 

Kuration: Nicolas Kerksieck
Marlene Wenger
Christian Schnellmann

Press release (English below)

Mit der Loslösung des Menschen von der Natur änderte sich die Bedeutung von Landschaft. Die ehemals bedrohliche Wildnis wurde zum Sehnsuchtsort für den Ruhesuchenden, die Touristin, den Wanderer oder die Öko-Aktivistin. Landschaft ist heute Natur, gesehen aus dem Blickwinkel des Menschen, ein Ort, den wir immer ästhetisiert wahrnehmen und der uns anzieht. Diese Entwicklung spitzt sich in den digitalen Räumen zu. Hier gestalten wir Landschaftsräume in Videogames oder im Metaverse genau nach unseren Wünschen und Bedürfnissen. Die echte Natur liefert uns eine immer fernere Vorlage dazu.

Die Ausstellung «Hyperscapes – Virtuelle Landschaft als Sehnsuchtsort?» interessiert sich für die Flucht in menschgemachte hybride und digitale Landschaftsräume. Was suchen wir da? Und finden wir, was wir suchen? Hyperscapes ermöglicht dem Publikum, selbst in künstliche Landschaftsräume einzutreten, deren Wirkung zu erfahren und eine reflektierte Haltung einzunehmen.

Die Ausstellung konzentriert sich auf Landschaften als idealisierte Sehnsuchtsorte. «Hyperscapes – Virtuelle Landschaft als Sehnsuchtsort?» geht insbesondere der Frage nach, wie sich diese Idealisierung der Landschaft im digitalen Raum fortsetzt. Ausgehend von der Beobachtung, dass virtuelle Räume in der digitalen Kunst und im Game Design als natürliche Landschaft gestaltet werden, möchte die Ausstellung der Beschaffenheit dieser gestalteten Landschaften nachgehen.

Dabei sind zwei Tendenzen zu beobachten: einerseits sehr mimetische, naturalistisch bis hyperrealistische Landschaften, die an die traditionelle Landschaftsmalerei und die aus menschlicher Sicht möglichst naturgetreue Darstellung von Natur anknüpfen. Andererseits eine freiere, total der Fantasie überlassenen Gestaltung von digitaler Landschaft, die sich den bekannten physikalischen Gesetzen und Vorstellungen entledigt und neue, spekulative Landschaften entstehen lässt. Gerade im digitalen Raum haben die Freiheiten so weit zugenommen, dass sich Landschaft ganz abgekoppelt von Natur den individuellen Wünschen der Gestaltenden fügt.

Die Ausstellung «Hyperscapes – Virtuelle Landschaft als Sehnsuchtsort?» möchte zeigen, auf welche unterschiedliche Weise wir uns die Landschaft im virtuellen Raum vorstellen und bauen und wie wir uns darin bewegen.

Ein Ausstellungsprojekt organisiert durch das Kornhausforum Bern in Zusammenarbeit mit der Berner Design Stiftung.

Ausgewählte Künstler:

Alice Bucknell

Mélanie Courtinat

Deer Hunter / WizardWorks

dribnet

Pascal Greco

Gabriel Lory (Vater und Sohn)

Mélodie Mousset

David O'Reilly

Christiane Peschek

Jakob Kudsk Steensen

Studer / van den Berg

Terra Nil / Free Lives

Walden, a Game / Tracy Fullerton and the Walden Team

---

With the detachment of man from nature, the meaning of landscape changed. The formerly threatening wilderness became a place of longing for the peace seeker, the tourist, the hiker or the eco-activist. Today, landscape is nature as seen from the human perspective, a place that we perceive in an increasingly aestheticized way and that attracts us. This development comes to a head in digital spaces. Here we design landscape spaces in videogames or in the metaverse exactly according to our wishes and needs. Real nature provides us with an increasingly distant template for this.

The exhibition "Hyperscapes - Virtual Landscape as a Place of Desire?" is interested in the escape into man-made hybrid and digital landscape spaces. What are we looking for there? And do we find what we are looking for? Hyperscapes allows the audience to enter artificial landscape spaces themselves, to experience their effect and to take a reflective stance.

