GAMESCENES

EVENT: GAME ENGINE CULTURES (DECEMBER 1 2023, LIVERPOOL, UK)

Joseph DeLappe, Elegy: GTA USA Gun Homicides, Self-Playing Game Mod/Data Visualization and 1-year Live Stream, 2018-19

 

Game Engine Cultures
December 1st 13:30-17:00
School of the Arts Library
19 Abercromby Square
University of Liverpool
Liverpool L7 7BD, England

Free and open to the public

press release

Co-curated by Paolo Ruffino (Department of Communication and Media, University of Liverpool) and Valentino Catricalà (School of Digital Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University), the workshop is organised as part of the Centre for Culture and Everyday Life (CCEL) in Liverpool.

Game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine are now ubiquitous tools in the digital arts and are widely used beyond videogame development in fields such as film post-production, architecture, and fashion. The workshop will explore how game engines shape our contemporary visual culture, and how media studies and media arts can analyse and critique their pervasiveness.

The workshop will include talks by:

Joseph DeLappe - games and media artist and Professor of Games and Tactical Media at Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland;

Sandra Youkhana and Luke Caspar Pearson - founders of architecture studio You+Pea and curators of the Videogame Urbanism project at the Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL;

Aleena Chia - Lecturer in Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London and researcher investigating automation and platformisation in videogame development;

Vid Simoniti - Lecturer in Philosophy of Art at the University of Liverpool, and researcher in the field of contemporary art, social change, and new technologies.

LINK: Paolo Ruffino, Valentino Catricalà

EVENT: AREAS OF EFFECT: PLANAR SYSTEMS, CRITICAL ROLES, AND GAMING IMAGINARIES (SEPTEMBER 2 2023, LONDON)

Areas Of Effect: Planar Systems, Critical Roles, and Gaming Imaginaries

Symposium and live play sessions

2 Sep 2023, 11:00am - 8:30pm

Part of arebyte 2023/24 programme The Body, The Mind, The Soul

arebyte

Java House, 7 Botanic Square

London City Island E14 0LG

 

press release

Could role playing games hold the potential to forge new communities or serve as tools for activism?

Curated by artist David Blandy and writer Jamie Sutcliffe in association with Strange Attractor Press, Areas Of Effect: Planar Systems, Critical Roles, and Gaming Imaginaries is a one-day symposium on Tabletop Role Playing Games (TTRPGs) with live game sessions.

Forming part of arebyte’s programme The Body, The Mind, The Soul which questions the complex nature of humanity in the realm of technological progress, the event brings together artists, game designers, theorists, and philosophers to discuss these wildly expansive forms of play in which players utilise both their imaginations and chance mechanics (such as dice rolls) to determine the actions of fictional characters and the scenarios surrounding them.

The symposium looks at TTRPGs as the physical interface between the body and the imaginary, addressing the hopes currently instilled in tabletop play to act as a transformative activity. As such, this form of play presents novel opportunities for immersive experience, problem solving, moral dilemma, but perhaps most importantly, communal storytelling.  

While an increasing number of contemporary artists have started to embrace the form and bring tabletop gaming mechanics into the development of participatory artworks, the TTRPG community itself remains a remarkable testing ground for the possibilities of play as a kind of “empathic technology”. Here, critical play is capable of strange things... might it temporarily untether us from the stagnant imaginaries of a post-capitalist inertia? Could role-playing games even come to function as vital tools for activism, or the forging of new communities?

Speakers at the event include acclaimed RPG designers Emmy Allan, Kayla Dice, Mike Mason, Chris McDowall, Samuel Mui, and Zedeck Siew, alongside writers, historians and theorists such as Stu Horvath, Timothy Linward, Mark Pilkington, and Simon O’Sullivan.

An exhibition of TTRPGs-inspired video games by artists Kitty Clark, Uma Breakdown, John Powell-Jones, Petra Szemán, and Holly White are hosted on computers and available to play for visitors throughout the whole event.

The day culminates in live TTRPG play sessions of the games Eco Mofos by artist David Blandy and SUPERZEROES by TTRPG game designer Samuel Mui, amongst others, inviting the audience to play with a deck of uniquely designed TTRPG playing cards.

LINK: arebyte TTRPG symposium

EVENT: THE PRIVILEGE OF PLAY: CONNECTING GAMES AND RACE IN THE 20TH CENTURY (JUNE 9 2023, STANFORD)

Aaron Trammell

The Privilege of Play: Connecting Games and Race in the 20th Century

Friday, June 9, 2023
4pm to 5pm PT
Hohbach Hall, 123
557 Escondido Mall, Stanford, CA 94305

The Silicon Valley Archives will host an online version of this talk via Zoom on June 9, 2023, at 10:00 am PDT. To register for the online version of this talk, please RSVP here. The in-person talk will be held in Hohbach Hall on June 9, 2023, at 4:00 pm PDT. To register for the in-person version of this talk, please RSVP here. 

