GAMESCENES

CALL FOR PAPERS: REIMAGINING GAMES, ART, AND PERFORMATIVITY (DEADLINE: APRIL 14 2024)

 

Reimagining Games, Art and Performativity 

 

CEEGS2024

 

10th and 12th of October 2024

 

Nafplio, Greece

 

 

This year, scholars, researchers, artists, and game design professionals are invited to submit proposals for presentations within one of these thematic areas: 

• Games as an artistic expression
• Art games versus game-based art
• Games and “high art” versus “folk art” and camp
• Radical art games and identity exploration
• Archaeology and historiography of games and art
• Playful immersive technologies and embodiment
• Performance studies and video games
•  Playformance and experimental design
• Modding as a creative pursuit
•  Player performances
• Games as a creative industry
• Independent developers and video game artists
• Contemporary art and video games
• Reimagining society through games and art

Important Dates 

 

Submission deadline: April 14, 2024 

 

Abstracts of approximately 500 words (400 words minimum and 600 words maximum)

 

Notification to authors: June 15, 2024 

Early bird registration deadline: July 31, 2024 

Regular registration: August 1 - 30, 2024 

Late registration: September 1 - 15, 2024 

Conference: October 10 - 12, 2024 

 

Doctoral Consortium  

 

Doctoral students are invited to submit abstracts for papers or chapters (400-600 words excl. references) by May 1, 2024. 

 

For submission instructions and further details, please see the Call for Papers: EludamosDoctoral Consortium at CEEGS 2024.   

 

Workshops

Each submission should be around 1,000 words and needs to be accompanied by a list of references cited within the abstract, which do not count towards the word limit. 

 

Proposals should include: 

• Title of the workshop 
• Organizers’ names, contacts, and affiliations 
• Detailed description of the workshop 
• Information about previous editions (if applicable) 
• Any other relevant information (e.g., tentative program) 

Submission deadline for workshops: May 22, 2024 

 

Notification of acceptance: July 7, 2024 

 

Organizing committee

• ●  Elina Roinioti, Assistant Professor, University of the Peloponnese

• ●  Anastasios Theodoropoulos, Assistant Professor, University of the Peloponnese

• ●  Katerina El Raheb, Assistant Professor, University of the Peloponnese

• ●  Bill Psarras,Assistant Professor, University of the Peloponnese

• ●  Nikos Vasilopoulos, Assistant Professor, University of the Peloponnese

• ●  Charalampos Rizopoulos, Assistant Professor, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

• ●  George Lepouras, Professor, University of the Peloponnese

• ●  Kostas Karpouzis, Assistant Professor, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences

• ●  Renard Gluzman, Senior lecturer M.Des in Digital Game Design, Shenkar. Engineering. Design. Art

• ●  Iro Voulgari, Teaching and Laboratory Staff at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

• ●  Elissavet Koutsi, Special Teaching Scientist, University of Cyprus

CEEGS (Central and Eastern European Game Studies conference) is a gathering of game scholars organised annually by DiGRA Central and Eastern Europe, but its thematic scope is not limited to regional topics, and it welcomes participants from anywhere in the world. The 2024 conference will be hosted by the
Department of Performing and Digital Arts, University of the Peloponnese, Greece.

 

LINK: Call for papers

ARTICLE: BITSY, THE SMALL GAME REVOLUTION (ARTNEWS)

An exhibition and online jam celebrate the game engine tool’s ambitiously modest aesthetics

Imagine a video game. Think of what that game might look like, how it might play, how long it might take to fully play through, how dense its content might be, how rich its world might be rendered. And now, strip away all of that. Remove any hi-fi graphics, pare down the game play to the most basic 2D movement and single-button interaction, scale it way back. Does it still feel like a video game? (Nicholas O'Brien)

LINK: ARTNEWS

RESOURCE: CURA. 41: NEW WORLD AGENCY™

CURA. 41

New World Agency™

Fall-Winter 2023-2024

press release

Through an extensive investigation of the new searches and work productions of international artists, the brand new CURA. 41, New World Agency™ raises questions related to the ability of art and artists to have a transformative role as regards the apparent irreversibility of the events that impact our present. In a shift between fiction and reality, New World Agency™ explores, with a transgenerational gaze, the artists who foresaw the building of new possible worlds and new modes of agency for alternative futures. Not only AI, CGI, videogames and virtual reality, but also highly advanced analog tools, animatronics, and mechanical devices are able to forge the imaginative, creative and narrative space of artists, founding new realities, in which mythology, ghosts, topoi, fables, childhood memories, technology, pop culture and magic intertwine, in the comprehensive illusion to be in different places and in part of it.

“A World is a super-organism you can believe in…Worlding is the art of an individual creating a World” —Ian Cheng.

