GAMESCENES

GAME ART: PREBEN WOLFF'S PORTRAIT OF A VIRTUAL ART COLLECTOR: JOSEF K

A video essay about collecting virtual art in a virtual world by Glasz DeCuir. The documentary focuses on Danish teacher and musician Preber Wolff's impressive collection featuring works by Aelin Quan, Alles Klaar, AM Radio, Amona Savira, Andy Burroughs, Anita Witt, Anley Piers, Asmita Duranjaya, Augusta Mary, Betulla Jules, Bloo Ansar, Bryn Oh, Canary Beck, Cherry Manga, Cica Ghost, Cold Frog, Crystal Rehula, Dantelicia, Dido Haas, Duna Gant, Fae Varriale, Fiona Leitner, Fuschia Nightfire, Giovanna Cerise Gitu Aura, Haveit Neox, HeLa Lennie, Ini Inaka, Javier, Jessica Belmer, Judi Lynn, Kato Salyut, Kicca Igaly, Kikiri Tuqiri, La Baroque, L.B. Metzger, Maghda Whitewood, Manfred Pessoa, Mareea Farrasco, Max Bobair, Melusina Parkin, Meryll Panthar, Milly Sharple, miu miu miu, Molly Bloom, Monroe Snook, Morgana Nagorski, Nessuno Myoo, Paola Mills, Paula Cadin, Rachel Price, Rhea Choral, Rebeca Bashly, Sabbian Paine, Samara Furse-Barzane, SaveMe Oh, Savoree LeDesir, Serene Footman, Sia Oh, Siestabril Nitely, Sina Souza, Starlash Sweetwater, StarZ McCullough, Sylvia Fitzpatrick, Talullah Winterwolf, Tani Thor, Thea Maiman, Theda Tammas, Tomais Ashdene, Toysoldier Thor, Tutsy Navarathna, Ule, Whiskey Monday, Whimsical, WuWai Chun, Yoon and Ziki Questi.

File under #virtualartgallery

LINK: Preben Wollf

NEWS: THE GUARDIAN CALLS MACHINIMA "CUTTING EDGE VIDEO ART"

Named after the late experimental film director Derek Jarman, the Jarman Award celebrates and supports UK-based artists working with moving image and celebrates the spirit of experimentation, imagination and innovation in the works. The 2018 nominees include Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, who made the groundbreaking series Facing Fanon with Grand Theft Auto V, and Lawrence Lek, who uses gaming engines and 3D software to make his production. The £10,000 prize will be awarded on 24 November. The Guardian calls these productions "cutting edge video art". It's about time critics recognize machinima for what it is: a true avant-garde.

Read the full article here.

LINK: Jarman Award

GAME ART: BRAM RUITER'S PERPETUAL SPAWNING (2018)

Bram Ruiter, Perpetual Spawning, machinima, 2018, 5' 41"

Shot in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas by Bram Ruiter, Perpetual Spawning is "a timelapse in real-time." Sound design and mix by Tom 'Silkersoft' Schley.

Born in 1980, Dutch artist Bram Ruiter has been working as a professional filmmaker since 2011. His main interests lie with craft, demystification, minimalism and realism. He also designs Frameland and teaches film at ArtEZ and Deltion in Zwolle (The Netherlands) where he currently resides. Ruiter's previous machinima include Endlesss Sea (2015) and Infinite Skies (2011), all created with/in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

LINK: Bram Ruiter

VIDEO: SKAWENNATI (UNIVERSITY OF MAINE, 2018)

This talk was organized by The Masters of Fine Arts in Intermedia at the University of Maine, which provides substantial advanced study for individuals interested in interdisciplinary study in the arts. The program emphasizes intensive development of students’ creative and innovative abilities through a diverse engagement with multiple research processes, critical thinking skills and creative production tools and technologies-

Skawennati makes art that addresses history, the future, and change. Her pioneering new media projects include the online gallery/chat-space and mixed-reality event, CyberPowWow (1997-2004); a paper doll/time-travel journal, Imagining Indians in the 25th Century (2001); and TimeTraveller™ (2008-2013), a multi-platform project featuring nine machinima episodes. These have been widely presented across North America in major exhibitions such as "Now? Now!" at the Biennale of the Americas; and "Looking Forward (L’Avenir)" at the Montreal Biennale. She has been honored to win imagineNative’s 2009 Best New Media Award as well as a 2011 Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship. Her work in is included in both public and private collections. Born in Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Skawennati holds a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal, where she is based. She is Co-Director, with Jason E. Lewis, of Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC), a research network of artists, academics and technologists investigating, creating and critiquing Indigenous virtual environments. She also co-directs their workshops in Aboriginal Storytelling and Digital Media. Skins, This year, AbTeC launched IIF, the Initiative for Indigenous Futures; Skawennati is its Partnership Coordinator.