The histories of race and games in the 20th century have long been siloed. Popular histories of games often render invisible the race of the white men that they celebrate, thus inviting readers to take for granted the somewhat homogenous demographics of the games industry. Far from being coincidental, I argue that race has been central to the history of games. I will present historical research in this talk that shows how the early leaders of the game industry were able to thrive due to their community ties. I term these white communities "networks of privilege" and offer evidence for how these networks developed of the course of the 20th century and used dog whistles to keep BIPOC people out. Thus, in this talk I will foreground how the invisible politics of whiteness have shaped the history of games itself. 

Aaron Trammell is an Assistant Professor of Informatics at UC Irvine. He is interested in how tabletop games further values of white privilege and hegemonic masculinity in geek culture. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Analog Game Studies and the co-editor for the Tabletop Gaming series at University of Michigan Press. He has two books Repairing Play (2023 MIT Press) is a theory of play that centers BIPOC people and The Privilege of Play (2023 NYU Press) is a history of games and race in the 20th Century.

LINK: The Privilege of Play

LINK: Aaron Trammel

EVENT: GAMEZ & RULEZ #8 (OCTOBER 20-21, ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND)

gameZ & ruleZ #8

October 20-21, 2022

ToniAreal, 5th Floor, Room 5.K12

Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK)
Departement Design
Fachrichtung Game Design
Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 96
Postfach, CH-8031 Zürich, Switzerland

Get ready for the 8th edition of one of the coolest game and culture festivals in Europe, gameZ & ruleZ, which takes place annually in Zürich, Switzerland and is organized by Mela Kocher from the Master's Program in Game Design and managed by GameLab's coordinators Beat Suter and René Bauer. This year's topic is Mechanics of Play. The event will be live streamed. 

Description:

Play seems to be a free form, it is self-contained and people do it to get satisfaction. It also helps us to communicate and understand what surrounds us. It is best understood in correlation to normal life or work. Work favours pain and play favours pleasure. Work has to be done to increase productivity, play does not have to be productive, it is not constricted, may be spontaneous, aimless and creative at the same time. And you may even learn something by playing.

The conference looks at moments of play, different aspects of play and playful approaches in games, art and culture. What does free play mean in comparison to play a game with set rules? What happens, if we start changing some of the set rules? And what happens if we constrict free play with boundaries and some rules? If play is like a language, there must be some elements of play that we use in different kinds of playing.

With our guests we are discussing these elements and their connections as mechanics of play. Jörg Piringer plays with language and code. Matteo Bittanti delves into politics and ideology of playing video games. Sonia Fizek looks at playing at a distance and Nathalie Lawhead makes us familiar with humor in playing with software. And there is more, we are pleased to welcome ten guest speakers at the gameZ & ruleZ 2022.

Schedule

Program*: Thursday, 20. October, Room 5.K12

13.00	Opening
13.30	Matteo Bittanti (gamescenes.org, US): The Politics of Play / Playful Politics (Abstract & Bio)
14.30	Sjors Righters (studio rigters, NL): Concepts of the virtual sandbox and how to change them  (Abstract & Bio)
15.30	BREAK & Coffee
16.00	Jörg Piringer (AT): text=code=play (Abstract & Bio)
17.00	Daniel Hackbarth (D/CH): Gamification of Politics
18.00	Guido Berger (ZHCH): Playing Farming Simulator (CH)

Program*: Friday, 21. October, Room 5.K12

13.00	Opening
13.15	Sonia Fizek (Cologne Gamelab, D) : Playing at a Distance
14.15	Max Moswitzer (Artist, Experimental Gameculture AW Wien): Avatar at Play
15.15	Experiments in Action: Sebastian Burckhardt (CH): Kloppyssimo (Abstract & Bio)
15.40	Experiments in Action:  Kathleen Bohren CH): (Abstratd & Bio)
16.00	BREAK & Coffee
16.30	Nathalie Lawhead (US): When Software makes you laugh

LINK: Mechanics of Play

EVENT: ARTIST TALK: BUILDING UTOPIAS WITH DANIELLE UDOGARANYA AND DANIELLE BRATHWAITE-SHIRLEY (SEPTEMBER 14 2022, ONLINE)

Wednesday 14 Sep 2022 at 6:30pm (UK time)

Price: £5, £3 concession & members

Location: Zoom and (optionally) Roblox

An event curated by The Photographers Gallery, London

In this livestreamed, in-game event, Twitch streamer and How to Win at Photography artist Danielle Udogaranya joins video game and digital artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, as the two discuss virtual worlds while playing co-operative worldbuilding games. Moderated by Nimco Kulmiye Hussein.

