GAMESCENES

GAME ART: SÉAMUS GALLAGHER'S A SPACE AND PLACE FOR US ALL (2017)

Seamus Gallagher, falling in love with whatever loves me first, pigment print, 44” x 66”, 2017

I'm in love with Séamus Gallagher's a space and place all for us, a triptych featuring images created digitally using 3D modeling programs like Blender, as well as Unity, a computer game engine. As Gallagher explains,

images of these video game environments are then extracted into print form, which i use to construct complex, large-scale installations for me to photograph, encompassing the camera’s frame. in bringing these digital aesthetics into a physical space, these photographs exist as dense visual environments that blur the line between the digital and the physical, the real and the fake. by photographing myself inside these constructed spaces, i want to explore what it means for the body to interact within virtual, otherworldly spaces.

Seamus Gallagher's is a an interdisciplinary artist originally from Moncton, New Brunswick, and currently finishing his undergraduate with a double major in Photography and Expanded Media at Nova Scotia College of Art & Design. His practice centres around constructing complex, colourful spaces for myself to interact within, blending photography with installation and performance.

LINK: Seamus Gallagher

GAME ART: TOTAL REFUSAL'S SWINGS DON'T SWING (2019)

The latest work by Total Refusal (Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf) is a 4-channel video installation that brings to light the intrinsic contradictions of video game environments, i.e. the designers' obsession to achieve photorealism and the Potemkin Village-like syndrome which informs their representational logic. Far from being functional, several simulated elements are just props: they look "real", but they do not perform as one might expect. Specifically, the collective underlines the complete lack of usability of playground structures within shooter games, where the function of swings and slides is purely decorative. Hence, swings don't swing, slides don't slide and carousels don't... well, you get the idea. Far from being interactive, virtual playground spaces are "dead space".

installation view, 2019

Swings don't swing was conceived as an installation in which four screens literally swing in the gallery room as to compensate for the counterintuitive stasis of their digital replicas. As they write in their accompanying text, "They document different attempts to interact with the dysfunctional objects, showing how difficult it is to actually play within a video game." It is somehow ironic that, in a shooter, playful structures are stripped of their playful affordances. The playground thus becomes an arena for violent conflict. Or artistic subversion, like in this case. In other words: if a video game totally refuses to play, Total Refusal plays with the video game. 

Total Refusal is Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, and Michael Stumpf.  In their practice, they critically analyze and appropriate digital game spaces and put them to new use. Moving within games but ignoring the intended gameplay, Total Refusal allocates these resources to new activities and narratives, in order to create “public” spaces imbued with critical, even subversive potential.

Leonhard Müllner works as an artist in the public and digital space and is currently writing his doctoral thesis at the Linz Art University at the Institute for Art and Cultural Studies.

Robin Klengel works in Graz and Vienna as an interdisciplinary artist, illustrator, cultural anthropologist and vice president of the Forum Stadtpark.

Michael Stumpf studied philosophy at the University of Vienna. He works as an artist, designer and cultural theorist.

LINK: Total Refusal

GAME ART: SU HYUN NAM'S SURROGATE_ BEING II (2019)

A fascinating take at simulation vs. representation, memory vs. concreteness. 

Surrogate Being is an interactive virtual environment exploring possibilities of affective relationships between humans and machines and mindful approaches in the computation process for their sustainable coevolution of human and technology. This work negotiates the discrepancy between memories and digital data of a nostalgic place through the process of recreating the artist’s hometown in Korea. The heterogeneity of algorithmic digital images and affective memories are interwoven in the 3D environment.

This virtual space bridges my mind and digital technology and invites participants to explore the mediated landscape with curiosity. As memories remain indistinct and disintegrated until we recollect, the landscape is destructed when no participant is engaged. If a participant is approached to the fragmented image and stand in front of it, it turns into a navigable landscape. As s/he moves her/his head to look at the other side of the landscape, the virtual camera in the scene changes its direction responding to the participants' movement. This interaction suggests a potential depth in the digital landscape we can look into, thus the monitor or the projected image becomes a portal into the mediated memory space.

As the virtual environment is transformed based on input data of participants' movement, the participant's body is affected by reactive virtual images again. In this way, their interaction begins to flow in the feedback loop and ultimately makes the human mind and algorithmic process indistinguishable.