The exhibition focuses on landscapes as idealized places of longing. "Hyperscapes - Virtual Landscape as a Place of Longing?" specifically explores the question of how this idealization of landscape continues in digital space. Based on the observation that virtual spaces in digital art and game design are designed as natural landscapes, the exhibition aims to investigate the nature of these designed landscapes.

Two tendencies can be observed: on the one hand, very mimetic, naturalistic to hyper-realistic landscapes that tie in with traditional landscape painting and the representation of nature that is as true to nature as possible from a human perspective. On the other hand, a freer design of digital landscape, totally left to the imagination, which gets rid of the known physical laws and ideas and allows new, speculative landscapes to emerge. Particularly in digital space, the freedoms have increased to such an extent that landscape, completely detached from nature, conforms to the individual wishes of the designer.

The exhibition "Hyperscapes - Virtual Landscape as a Place of Desire?" wants to show the different ways in which we imagine and build the landscape in virtual space and how we move within it.

An exhibition project organized by the Kornhausforum Bern in collaboration with the Berner Design Stiftung.

Featured artists:

Alice Bucknell

Mélanie Courtinat

Deer Hunter / WizardWorks

dribnet

Pascal Greco

Gabriel Lory (Vater und Sohn)

Mélodie Mousset

David O'Reilly

Christiane Peschek

Jakob Kudsk Steensen

Studer / van den Berg

Terra Nil / Free Lives

Walden, a Game / Tracy Fullerton and the Walden Team

LINK: Hyperscapes – Virtuelle Landschaft als Sehnsuchtsort?

EVENT: THE PIECES I AM (SEPTEMBER 30 2022 - JANUARY 8 2023, SHANGHAI)

panGenerator, Infinity, 2020

The Pieces I Am

Curated by Douyin Art 

September 30 2022 - January 8 2023

UCCA Edge
2F, No.88 Xizang Bei Lu,
Jing'an District, Shanghai

press release

SHANGHAI, China — From September 30, 2022, to January 8, 2023, UCCA and Douyin Art present the group exhibition “The Pieces I Am,” focused on humanity’s existence in the digital age. The exhibition features 27 artists and groups from China and abroad who use and/or explore technology in their works. The Chinese exhibition title takes its inspiration from the idiom 吉光片羽(jíguāngpiànyǔ), which metaphorically refers to fragments of treasured ancient relics, and changes the first character to the homophonous 集 (jí) to alter the meaning to suggest a collection of precious, beautiful, and enlightening “pieces” drifting down from the digital world. “The Pieces I Am” offers a possible starting point for understanding our digitized reality, interpreting and disenchanting the contemporary digital age through a wide range of art that traverses between digital and real, authentic and virtual, natural and technological, and logical and emotional. In doing so, it seeks to offer us new ways of recognizing the self, the world, and the relationship between the two in our fragmented contemporary context. “The Pieces I Am” is curated by UCCA Lab Curators Liya Han and Yoojin Tang together with special guest curator Iris Long, designed by Shen Ruofan, and organized by the UCCA Lab team.

Exhibition co-organizer Douyin Art has specially developed an online exhibition space as well as interactive viewing experiences for the offline exhibition. Douyin Art also hosted a special opening livestream including the premiere of an eponymous exhibition concept film starring art ambassadors selected by UCCA. Please find more information on the opening and film below.

Works in the exhibition

Participating artists include Pascale Birchler (b. 1982, Einsiedeln), Ian Cheng (b. 1984, Los Angeles), Chun Shao (b. 1987, Hangzhou), Guo Cheng (b. 1988, Beijing), Ann Veronica Janssens (b. 1956, Folkestone), Lawrence Lek (b. 1982, Frankfurt am Main), Lin Ke (b. 1984, Zhejiang province), Liu Di (b. 1985, Shaanxi province), Jiayu Liu (b. 1990, Liaoning province), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (b. 1967, Mexico City), David OReilly (b. 1985, Kilkenny), panGenerator (formed 2010), Pete Jiadong Qiang (b. 1991, Shaanxi province), Shinseungback Kimyonghun (formed 2012), Shi Zheng (b. 1990, Jiangsu province), Yehwan Song (b. 1995, Seoul), Studio Above&Below (formed 2018), Sun Yitian (b. 1991, Wenzhou), Tang Chao (b. 1990, Hunan province), Coralie Vogelaar (b. 1981, Delft), Wu Ziyang (b. 1990, Xuzhou), Xin Yunpeng (b. 1983, Beijing), Ye Xuan (b. 1989, Hunan province), Yin Yi (b. 1978, Shanghai), Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (formed 1999), Wenxin Zhang (b. 1989, Hefei), Payne Zhu (b. 1990, Shanghai)