The talk can be accessed via Zoom and Roblox. Roblox is a free-to-play game that can be accessed via Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Xbox One. An invite link to both the Zoom call and the game server will be sent out prior to the event.

Note: To watch and listen to the talk, only Zoom is required. To join the talk in-game, Roblox can be used in addition to Zoom.

Danielle Udogaranya, – known on Twitch as Ebonix – is a London-based digital artist, content curator and online streamer, known for the custom content she creates for The Sims 4. Her "modded" Sims are on display within How to Win at Photography: Image-Making as Play.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley is a digital artist focused on creating virtual archives for the Black trans experience. Through digital environments  the artist ''centres'' the body, exploring identity, community, and Black trans history.

Nimco Kulmiye Hussein is a curator and writer, working at the intersection of research, culture, and art. Their praxis draws from postcolonial and queer-feminist perspectives, focusing actively on participatory practices that bring people together through critical, timely and meaningful narratives.

LINK: Building Utopias

EVENT: VECTOR FESTIVAL 2022 (JULY 14 - 22 2022, TORONTO, CANADA + ONLINE)

VECTOR FESTIVAL 2022: GLITCH
July 14 – 24, 2022
Inter/Access
950 Dupont St., Unit 1.
Toronto ON M6H 1Z2 Canada

InterAccess is pleased to announce the program for Vector Festival 2022: Glitch. This year’s festival centres around the enticing, joyous, infinite possibilities offered by glitch. Drawing inspiration from Legacy Russell’s Glitch Feminism the festival considers glitch as a necessary, protective force for interrupting the machinic workings of patriarchy, capitalism, and racism. Counterintuitively, through its multitudinal ruptures and refusals, glitch becomes a generative site for envisioning new ways of existing beyond current sociopolitical operating systems. 

Through a hybrid online and in-person program of exhibitions, performances, screenings, workshops, talks, and community events, this 10-day festival invites artists and audiences to come together in celebration of failure and all its potentials.

All Vector Festival events will be offered for free or pay-what-you-can. Registration for all festival events will be released on July 4, 2022.

Vector Festival is a participatory and community-oriented initiative dedicated to showcasing digital games and creative media practices. Presenting works across a dynamic range of exhibitions, screenings, performances, lectures, and workshops, Vector acts as a critical bridge between emergent digital platforms and new media art practice.

The festival was founded in 2013 as the “Vector Game Art & New Media Festival” by an independent group of artists and curators: Skot Deeming, Clint Enns, kris kim, and Katie Micak, who were later joined by Diana Poulsen and Martin Zeilinger.

Among the highlights are VECTOR's first-ever hybrid game and hardware jam, presented in partnership with Hand Eye Society and TRANZAC, an evening showcase of experimental musical performances by Erin Corbett, Myriam Bleau, and Hex-A-Decimal centred around gaming, identity, and future feminisms curated by Sofie Mikhaylova. Also not to be missed is Keep it Strange, a beginner’s workshop will delve into a buffet of tiny experimental programs that require little to no coding experience, such as Flickgame, Sok Worlds, and Bitsy. 

LINK: VECTOR Festival

EVENT: WORKSHOP: ANIMATION & DIGITAL GAMES. INTERSECTIONS, AESTHETICS, PRACTICES (JUNE 9-11 2022, ONLINE)

The workshop about the intersection of games and animation is a collaboration of the workgroups AG Animation and AG Games within the German Society for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft (GfM)) and is organized by

• Julia Eckel  // Ruhr-University Bochum // AG Animation
• Christopher Lukmann // FU Berlin // AG Games
• Andreas Rauscher // University of Freiburg/Institute for Media Culture Studies // AG Games // AG Animation
• Hanns Christian Schmidt // University of Cologne // Macromedia University for Applied Sciences Cologne // AG Games

Registration is open until June 8 20220.