Su Hyun Nam investigates the complex emerging identity and implicit conflict of a foreign being by reconstructing familiar landscapes as uncanny digital images. Living as an immigrant, I experience and observe multiple incongruities in the seemingly coherent public world - generated by competing social norms and clashing cultural perspectives, and my digital images mediate those fragmented heterogeneous experiences of the society. In this process, digital technology inspires my own personal searching in a creative and mindful way, and consequently, the computation process becomes meditative beyond the canonical rule-driven approach.

LINK: Su Hyun Nam

EVENT: LAST STOP (OCTOBER 4 2019, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA)

LAST STOP

At LIKE LIKE gallery

Friday October 4th, 2019
7-11 PM
During the Unblurred gallery crawl

205 North Evaline St
Pittsburgh, PA

A show featuring New Urbanist Games for Transit-Oriented Teens. Celebrate public transportation as portrayed / idealized / fetishized by videogames. Take an infinite bus ride! Ride an infinite bus! Master the controls of a handsome Deutsche Bahn ICE 3M class 406! Plan the most efficient subway system! Drive a trolley in a whimsical world! Plan your commute on a future-Pittsburgh transit map!

Works by: Turnfollow /// Dinosaur Polo Club /// Alexander Perrin /// Holly Gramazio /// Dovetail Games

 LINK: Last Stop

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

GAME ART: TABITHA NIKOLAI'S DOWNSTREAM A SHINING WIRE (2019)

Tabitha Nikolai

Downstream a Shining Wire

September 17 - November 1 2019

Open Signal

2766 NE Martin Luther King, Jr Blvd
Portland, OR 97212

opensignalpdx.org

 

Tabitha Nikolai is a visual artist from Utah who works in sculpture, text, video games, cosplay and earnest rites of suburban occult. Her work has been shown an the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, and Ganka Gallery in Tokyo. She was formerly the assistant and co-curator at Place, Surplus Space and Compliance Division in Portland, Oregon. She uses video games and virtual reality to create fictional worlds addressing themes such as the relationship between society and technology, sex, gender, and identity. 

For example, Utopia Without You transformed a gallery space into a gamer's den, and looked at video games as a means of isolation and a retrenchment from an adversarial society.

Shrine Maidens of the Unseelie Court (2017) is a journey into an uncanny environment for PC and Mac.

Ineffable Glossolalia (2017) is a virtual environment made in the Unity game engine for the HTC Vive virtual reality platform, as well as PC and Mac desktop.

Her new show, Downstream a Shining Wire, opens September 17 at Open Signal, in Portland, Oregon.

Downstream a Shining Wire sifts through today’s dystopia to create something hopeful. Using virtual reality, Open Signal New Media Fellow Tabitha Nikolai and friends revisit a demolished shopping mall from her childhood. The exhibition incorporates interactive video games, medieval illustrations and video projection art featuring scenes from Richard Adams’ classic novel Watership Down.

Tabitha Nikolai is a visual artist originally from Utah who works in sculpture, text, video games and cosplay. She created Downstream a Shining Wire during her winter 2019 residency as part of Open Signal’s New Media Fellowship in collaboration with Zanna Kerrigan, Cassandra Gladwin, sam, Lilium Kobayashi, Allynn Carpenter and Kelly Thomas.

LINK: Tabitha Nikolai (all images and videos (c) Tabitha Nikolai)

GAME ART: FRANÇOIS QUÉVILLON'S ALGORITHMIC DRIVE (2018-2019)

Algorithmic Drive is an interactive installation and performance created by François Quévillon inspired by autonomous cars and dash cam compilations. As Quevillon explains,

On their side, dash cam videos display accidents or spectacular events that portray roads as spaces where the unexpected occurs. The works play with the tension generated by confronting the technologies used by mobile robotics with the unpredictable nature of the world.  The interactive installation and performance entitled Algorithmic Drive is the core of these works. I built a database of recordings with a camera that is connected to my car’s on-board computer. The videos captured are synchronized with information such as location, speed, engine RPM, stability and the temperature of various sensors. They feed a sampling system that uses signal processing, data analysis and computer vision algorithms to sort the content statistically. It assembles an endless video by modifying parameters related to images, sounds, the car’s activity and the environment in which it’s located. A controller displays data related to each scene and allows people or a performer to interact with the system. 

This fascinating project looks like an interactive version of one of my favorite documentaries of 2018, Dmitrii Kalashnikov's The Road Movie. It's the ultimate racing game.

Equally interesting is Quévillon's Retroviseurs, which seems like an unofficial adaptation of McLuhan's famous theory about the rearview mirror syndrome (it's not, but remains intriguing nonetheless). it's a rear view mirror with a monitor, a backup camera and ultrasonic parking sensors, all recontextualized in the exhibition space.