LINK: SKAWENNATI 

GAME ART: THOMAS HAWRANKE'S SHADOWS:ULTRA (2018)

Shadows: Ultra is a groundbreaking artwork: a machinima sShot on Kodak Tri-X 7266 (S8mm), 18FPS. Scanned on 1920 x 1080p, 25 FPS.

As the wise Canadian put it, the medium is the message. 

Thomas Hawranke is a media artist exploring the effects of technology on society. After studying Media Arts at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, in 2013 he enrolled in a PhD program at the Bauhaus University Weimar conducting art research in computer games. He has been a member of the susigames group of artists since 2006, and participated at national and international exhibitions such as You @ ZKM, File Sao Paulo, File Game Festival in Rio de Janeiro and WIRED - NextFest in Los Angeles. With susigames he was a guest artist at the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM) for several years, with a scholarship for art research in computer games. In 2009 he co-founded Paidia Institute e. V. which focuses on the computer game as an art form.

LINK: Thomas Hawranke (Image and video courtesy of the Artist)

GAME ART: DUNCAN ROBSON'S HOURS PLAYED (2018-ONGOING)

Duncan Robson, a San Francisco based artist and video editor responsible for such projects as Let’s Enhance (2009), the Lorde supercut or a tumbleweed collection for the Columbus Museum of Art among other things, is crowdfunding his new project, a videogame equivalent/remake of Christian Marclay's The Clock titled Hours Played which will be presented online, as a live streaming experience, for free, and perhaps at festivals and other events. In fandom terms, the project entails a 24 hour supercut comprising scenes/images of videogame gameplay showing clocks, alarm clocks, watchtowers, cuckoo clocks, talking clocks, digital watches, pocket watches, and the likes, in sync with the actual time of the viewer. As you can imagine, the amount of human hours needed to identify the games, edit the video and create a seamless viewing experience is simply gargantuan. So far, Robson has collected relevant sequences from more than 900 games encompassing decades of videogame history across all genres and platforms. Read more about the project here. 

LINK: Duncan Robson

GAME ART: DAVID OREILLY'S EYE OF THE DREAM (2018)

EYE OF THE DREAM by DAVID OREILLY

26.09.2018, 16: 00-21: 00 (opening)
27.09.-04.10.2018 
11: 00-15: 00 & 16: 00-21: 00

Mobile Dome 
Mariannenplatz, Berlin, Germany

music BEN LUKAS BOYSEN & SEBASTIAN PLANO
programming DAMIEN QUARTZ & EZRA HANSON WHITE
Sound Design EDUARDO ORTIZFRAU
narration: ALAN WATTS
Idea & curatorial consulting STEPHAN SCHWINGELER

Schedule 2018

September 26-October 4th - Berlin, Mariannenplatz (The New Infinity)
October 13-15 - Los Angeles (David Lynch's Festival of Disruption)
October 25-27 - Hamburg Planetarium (The New Infinity)

The creation of the universe in less than two hours - the new interactive work of artist and game designer David OReilly takes us on a journey through billions of years of history from the moment before the Big Bang through the evolution of life to our modern world. The result is a multi-layered experience that oscillates between dramatic and meditative, abstract and familiar, chaotic and orderly. Real-time simulation is driven by a series of interconnected systems inspired by musical compositional processes. Always moving and producing infinite variations, they create complex and evolving shapes and structures - each moment unique and unrepeatable.

Video courtesy of Berlin Art Link, produced by Anna Russ, filmed by Peter Cairns, and edited by Lena Kocutar.

Images courtesy of David OReilly.

First presented at Berliner Festspiel 2018.

LINK: Eye of the Dream

CALL FOR ENTRIES: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2019 (DEADLINE: DECEMBER 1, 2018) [REMINDER]

MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2019

MARCH 15 2019

IULM UNIVERSITY

VIA CARLO BO 1

20143 MILAN, ITALY

The MACHINIMA FILM FESTIVAL returns to IULM University (Milan, Italy) on March 15 2019 during the MILAN DIGITAL WEEK. Sponsored by the City of Milan, Department of Digital Transformation and Public Services, the Milano Digital Week celebrates the driving forces that are reshaping work, leisure, and learning. By highlighting the interplay behind production and consumption made possible by digital technology, MDW connects citizens, companies, institutions, universities, and research centers. 

Filmmakers and video artists engaged in the practice of appropriation, re-purposing, and creative remix of video games are encouraged to send their work for consideration. Submission will be judged by an international panel of jurors, which will be revealed in September 2018, and a selected number will be featured in the main program.

Screenings of selected works will be curated around different themes, to be announced. All the machinima will be projected onto a screen in an auditorium-like space. The most interesting submissions are those which seek to grasp or highlight a specific facet of contemporary life - from politics to art, from violence to creativity, from technology to ideology - through the aesthetic lenses of digital gaming. 

The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2018.

The full program will be announced in January 2019.

Please carefully read our simple submission guidelines and requirements below before sending your work.

INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL FOR NEW MEDIA ARTWORKS

GUIDELINES:

• Submissions must be 10 minutes or less in length. The minimum duration is 1 minute. 

• Submissions must feature machinima made with specifically with video games (not virtual worlds, like Second Life).

• Submissions must have been produced between January 1, 2018 and December 1, 2018.

• Acceptable submission formats: Digital video files only.

• Acceptable exhibition formats: mp4, avi, mpg, Quicktime file (ProRes 422).

• One-time, nominal submission fee: $15 or 10 euros payable via PayPal to the festival organizers.

• An accompanying artist statement no longer than 500 words.

• Submission deadline: December 1, 2018.

• Please send your submission through FilmFreeway by clicking the button below

For submission inquiries click here.

LINK: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL

EVENT: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2019: HERE'S THE JURY!

Milan, September 29 2018 - The MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL is delighted to announce its 2019 Jury panel, comprising an international cadre of critics, curators, and scholars: Valentino Catricalà, Marco De Mutiis, Stefano Locati, Henry Lowood, and Jenna NG. The judges will award a Critics’ Prize to the most original, groundbreaking, creative machinima of 2018.

The MMF 2019 will take place on March 19 2019 at IULM University in Milan.

Read the jurors’ profiles below:

VALENTINO CATRICALÀ

Scholar, curator of contemporary art, and critic, Valentino Catricala received his PhD at the Roma Tre University, where he currently works as a Post Doc Researcher. He is also a researcher and coordinator of the Art and Media programs at the Fondazione Mondo Digitale and is artistic director of the Media Art Festival of Rome (MAXXI). He has carried out research in important centers such as the Karlsruhe ZKM, the Tate Modern, the University of Dundee. Catricalà investigates the relationship between art, technology, and filmmaking. He has written several essays published in books and academic journals and has participated in international conferences. He is the author of the book Media Art. Art perspectives towards the 21st century. Stories, theories, preservation (Mimesis, 2016), Catricalà is the curator of the Creative Europe project ENLIGHT for SPECTRA Festival (Aberdeen), Media Art Festival (Rome), Article Biennale (Stavanger).

MARCO DE MUTIIS

Marco De Mutiis is an artist working with different media and technologies and with an interest in issues of perception and communication. Often re­-engineering and transforming old analog and mechanical  devices,  De Mutiis  creates  kinetic installations that concern with communication, language and physicality. Graduated with distinction from the MFA program at the School of Creative Media (City University of Hong Kong), he has shown his works internationally in festivals and galleries. He has been the recipient of the Bloomberg Digital Arts Initiative in 2013. He has worked as a senior research associate and part-time lecturer at City University of Hong Kong and he is currently working as Digital Curator at Fotomuseum Winterthur. He is currently working on his PdD at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland and IULM University in Milan. 

STEFANO LOCATI

Stefano Locati is a Teaching Assistant at IULM University in Milan. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Ca' Foscari Short Film Festival in Venice, Italy and the Co-Director of the Asian Film Festival in Bologna. Locati received his Doctorate in Literature and Media: Narrative Theory and Languages. His research focuses on transmedia storytelling and Asian cinema. He is the author of Il nuovo cinema di Hong Kong: Sguardi dopo l’hand-over (2014, with Emanuele Sacchi) and Evolution. Darwin and Cinema (2014, with Elena Canadelli). He is currently working on a new book on Asian cinema.

HENRY LOWOOD

Henry Lowood is Curator for Germanic Collections and Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections in the Stanford University Libraries. As a curator, he is part of the Humanities Research Group in Green Library, the Department best known for the Lane Reading Room and a wonderful group of colleagues. Henry Lowood has written several essays on such topics as game studies, game preservation, and machinima. Among his most recent books are The Machinima Reader (2012) with Michael Nitsche and Debugging Game History (2016) with Raiford Guins, both published by MIT Press and Machinima! Teorie, pratiche, dialoghi with Matteo Bittanti in 2013, published by Edizioni Unicopli.

JENNA NG

Jenna NG is an Anniversary Research Lecturer in Film and Interactive Media in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York, in the UK where she designed and taught a wide range of cinema and digital media courses, including convening and teaching the module, "Coding the Frame: Space and Time with Digital Media", for the Screen Media and Cultures MPhil at Cambridge, and supervised several MPhil essays and theses. Jenna NG works primarily on theoretical, cultural and critical analyses intersecting digital and visual culture, with particular interests in the imaging technologies of CGI, mobile media, haptic devices, motion and virtual capture systems. Her research interests also include the philosophy of technology, the posthuman, computational culture and the digital humanities. Among her many publications, she edited Understanding Machinima, Essays on filmmaking in virtual worlds published in 2013 by Bloomsbury.

LINK: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL

GAME ART: BRENT WATANABE'S ANIMAL GLITCHING IN GTA V

It's the glitch sublime.  

This ain't no deer. 

LINK: Brent Watanabe