Full program:

LINK: ANIMATION & DIGITAL GAMES (Thanks to Prof. Dr. Hanns Christian Schmidt)

EVENT: MACHINIMA, THE NEW AVANTGARDE (MAY 6 2022, ONLINE)

 

Media Innovation Circle #11
May 6 2022 @2pm-3pm (Lisbon Time)

Zoom link https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/86896643186

Free (registration required)

Machinima. How a vernacular practice became a new artistic avantgarde
Speaker: Matteo Bittanti, IULM University, Italy
Moderation: Pedro Cardoso, University of Aveiro

In this talk, Matteo Bittanti discusses the origins and the evolution of machinima, a genre of video art that deliberately appropriates and repurposes video game content, providing an overview of an ever expanding practice. Bittanti argues that although machinima emerged both in vernacular and avantgarde contexts, it the the latter that has evolved in remarkable ways, while the former has largely plateaued. The talk will touch upon several examples of artists engaged with contemporary machinima and chart the possible future of the medium.

DigiMedia (Digital Media and Interaction Research Centre) presents the Media Innovation Circle, an opportunity to explore the digital media landscapes. The Circle consists of a series of scientific moments for discussion on new approaches, practices, methods, and techniques supporting media innovation. It will be a monthly cycle of online conversations with national and international experts doing research on digital media and interaction, which may take the form of keynote talks, seminars or workshops. There will be time for a short talk by the invited guest, followed by discussion and Q+A. The sessions will be online and the link will be shared with the registered participants. If you wish to join this Circle, please Register.

LINK: MATTEO BITTANTI MIC #11

EVENT: SPECULATIVE FUTURES SYMPOSIUM (APRIL 7 2022, VANCOUVER, CANADA)

Epic Games, MetaHuman Creator (still), 2022. Video. Courtesy of Epic Games.

Speculative Futures

April 7, 10am–3:30pm

Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby Street
Vancouver BC V6Z 2H7
Canada

press release

To what extent have technology and the promise of digital futures co-opted and compromised our sense of self and identity? How can we decolonize digital space or build new digital infrastructure?

Presented in conjunction with the Vancouver Art Gallery's exhibitionThe Imitation Game: Visual Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, the Speculative Futures Symposium examines artificial intelligence and the specific uses of technology in its multifarious dimensions. Across four different lectures and panel conversations, leading thinkers of today will explore the ethical implications of technology and discuss how they are working to address these issues in cultural production.

Featured speakers include: Dr. Ramon Amaro (University College London), Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble (University of California, Los Angeles, and MacArthur Fellowship Honoree), Jiayang Fan (The New Yorker Magazine), Nalo Hopkinson (University of British Columbia), Larissa Lai (University of Calgary), and Ken Liu (author).

Moderated by Melissa Karmen Lee, Director of Education and Public Programs, Vancouver Art Gallery and Dr. Kavita Phillip, President's Excellence Chair in Network Cultures, University of British Columbia.

The Speculative Futures Symposium is presented in partnership with the University of British Columbia’s Public Humanities Hub, the UBC Library and the UBC School of Information, the English Language & Literatures Department, the President’s Excellence Chair in Network Cultures and the School of Creative Writing, with additional media support from Canadian Literature.

LINK: The Imitation Game: Visual Culture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

EVENT: MOLLEINDUSTRIA INTERACTIVE TALK (APRIL 6 2022, 7 PM, ONLINE)

SUBOTRON online arcademy: Molleindustria Interactive Talk  

Zoom-Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81972552186

Password: guerrilla

Paolo Pedercini

reposted from original

An interactive, choose-your-own-lecture event through 20 years of Molleindustria projects.

Paolo Pedercini is a game developer, artist and educator. At Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh he teaches experimental game design, creative coding, and animation. He was born in Italy and migrated to the United States in 2007 to study integrated media arts at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Paolo’s artistic practice deals with the relationship between electronic entertainment and ideology. Working under the project name “molleindustria” he produces videogames addressing various social issues such as environmental justice (“McDonald’s videogame”, “Oiligarchy”, “Phone Story”), religion (“Faith Fighter”) and labor and alienation (“Every Day the Same Dream”, “Unmanned”, “To Build a Better Mousetrap”). Molleindustria obtained extensive media coverage and critical acclaim while hopping between digital art, academia, game industry, media activism and Internet folk art.

In addition to his studio practice, Paolo advocates for independent and socially conscious gamemaking, within and without artistic contexts. He lectured in a wide range of venues, from the oldest squat in Rome to the venues like the Game Developer Conference, the Digital Games Research Association, Ars Electronica, The Centre Pompidou, and Cabaret Voltaire. 

Paolo is the director of LIKELIKE, a neo-arcade devoted to independent games and playful art in Pittsburgh, PA.

Although his work exists primarily online, it has been exhibited internationally at festivals, galleries and museums including the Sundance Festival, the EMP Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Hammer Museum, Games for Change, Gwangju Design Biennale, Indiecade, FILE Brazil, LABoral, and ZKM. 

LINK: SUBOTRON online arcademy: Molleindustria Interactive Talk