CURA. 41 presents 4+1 covers with works’ premiere by: Diego Marcon introduced by Travis Diehl; Mark Leckey presented by a long mixtape of undead voices created by Charlie Fox; Cécile B. Evans presented by Asma Barchiche; plus a cover story and an insert by trans woman artist and activist Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), photographed by Myles Loftin. Anticipating the special cover coming out in December, Jordan Wolfson, in conversation with Caroline Busta and Lil Internet, reveals the production and what goes on behind the scenes of his third animatronic sculpture. Essays, interviews, and projects include an introductory text by Ian Cheng; a focus on the pioneering work of the American artist Mike Kelley, presented by the double gaze of the curator of La Bourse in Paris, Jean-Marie Gallais, and the artist, raised in his myth, Matt Copson; a conversation between Agnieszka Kurant and Hans Ulrich Obrist, investigating the evolution of culture and also “the relationship between predicting the future and how this is impacting the actual future”; new narratives, articulated in the visual essay conceived by Helen Marten. Furthermore, we present the new film and corpus of work by Martine Syms, introduced by the British curator Ben Broome; a special section curated by Countersubject that introduces us to the work of the multi-disciplinary art collective Bernadette Corporation; Anna Uddenberg’s totemic sculptures, presented by David Andrew Tasman; a photo shoot commissioned to the New York-based fashion duo of artists and activists Women’s History Museum which is introduced by a conversation with Ada O’Higgins. The New Now section also features the work of Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, with a text by Wong Binghao (Bing), of Gabriel Massan, investigated by Tamar Clarke-Brown, and Alice Bucknell in conversation with Sarah Johanna Theurer. The Portraits’ section features the work of Pete Jiadong Qiang with a text by Tadej Vindiš; Shuang Li with a text by Lina Martin-Chan; Gray Wielebinski presented by Francesca Gavin; Omsk Social Club with a text by Estelle Hoy; Ndayé Kouagou presented by Madeleine Planeix-Crocker.

Publishers and Editors in Chief: Ilaria Marotta, Andrea Baccin.

CURA. 41 will be available from mid-October 2023.

LINK: CURA. 41

BOOK: ERON RAUCH'S SUCH IS THE POWER OF THE EMPTY LOT (2020)

Artist and curator Eron Rauch's latest project is Such is the Power of the Empty lot, a companion volume to the recently released Heterotopias 7, a wonderful publication on architecture and video games by Gareth Damian Martin. 

As Rauch write, "The book uses a wide mixture of real and virtual photographic methods (including multiple types of video game screenshots) to link the fictional versions of Tokyo, real estate bubbles' effects on urban landscapes, the weirdness of video game historical recreations, and photography's nebulous role in the age of screens." Rauch contemplating a limited physical run of the 100+ page book. Text is by Justin Reeve.

Some highlights:

Eron Rauch is an artist, writer, and curator based in Los Angeles whose projects bridge the shadowy hinterlands between fine art, fandom, digital imaging, landscape history, and video games. Among his game-photography work is Glitchscapes and A Land to Die In. He received his MFA in Photography and Media at the California Institute of the Arts, where he teaches an inter-media photography course. His projects often repurpose platforms and spaces outside of traditional fine arts venues to bring disparate audiences into new conversations. His writing has been featured in eight languages and his artwork has been shown in the United States, France, and Japan. Eron is a collaborating curator for the contemporary photography section of William's College Art Museum's upcoming Repro Japan exhibit, and has worked with Glitch City in curating at IndieCade West’s 2019 Night Games.

LINK: Eron Rauch

RESOURCE: ART JOURNAL, SUMMER 2020

The Summer 2020 issue of Art Journal is now available in print and online and it features an outstanding selection of essays and articles on the relationship between art and video games, including contributions from guest editor Soraya Murray, Tracy Fullerton, Dorothy R. Santos, Eugénie Shinkle, Alenda Y. Chang, Hava Aldouby, and COLL.EO, i.e. Colleen Flaherty and Matteo Bittanti, with a project titled The Long Road of Silicon.

The cover cover features Walden Pond, from Walden, a game (USC Game Innovation Lab, 2017), video game, designed by Tracy Fullerton (screenshot by Tracy Fullerton).

The digital version is free to explore through September 30th.

CFP: MACHINIMA, THE STATE OF THE ART (DEADLINE: APRIL 15 2020)

The 2020 edition of the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL will be followed by the release of a printed bilingual (English and Italian) publication later this year featuring critical contributions on the state of machinima. The book/catalog will be edited by Matteo Bittanti and Gemma Fantacci. Contributors do not necessarily need to be addressing the machinima featured at the Festival. Scholars, critics, artists, and curators are invited to submit an extended abstract (between 500-1000 words excluding references) or full papers to [email protected] either in English or Italian.