François Quévillon is an artist from Montreal, Canada. He develops an interdisciplinary practice through installation, video, photography, sound and digital technologies. His work explores phenomena of the world and perception by the implementation of processes sensitive to their fluctuations and to the interference of contextual elements. He examines the operational dimensions of images, sounds and other media through the elaboration of systems with unstable parameters, compressed or endlessly evolving spatiotemporal structures. Engaging both scientific observation and a contemplative state of mind, his pieces propose ambiguous experiences through which the ungraspable manifests itself. He investigates how technology affects or redefines human cognition, culture, the environment, our relationships to space, to time and to one another. He holds a Master’s degree in Visual and Media Arts from UQAM and was involved with several artist-run centres and research groups. Frequently developed during artist residencies, François Quévillon’s work has been presented at exhibitions and events dedicated to contemporary art, cinema and digital creation. Among them, Sundance’s New Frontier exhibition (Park City), Spaces Under Scrutiny – Quebec Digital Art in NY at the Knockdown Center (Queens), International Symposium on Electronic Art (Gwangju, Dubaï and Albuquerque), Festival Internacional de Linguagem Eletrônica (São Paulo), IndieBo (Bogotá), LOOP Barcelona, Plug-In at Contemporary Istanbul, Show Off Paris, Festival de la Imagen (Manizales), European Conference on Computer Vision (Munich), Mois Multi (Québec), Espace [IM] Média (Sherbrooke), FIMAV (Victoriaville), NeurIPS, RIDM, Elektra and International Digital Art Biennal (Montréal).

LINK: François Quévillon (all images and videos courtesy of the Artist)

GAME ART: KIT KIRBY'S LADY RUGS COMPILATION (2019)

A new project by Kit Kirby, a student in Eddo Stern's phenomenal UCLA GameLab:

As Pablo Picasso once observed, "There are two kinds of women: Goddesses and Doormats." Lady Rugs riffs on this expression through a series of rugs depicting actual women from history who respond when the rugs are stepped on. Each woman--Harriet Tubman, Hillary Clinton, Roberta Williams, and Gertrude Stein--is a pioneer in a traditionally male dominated field, but is often overlooked, underappreciated, even despised. Each rug has a fabric pressure sensor, which triggers audio clips of voices explaining why each woman has been devalued. The voices also explain why fields such as the military, politics, video game development, and fine art remain part of "a man's world. Created by Kit kirby.

Kit Kirby is a designer, artist, half-troll madwoman who employs absurdity and dark humor to create art about identity and expectation. A recent arrival from the east coast, Kit has a degree in Graphic Design from Boston University and a Post-Baccalaureate in Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Arts. Just like the Kirby Nintendo character, she is round, adorable and utter chaos in Super Smash Brothers. (UCLA Gamelab)

LINK: Kit Kirby

OPEN CALL: GAMES FOR WINDOWS (DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 1 2019, ROCHESTER, NEW YORK)

Still from Hygiene1 by Cody Filardi

 

GAMES FOR WINDOWS: Experiments with Video Game Footage

 

a store-front video exhibition curated by Nilson Carroll

 

October 4 - November 17, 2019

 

Liquor Store Rochester, New York

 

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
Experimental video art made with video game footage.

This can take the form of a more traditional machinima piece, or something completely different. We want to see a Stan Brakhage film made on a Game Boy , or the N64 Flaming Creatures. Surprise us, make us weep.

We encourage submissions that experiment with the splicing of game footage with other content (personal or appropriated). If you make interesting games, consider making video art within them.

We're also open to ROM hacks and homebrews that can run in attract mode.

Works are preferably between 1 - 10 minutes.

Due to the nature of the storefront installation, audio is currently limited. Don't let this hinder you!

WHO SHOULD APPLY
ANYONE. Formally trained artists, hobbyists, game designers. The goal of this exhibition is a subversion of both games and cinema. We are especially interested in pro-affection, anti-fascist, feminist artworks that challenge our notions and systems.

NO FEE TO APPLY.

Any questions or concerns, please contact Nilson at [email protected]

If you cannot upload or send your video, please use the above email to contact us!

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DEADLINE: Sunday, September 1, 2019 (All day)

EXHIBITION DATES:  Friday, October 4, 2019 (All day) to Sunday, November 17, 2019 (All day)

LINK: GAMES FOR WINDOWS