GAMESCENES

EVENT: VECTOR FESTIVAL 2023: SHADOW WORK (JULY 6-16, TORONTO, CANADA)

Vector Festival 2023: shadow work

July 6–16, 2023

InterAccess
Unit 1
950 Dupont Street
Toronto ON M6H 1Z2
Canada

press release

Vector Festival is a participatory and community-oriented initiative dedicated to showcasing digital games and creative media practices.

Vector Festival 2023: shadow work, curated by Mitra Fakhrashrafi, engages the formal and informal and mundane and arcane ways that classification systems attempt to contain the messy realities of our lives and shape our conditions. Confronting the work that both maintains and disrupts these systems, shadow work presents interventions on labour, the calculability of human life, the ungovernable, the echoes and reverberations of colonization and propositions for new, “life-giving” languages.

Through a hybrid online and in-person program of exhibitions, performances, screenings, and workshops, this 10-day festival invites artists and audiences to come together as we navigate the systems uninformed of our humanity.

Details will continue to be announced at vectorfestival.org

Program highlights

shadow work
Flagship Exhibition, July 6–August 5, 2023
Curated by Mitra Fakhrashrafi

Through AR, VR, solar power, and immersive projection, shadow workexplores classification systems in contrast with the messy reality of our lives.

Worldbuilding towards...
Game Jam, July 7–16, 2023
Curated by Bracy Appeikumoh

This participatory game jam encourages game makers to create worlds radically different from our current realities, ones that foster care, compassion, and community. Together, we’ll ask (and work to answer): what world would you like to live in?

Anthropo-digitalism
Multi-site exhibition, July 6–July 16, 2023
Curated by keiko Hart

How does the digital (re)animate our environments? How do we imprint our humanness upon the digital, and how does digitalness imprint upon us humans? Ruminate on your human/digital reflections with the anthropomorphic inventions of Marisa Fulper-Estrada, Jon McCurley, Kristin McWharter, Lorna Mills, Sunny Nestler, and Seth Scriver.

a language of bodies
Screening, July 12, 2023    
Curated by Fabiyino Germain-Bajowa

This screening brings together artists who are each transcending sealed forms and exploding the classification systems which govern “bodies”. By engaging physical bodies, bodies of water, and bodies of knowledge, these artists are working in the spaces between, celebrating the undefined and uncontrollable.

ponyHAUS performance
Performance, July 14, 2023
Curated by ponyHAUS

In true hybrid fashion, you're invited to a night of moving in and out of screen-based worlds. Contrast and draw parallels between our IRL and URL lives, supported by a selection of experimental music performances.

A Very Human Screening
Screening, July 15, 2023
Curated by Insomniac Film Festival

Go outside! Touch Grass! Logging off has become harder and harder to do. Our jobs, our social lives and our societal infrastructures have all moved online. Our identities, our bodies even, are shaped by the internet. So what now? Do we fight harder for our three-dimensional lives, or do we submit to the digital one we have? Joining us in pondering these questions with Insomniac in the genuine, outdoor, real life world.

Festival After Party
July 16, 2023
Details TBA, stay tuned.

Workshop series

SinkInSync: Creating Interactive VR with Brainwave Data
Online via Zoom, July 8
Facilitated by Tiange Wang and Xin Feng

Explore creating interactive and responsive VR environments leveraging brainwave data using Unity3D, Muse Headband, and Oculus VR Headset (Muse Headband or the VR Headset not required to participate). Upon completion of the workshop, participants will have created a 3D environment with dynamic visual elements responsive to data, and obtained the knowledge to independently implement neurofeedback VR experiences with commercially-available tools.

Tiling into AI
In-person, July 9
Facilitated by Blaine Cambell and Mohamed Somani

Patterning is an accessible activity regardless of age and skill that has deep roots across cultures. It is also a way for people to connect in verbal and non-verbal ways—in the moment of the activity but also across geographies and time. Join us in a freeform pattern making workshop where participants create individual or group patterns using various coloured cut geometric mat board shapes. These creations will be augmented by an AI model which will insert a collaborative “buffer” to connect our creations and create a cohesive, continuous pattern.

Utopics
In-person, July 13
Facilitated by Geoffrey Pugen

In this workshop Geoffry Pugen will demonstrate how to create a labyrinth as a 3d asset and export a rendered video walk through of the scene. Using Unreal engine 5.1 and Blender 3.5

Making a Solar-Server: DIY Web Design & Eco Media Art
In-person, July 22
Facilitated by Imogen Clendinning

Learn about DIY Internet technology and solar-powered media with one of Vector Festival 2023’s exhibiting artists. Participants will be led through the creation of a static HTML web server hosted on a Raspberry Pi microcomputer and a live demonstration on powering a microcomputer using solar energy.

Registration, more details, and updates with workshops soon to be announced. More programming announcements to come!

Keep in touch with us at @interaccessto on Instagram and at vectorfestival.org
If you have any questions about the Vector Festival or our programming, please email [email protected].