UCCA EDGE: Opened in May 2021, UCCA Edge occupies 5,500 square meters over three levels of the new EDGE tower in Shanghai’s Jing’an District. Designed by New Yorkbased architecture practice SO – IL, the museum includes 1,700 square meters of gallery space as well as a wraparound outdoor terrace and public spaces including a lobby and auditorium. Situated just north of People’s Square and Suzhou Creek, and directly above the Qufu Lu station of the Shanghai Metro in a bustling revitalized neighborhood, UCCA Edge will quickly become an essential destination and an integral part of Shanghai’s vibrant cultural fabric.

David OReilly, Everything, 2017

Wu Ziyang, Pasig River 2030 - 6 Plus, 2022

Ian Cheng, BoB (Bags of Belief), 2018-2019

LINK: The Pieces I Am (Thanks, Gemma!)

EVENT: SLIP.STREAM.SLIP (PART 2) RESISTANCE AND VELOCITY IN GAME ENGINE CULTURE (OCTOBER 13 - DECEMBER 16 2022, MANCHESTER, ENGLAND)

Slip.Stream.Slip (Part 2)—resistance and velocity in game engine culture

Curated by Valentino Catricalà

Modal gallery at the School of Digital Arts (SODA), Manchester, England

October 13–December 16, 2022, Monday–Friday, 12–5pm

 

press release

Modal is a brand new digital gallery showcasing artists working at the forefront of creative technology, based at the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Join us for part two of our inaugural exhibition, Slip.Stream.Slip – focusing on game engine culture and the shift toward gamification as a model for understanding our lived experiences. The exhibition explores the tensions and contested spaces that open up when the micro politics of everyday living meet complex, simulated worlds.

Featured artists: Dara Birnbaum, Joseph DeLappe, Mishka Henner, Pierre Huyghe, Trevor Paglen, Quayola, Hito Steyerl, and a selection of DIS artists.

This is the follow up to Part 1  (24 June – 18 September 2022).

Joseph DeLappe, Killbox: A Game About Drone Warfare, Interactive Installation, 2015-2016

Hito Steyerl, The Tower, Three channel high-definition video installation, environment and sound, 2015

LINK: Slip.Stream.Slip (Part Two)

EVENT: PLAYING BEING – ART GAMES FOR LIFE (SEPTEMBER 25 2022 - JANUARY 8 2023, KOUVOLA, FINLAND)

Playing Being – Art Games for Life

Curated by Jaakko Kemppainen

September 25 2022 - January 8 2023

Poikilo-museums
Varuskuntakatu 11, Kouvola-talo
45100 Kouvola
Finland

The games industry is one of the fast-growing fields within the entertainment industry and in the world of business. Furthetmore, games are becoming a significant art form that is not afraid to make statements. The GamePoikilo exhibition focuses on surprising and less well-known works of game art that gaze into the future. GamePoikilo features central recent works of game art but does not ignore the new, experimental and meaningful contenders either. In addition to digital games, the exhibition will also showcase other means of creating game art. As the gamer has a central role in the world of game art, the exhibition guests also have an opportunity to play the exhibition pieces.

Curator and gaem designer Jaakko Kemppainen writes:

The exhibition includes 27 games that can be played at the exhibition. The main theme of the exhibition is “games looking towards reality” – games that handle or comment some real world issues or topics. Most of the games are digital and can be bought or downloaded from different internet services, like Steam or Itch.io. But there are also a couple of unique or rare installations, like Brenda Romero’s Train and Eric Zimmerman’s and Nathalie Pozzi’s Sixteen Tons."

He adds: "The exhibition is the main part of our Capital of Game Art project, which is a collection of different activities that exhibit, explore and expand games as an art form. Beside the exhibition we have e.g. light art festival, where most of the pieces are playable games or approach games from the interactive art. We are also organizing a “Free City of Games” pop-up event, in which there will be multiple exhibitions, workshops, installations, game demos, table top and live role-playing sessions etc through November, in a very visible space in the centre of Kouvola. Here’s some info about Capital of Game Art.

