GAMESCENES

EVENT: TOTAL REFUSAL’S SONS AND TRUE SONS (MAY 17 2025, BERLIN)

Total Refusal
Sons and True Sons

Sat 17.5.2025, 19:00 / HAU2

Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 Berlin, Germany

Part of “A MAZE. / Berlin 2025 – 14th International Games and Playful Media Festival”
Part of “IETM Berlin Plenary Meeting 2025”

press release

In Sons and True Sons, the Viennese media guerrilla group Total Refusal examines the links between toxic masculinity, gaming culture and the 2021 US Capitol storming. In a live gaming lecture, they scrutinise the parallels between the video game Tom Clancy's: The Division 2 (2016) and real-life extremist movements – and highlight the dangers of hyper-masculine self-empowerment. Drawing upon their research into the connection between the game world and the digital manosphere, media guerrilla Total Refusal explores the entanglements of toxic masculinity, meritocracy, and the storming of the US Capitol in 2021. Sons and True Sons illuminates how the narrative of the video game Tom Clancy’s: The Division 2 (2016) inadvertently anticipated the events on January 6, 2021, and the strategic engagement of Donald Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon with cis male gamers. Briefly about the game: In 2010s Washington, D.C., shaken by a smallpox pandemic and chaos, players must free the city from rival groups and restore order. The parallels between the depiction of the civilian militia (True Sons) taking control over the digital seat of Congress in the game and the advent of paramilitary crypto fascist groups in 2021 are indeed remarkable. Inspired by these uncanny similarities, the live gaming lecture overwrites the game version of the Capitol storm, unmasking the narrative decay of liberal democracy and the hyper-masculinist self-empowerment inside and outside of gaming spaces. With the live gaming lecture Sons and True Sons, HAU is represented for the second time at A MAZE. / Berlin, the international festival and platform for independent and arthouse games.                           

Production: Donaufestivals Krems 2024 in cooperation with STRP Festival Eindhoven 2024. Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the Alliance of International Production Houses. Supported by: A MAZE.          

LINK: Sons and True Sons

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EVENT: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL MMXXV (MARCH 17-23 2025, LOS ANGELES AND ONLINE)

MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL MMXXV

REBOOT/RESTART/RESET

MARCH 17—23 2025

Los Angeles, California and online

The Milan Machinima Festival MMXXV presents a curated selection of 31 machinima and game videos by 35 artists from 17 countries, including Belarus, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the USA. Spanning nine programs, the festival unfolds online (March 17–23, 2025) and onsite in Los Angeles, California (March 20–21, 2025), showcasing works that challenge storytelling conventions, repurpose game engines as cinematic tools, and interrogate the aesthetics and politics of virtual worlds.

TICKETS

SCHEDULE

LINE-UP

JURORS

INTERVIEWS

EVENT: ONE TETHERED BIRD (JANUARY 17 - FEBRUARY 21 2025, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON STATE)

Brent Watanabe: One Tethered Bird

The Behnke Family Gallery at Cornish

1077 Lenora Street

Seattle, WA 98121

Jan 17th - Feb 21 2025

 

Brent Watanabe's upcoming solo show at The Behnke Family Gallery at Cornish will include work covering the past two decades, including his Grand Theft Auto interventions (San Andreas Deer Cam, Community Cam, Possessions), several computer controlled installations, MINE VR, his Animal Crossing intervention, and the two new works.

 

Brent Watanabe, San Andreas Community Cam, 2017, studies for computer-controlled installation, Modified version of Grand Theft Auto V

 

Brent Watanabe, Possessions, 2018-19, animation, animation, modified version of Grand Theft Auto V

 

Brent Watanabe, Animal Crossing: All Mine, 2020, video game intervention in Animal Crossing: New Horizon

 

Stay tuned for more news about this monumental exhibition!

 

Brent Watanabe’s art practice defies categorization, fusing traditional techniques with cutting-edge technology to create installations that are at once visually arresting and intellectually engaging. Drawing on his extensive background in drawing and sculpture, Watanabe uses computer programming and electronics to create kinetic sculptures that are at the forefront of a new wave of digital art. Watanabe’s work has been recognized both nationally and internationally, with his groundbreaking 2016 project, San Andreas Deer Cam, receiving over 800,000 visitors in its first three months alone and being featured in publications such as New York Magazine, the BBC, and WIRED. In addition to his solo work, Watanabe has participated in group shows and screenings around the world, including Through Machine Eyes at the NeMe Arts Center in Limassol, Cyprus, Game Changers at MassArt Art Museum in Boston, and Playmode at the MATT Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. With recent solo exhibitions at prestigious venues such as SOIL Art Gallery, McLeod Residency, Jack Straw New Media Gallery, Gallery 4Culture, Anchor Art Space, and the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival, Watanabe continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of digital art. 

 

Read an interview about MINE VR

 

Read an interview about Animal Crossing: All Mine

 

LINK: Brent Watanabe

 

LINK: The Behnke Family Gallery at Cornish

EVENT: VRAL #75: FILIP KOSTIC (SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 12 2023, ONLINE)

Filip Kostic VS Filip Kostic

digital video, color, sound (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 16’ 28”, 2019, Serbia/United States

created by Filip Kostic

online premiere (brand new edit)

 

Filip Kostic VS Filip Kostic (2019) is a performative artwork by artist Filip Kostic, staged as a live Twitch stream. In the piece, Kostic plays a match of FIFA Soccer against Serbian athlete Filip Kostic, who shares his name and nationality. The prize at stake is the @filipkostic Instagram handle. For years, Kostic’s online identity was conflated with that of the athlete due to sharing a name and IMDb page. After being contacted by Kostic’s PR team to purchase his Instagram handle, the artist instead proposed this competitive FIFA face-off to settle the score. Presented as an eSports event, the Twitch stream featured a custom layout with sponsors and a halftime show performance. It is now presented on VRAL in a new format.

Filip Kostic is an interdisciplinary artist working across video, performance, sculpture, and interactive media. His video and new media works have been shown internationally at venues including Ars Electronica Festival, Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art, and SPRING/BREAK Art Show. He has exhibited sculpture and installation works at galleries in the US and Europe. Kostic holds an MFA from Bard College and a BFA from ArtCenter College of Design, where he currently teaches in the Interaction Design and Fine Art departments. He has previously taught at Otis College of Art & Design and Cal State Northridge. From 2018-2021, he worked as a technical artist and game designer at WEVR on VR experiences for the Harry Potter franchise. Through his multimedia practice, Kostic invites viewers to examine and challenge assumptions about identity, reality, and the role of technology in shaping human experience. His work aims to collapse boundaries between the real and the simulated. Originally from Belgrade, Serbia, he is currently based in Los Angeles.

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