Timeline:

April 15, 2020 Abstract submission deadline (full papers are also accepted);

May 15, 2020: Notification of acceptance/rejection sent to authors;

July 1, 2020: Full paper submission deadline;

Sept 1, 2020: Review deadline;

Oct 1, 2020: Deadline for edited papers.

Possible topics include:

• Vernacular machinima vs. avantgarde machinima
• Exhibition & screening of machinima
• Art historical perspectives on machinima
• Machinima and remix/mash up culture
• Recording and sharing of in-game performances
• The evolution of in-game video editors
• Critical analysis of an artist's oeuvre/work
• Innovative online distribution platforms
• The changing audiences of machinima

Inquiries may be directed to [email protected]

 

LINK: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL

CFP. VIDEO GAME ART READER ISSUE 3: OVERCLOCKING (DEADLINE: MARCH 29 2019)

Video Game Art Reader, issue 3, Call for Papers

OVERCLOCKING

This issue proposes overclocking as a foundational metaphor for how games are produced and experienced today, and the temporal compressions and extensions of the many historical lineages that have shaped game art and culture. In the same way that a computer user might overclock the processor of their machine to achieve results beyond its intended use, how can video game art studies overclock its received historical boundaries and intervene on current video game practices that are accelerating past their limits? Might overclocking practices also produce strain and wear on video games and their stakeholders in a variety of ways that need to be identified and understood?

The Video Game Art Reader (VGAR) is currently accepting submissions that critically analyze video game art at the limits of temporality: through long historical vectors, across significant investments of lived human experience, and in terms of other considerations of time.

Though digital gaming emerged in the last half of the 20th century, papers in this issue can draw connections between games and a wide variety of transhistorical and transmedia influences.

Papers may ask: Do the deep histories in which video games can be framed serve as resources for the equally deep contributions of video game laborers and video game audiences to our current epoch? How do video games spread themselves--through the labor of production or the experience of gameplay--over excessive amounts of time? If we interrogate the materials, conventions, and aesthetics of video games of the past and present, what kind of deep history might emerge? If we look at the aggregate amount of time spent producing video games, what kind of systemic practices emerge? If we look at the amount of time a player base applies to a single game title, what can we learn about the game as well as the lives of those who play it?

Possible topics and questions include but are not limited to:

• Expansions of, or interventions into, theories of media archaeology. How might we expand a media archaeology of video game aesthetics, genres, or modes of play, and what do these histories help us understand about the present?

• As cultural critics, how do we respond to the overclocked demands of video game labor across all levels of production, from art games to indie to AAA?

• How do we reconcile the extensive amount of play time demanded by certain games, and the overwhelming volume of games available, with the limited attention (or life) spans of audiences?

• What kinds of historical grounding can be identified in the visual culture that precedes and informs the current video game epoch, and what are the conceptual underpinnings of these choices?

• How are the conventions of contemporary video game art distributed across digital and non-digital media?

Deadline for Submissions is March 29th, 2019

All submissions and questions should be sent to: tfunk (at) vgagallery (dot) org. For more information and formatting guidelines, visit:

Submission Guidelines

LINK: Video Game Art Reader

Magazine: Heterotopias #4

The latest issue of Heterotopias (#4) focuses on the theme of landscape in virtual worlds, its contraction, simulation, and exploration.

Below are the highlights:

004’s cover piece is on the forests of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which in this issue are shown in all their glory in an original photo series. In an accompanying feature Lewis Gordon explores how the game’s depiction of real-world landscapes connects to Polish and European folklore, as well as a history of political struggle. A new interview with core members of the CD Projekt Red team completes our series on this exceptional game.

Elsewhere in the issue Miguel Penabella explores the influence of scenography, in particular the work of Adolphe Appia, on Cardboard Computer’s tale of debt and decay: Kentucky Route Zero. Meanwhile Sam Zucchi looks at the relationship between depictions of landscape and colonialism through the lens of the classic Oddworld game, Stranger’s Wrath.

Other features include a photo series exploring the virus-like patterns of No Man’s Sky‘s procedural landscapes, Rosa Carbo-Mascarell’s beautiful watercolor maps of Proteus as well as features on the long forgotten proto open-world of Lego Island and the ecohorror of Night in the Woods.

Also featured are Eron Rauch's haunting glitchscapes, part of his World of Warcraft landscape photography.