Here's more information about this wonderful initiative:

And some installation shots:

LINK: Playing Being – Art Games for Life (all images courtesy of Poikilo-museums)

EVENT: GAMES AND POLITICS CLUJOTRONIC EDITION (OCTOBER 7 - 16 2022, CLUJ-NAPOCA, ROMANIA)

Games and Politics

Curated by Dr. Jeannette Neutstadt

October 7 - 16 2022

16:00 – 20:00, free entry

Clojotronic

Piata Unirii 24, Cluj-Napoca

Romania

 

Here's a killer exhibition about the relationship between politics and games featuring games such as Papers, Please by Lucas Pope, This War Of Mine by 11 Bit Studios, Madrid by Gonzalo Frasca and The Cat and The Coup by Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad, and Pourparlers by Tatiana Vilela Dos Santos among others taking place within the context of Clujotronic, an international festival for "creative minds, digital artists, and indie game connoisseurs" featuring performances, installations, independent games exhibitions, game jams and workshops organized by the Goethe-Institut and the Institut Français. It was launched exactly a decade ago and it rocks. The original Games & Politics exhibition was originally organized by 𝗭𝗞𝗠 [Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe] in 2016 and this new iteration demonstrates the urgency on such a critical exploration.

Full description below:

How can a game both reflect and influence the society? What hides behind the story of a game? How does a game affect its players? The exhibition 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀, has been shown around the world and presents the variety of computer games as a politically and socially relevant medium. This year you have the chance to experience the interactive digital games exhibition at 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗷𝗼𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗰. The curated exhibition is inviting you to play while creating space for critical thinking and questioning the different contexts and sociology-political realities of this powerful tool of the digital world: the computer games!

For the Clujotronic edition of the exhibition 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝘆 has been created:

>> 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 | Games as a mirror of living with a disability

The original version of the exhibition includes 𝟲 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀:

> 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 | Computer Games as Commentary on Actual Political Events

> 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 | Computer Games as Reflexions of the Alliance between War and Entertainment Industries

> 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 | Computer Games as a Questioning of Stereotypical Gender Roles

> 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 | Computer Games as Instruments of Self-Reflexion

> 𝗠𝗶𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 | Computer Games that Cross Borders

> 𝗠𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 | Computer Games as Observers of Self-efficacy and Powerlessness

The interactive exhibition is developed by 𝗚𝗼𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲-𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁 and 𝗭𝗞𝗠 [Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe]

Presented at Clujotronic by the German Cultural Center Cluj-Napoca and the Institut Francais Cluj-Napoca.

LINK: Games and Politics

EVENT: THE ART OF PLAY (FROM OCTOBER 14 2022, SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND)

State of Play Games: Lumino City (Courtesy of State of Play Games)

The Art of Play

October 14 2022

Curated by Dr. Michael Pennington

National Videogame Museum
Castle House
Angel Street
Sheffield
S3 8LN England

 

The Art of Play, the latest exhibition at the marvelous National Video Game Museum in  Sheffield, UK, celebrates the impact of British game mechanics and aesthetics on visual culture by showcasing five indie games that changed game design forever. Among the artifacts on display are indie classics Monument Valley, Lumino City and No Longer Home alongside Worms 2 and Dizzy. The exhibition opens on October 14th in Sheffield but it's unclear when it will end.

press release

The Art of Play is a new exhibition at the National Videogame Museum. It takes you “behind the screens” to reveal the art, creativity and people behind five UK-made videogames. Emphasizing the handmade and traditional techniques used within games, The Art of Play focuses on the non-digital aspects which create the unique textures and moods seen on screen.

Art and Craft of Videogames

Developed through conversations with UK based games studios, the exhibit showcases drawings, notebooks and physical models. Video interviews with designers and artists also detail the concept development and inspiration behind the games.

Furthermore, featured case studies include award-winning contemporary games Monument Valley, Lumino City and No Longer Home. Classics like the Dizzy series and Yorkshire’s very own Worms are also part of the exhibition.

The Art of Play exhibits videogames as contemporary art, illustrating the handcrafted techniques and creativity. Monument Valley is a prime example of this.

Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in a newly released Panoramic Edition of Monument Valley. It is a meditative and calming puzzle game influenced by the works of artist M.C. Escher. Seemingly impossible geometric architecture is brought to life as 21st century interactive labyrinths.

Dr. Michael Pennington, Curator at The National Videogame Museum says: “We are delighted to be showcasing the expertise, craft and art of videogames. Through this exhibition (and the support of Art Fund) we are able to celebrate videogame art as art, and explore how game developers use traditional techniques to produce stunning and contemporary interactive artworks.”

Star Objects

Comparatively, contrasting the contemporary with the historic, on display in Sheffield for the first time is a hand-drawn map, created by the Oliver Twins in 1989. This star object, the “Fantasy World Dizzy” map, features hundreds of intricate level details. Visitors will be able to see clouds, trapdoors and beanstalks, all sketched out in pencil. It even includes alternative titles for the game which had not yet been coded.

Additionally, a series of rarely-seen objects on display include an Amiga 4000 computer (on loan from the US). This was used to design and develop the videogame Worms 2. Art Director for Worms 2, Cris Blyth significantly paints a picture of how blockbuster games were created in Yorkshire, in the late 1990’s. This is presented through his design memos, rough notes and storyboard designs.

Living Collections

This exhibit is part of “Living Collections” a new interview series supported by Arts Council England. Thereupon, visitors can take a deep-dive into the tools and techniques behind the production of much loved videogames in the Museum’s collection.

Emily Theodore Marlow, Curator at The National Videogame Museum says: “Thanks to Arts Council support we have been able to dig deeper into objects within our collection, and through speaking to Worms designer Cris Blyth, paint a picture of what it was like to make videogames in the 1990s in Yorkshire.”

Ustwo Games: Monument Valley (Courtesy of Ustwo Games)

Humble Grove Studios: No Longer Home, logo designed by Cecile Richard (Courtesy of Humble Grove Studios)

Humble Grove Studios: No Longer Home, logo designed by Cecile Richard (Courtesy of Humble Grove Studios)

Ustwo Games: Monument Valley (Courtesy of Ustwo Games)

Ustwo Games: Monument Valley (Courtesy of Ustwo Games)

Humble Grove Studios: No Longer Home, logo designed by Cecile Richard (Courtesy of Humble Grove Studios)

The Oliver Twins: Fantasy Land Dizzy Map, photography by Gordie Cavill, technician and engineer at The National Videogame Museum (Courtesy of The Oliver Twins)

LINK: The Art of Play

EVENT: VIDEO GAMES? ART AND TECHNOLOGY (OCTOBER 6 - JANUARY 29 2023, GRANDE PRAIRE, CANADA)

Video Games? Art and Technology 

Curated by Manar Abo Touk, Curator, Exhibitions & Collections

Oct 6, 2022 to Jan 29, 2023

Art Gallery of Grande Prairie 103-9839 103 Ave

Grande Prairie, Alberta T8V 6M7

Canada

(780) 532-8111

[email protected]

press release (excerpt)

Video Games? Art and Technology is a group exhibition featuring Pippin Barr, Sandee Moore, and artist collective SpekWork (Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll), that examine video games as an artform for design and self- expression. From computer art to digital art, to animation, web-based art, photography, film, AR and VR, and video games. The Art and Technology movement of the 1960s provided artists the tools to mix technology, art, and science.

As technology advanced and progressed, gaming design grew as an artistic practice. In the 1990s digital artists explored the historical dimension of the computer and its development as a creative medium. Video Game creation allows artists to play with technological tools and game mechanics to question our perception of the physical world. How can Video Games shape and contribute to the way we learn history and understand issues in the contemporary world? such as the representation of female skateboarders, architecture and labour, or philosophical mythology.

Video Games? Art and Technology aims to create a digital artistic experience that reflects on how technology and art are used to examine design structures and societal themes through re-interpreting classic video games and offering a new way of seeing in our digital age.

(Let’s Play: Ancient Greek Punishment game, Pippin Barr, 2011)

(The Mixer: The Ultimate Sk8 Activity Centre, 2001, electronics, sculpture, household paint, modified video game, single-channel video. Photo courtesy of the Dunlop Art Gallery.)

LINK: Video Games? Art and Technology