LINK: Heteropias #4

RELATED: GARETH DAMIAN MARTIN on the aesthetics of analogue game photography

Event: It doesn't take long to find new targets (7-16th December 2017, London)

It doesn’t take long to find new targets

 

Private view: 7th December, 6-9pm
8th - 16th December 2017
The Take Courage Gallery

388 New Cross Rd, London SE14 6TY

Curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight

An exhibition examining the constructed worlds that we choose to inhabit online, the power of video games as an interactive medium, the heteronormative face of stereotypical video gaming and the aesthetics and ideas associated with machinima based art practices, commemorating the third issue of the isthisit? magazine.

Featured artists:

Marc Blazel
Elliott Burns
Joseph DeLappe
Jon Haddock
Stelios Ilchouk
Claire L.Evans
Eva and Franco Mattes
Oliver Payne
Liv Preston
Michael Pybus
Stefan Schwarzer
Georgie Roxby Smith
Viktor Timofeev
Willem Weisman
Mathew Zefeldt

 

 

isthisit? issue 3 includes contributions from

Aaron McCarthy, Alan Butler, Alexandra Ehrlich Speiser, Anastasia Semenoff, Andy Nizinskyj, Aram Bartholl, Benjamin Warner, Bertie Irons, Brent Watanabe, Calum Bowden, Christina Smiros, Claire L. Evans, Dani Ploeger, David Blandy, David OReilly, Duncan Herd, Ellie Power, Emily Godden & Audit Chaos, Eva and Franco Mattes, Felix Treadwell, Fengyi Zhu, Gabriel Junqueira, Gabrielle Noel, Georgie Roxby Smith, Georgina Tyson, Gerhard Mantz, Harun Farocki, Henry Driver, Ian Cheng, Ian Malhotra, Isa Magalhaes, Jason Rohrer, Jon Haddock, Joscha Steffens, Joseph DeLappe, Kara Gut, Kasem Kydd, Katy Roseland, Klara Vincent-Novotna, Lawrence Lek, Lee Boötes, Liv Preston, Lucas Glenn, Marta Strazicic, Mathew Zefeldt, Matteo Bittanti, Max Colson, Mélanie Courtinat, Michael Pybus, Miyö Van Stenis, Ololade Adeniyi, Pete Jiadong Qiang, Petra Szemán, PucciSethCnxion, Raúl Berrueco, Roc Herms, Sandra Araújo, Second Front, Sian Fan, Silvia Dal Dosso, Stacey Davidson, Stefan Schwarzer, Tea Strazicic, Theo Triantafyllidis, Thomson and Craighead, Todd Deutsch, Tom Kobialka, Valentin Dommanget, Viktor Timofeev, Will Kendrick, Willem Weismann, fleuryfontaine, tissue.hunter, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Olly Bharat, Oliver Payne, Elliott Burns, Kent Sheely, Frances Kelly, Mathias Jansson, Motsonian, Samuel Capps, Sid and Jim, Hannah Nussbaum, Nora Silva and Ped.Moreira

 

LINK: It doesn’t take long to find new targets

Journal: Video Game Art Reader

press release

Video Game Art Reader Launch Party
Sunday, November 5th, 11:30am-1:30pm
VGA Gallery, 2418 W Bloomingdale Ave #102, Chicago, Illinois

This November, Video Game Art Gallery will release the inaugural issue of VGA Reader.

The VGA Reader is a peer-reviewed journal for video game audiences and video game practitioners interested in the history, theory, and criticism of video games, explored through the lens of art history and visual culture. Its primary aim is to facilitate conversation and exploration of video game art, documenting and disseminating discourse about the far-reaching influence of video games on history, society, and culture. View the original Call for Papers here and Guidelines here.

The VGA Reader launch party is November 5th, 2017 at 11:30 am at VGA Gallery. A discussion with Editor in Chief Tiffany Funk and Managing Editor Mick Reed will be followed by a light brunch and champagne.  Hard copies of VGAR’s inaugural issue will be available for purchase during the event. The event is free and open to the public (RSVP here).   

VGA is thrilled to be able to further its educative mission by contributing to what we see as an emerging and vital field of scholarship. The journal aims to be conversant across disciplinary boundaries, as well as across the theory-practice divide, and so includes scholarship, artists’ statements, review essays, and works of art from a range of scholars, developers, and scholar-practitioners.

VGA Reader is helmed by Editor in Chief Tiffany Funk and Managing Editor Michael Reed. Its editorial board comprises artists, scholars, and game-makers affiliated with DePaul University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Northwestern University, and the School of the Art Institute Chicago. View the editorial board here.

According to Funk, the issue celebrates video game culture as inclusive and global, bringing together an international and professionally diverse cadre of “good games and good art” advocates: art historians, literary theorists, educators, museum curators, designers, artists, and programmers.

The Reader will be available in both print ($25) and digital versions ($5). Print copies of the journal will be available through the VGA website and onsite at the gallery. The digital version will be sold exclusively on the VGA website beginning November 5.