LINK: Vector Festival 2023

EVENT: JORDY VEENSTRA (DECEMBER 19 2022 - JANUARY 5 2023, ONLINE)

ARE3NA

digital video/machinima (2048x858), color, sound, 35’, 2022, The Netherlands

Created by Jordy Veenstra

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti

December 19 2022 - January 5 2023

vral.org

 

AR3NA is a visual study of Quake III Arena; its environments and its textures. It is also a complex work of media anthropology: a deeper critical look at more than two-hundred maps in which millions of battles have been fought since 1999. With a production time frame and a duration exceeding those of most experimental machinima, Veenstra’s AR3NA is a meta-commentary on video game play, architecture, space and places.

Jordy Veenstra is a video editor, motion graphics designer, 2D animator, and experimental filmmaker based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In his practice, Veenstra connects art and narrative with technology and software through the medium of experimental film. His work examines often overlooked social and artistic concerns. His works have been exhibited during the 2020 and 2022 editions of the Milan Machinima Festival and the equally astounding Regression Trilogy was featured as a show on VRAL in 2020.

WATCH NOW

EVENT: THE ART OF GAMING AT DA-Z 2022 (OCTOBER 20 - 30 2022, ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND)

The Art of Gaming

October 20 - 30 2922

Limmatquai 31

8001 Zürich

Switzerland

 

DA Z is an international festival dedicated to current and socially relevant contributions of digital culture. Our aim is to combine the highest artistic quality with discourse on global social developments and the influence of digitalization on our lives. The 2022 edition, taking place between October 20 - 30 2022 all over Zurich, includes a killer program on Game Art titled The Art of Gaming featuring games with outstanding content and artistic design. As the curators write, "The aim is to show that there is a gaming culture that moves far beyond the so-called first-person shooters."

Don't miss a series of killer concerts featuring Alexandra Cárdenas (COL), Ben Kaczor & Niculin Barandun (CH), Angelo Repetto & Marco Repetto (CH), Bruno Spoerri & Gabriel Schiltknecht (CH), Nicolas Stocker (CH) & Maarja Nuut (EST) & Timon Christen (CH) - more artists to be announced.

Check out the full program and schedule of The Art of Gaming here

Additionally, the main exhibition at Dynamo (Wasserwerkstrasse 21, 8006 Zürich) features work by CONCEPTUAL AND INSTALLATIVE: Sara Culmann (RUS), Anna Fries & Malu Peters (CH), Francois Knoetze (ZAF), Noah Latif Lamp (NL), Ani Liu (USA), Lauren Moffatt (AUS), Psychasthenie Studio (USA), Molly Soda (PRI), Theo Triantafyllidis (GR), Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga (USA) - more artists to be announced. CONCEPTUAL VIDEO- AND FILM: Kadir Kayserilioğlu (TUR), Mikhail Maximov (RUS), Sahej Rahal (IND) LIVE CODING: Lina Bautista (ES), Alexandra Cárdenas (COL), Timo Hoogland (NL), Flor de Fuego (ARG), Mynah Marie (ISR), Nesso (IT), Antonio Roberts (UK), Lizzie Wilson (UK)

LINK: DA Z 2022

ART GAME: COSTANTINO OLIVA'S OTOGARDEN (2021)

OTOGARDEN is a musical game about free improvisation designed by Costantino Oliva. Players can explore their musicality in a Japanese garden atmosphere, control a mischievous kappa, a traditional yokai spirit, and feel the musical possibilities of your surroundings. The game was created for research purposes as a tool to demonstrate musicality in digital games. OTOGARDEN is inspired by the musicking concept introduced by musicologist Christopher Small, the works of media artist Toshio Iwai, and the Japanese musical soundscape. The development team included Marvin Zammit (Mighty Box) who did the programming and Fabrizio Calì who worked on Animations and Art.

 

Costantino Oliva is a Lecturer at the Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta, and is intended as a playable support to music and game research. Through an intuitive game interface, OTOGARDEN explores the topic of musical improvisation, "an activity of enormous complexity and sophistication, or the simplest and most direct expression” (Derek Bailey, 1993).

 

 

LINK: Costantino Oliva (all images and videos courtesy of the Artists)

EVENT: THE OVERKILL FESTIVAL (NOVEMBER 27 - DECEMBER 6 2020, ONLINE) [updated and amended]

The Overkill Festival

Opening: Friday November 27th 2020, 19:00 

Festival: Friday November 27th - Sunday December 6th  2020

Time Schedule: www.theoverkill.nl

The might collective Sickhouse  - founded by Aike Lutkemuller and Marie Janin - is organizing The Overkill Festival, a smosgaboard of game-related content and events comprising of three different programs: an exhibition room curated by The Rodina, an online exhibition space, featuring the works of the artists and game developers co-curated by Isabelle Arvers , and a series of YouTube streams. This killer package - framed by the theme “The end of the world as we know" - looks phenomenal.

For instance, check out the ART SELECTION...

...And the GAMES program

Sickhouse is a playful art space focused on the impact of digital & popular culture on society. It's also an exhibition space, a room for VR experience, a workshop area and our retro living room office located at the top floor of Warp Technopolis at Stationsplein 1 in Enschede, The Netherlands. Sickhouse present and co-produce crossover projects combining art, gaming, pop culture, science, music, philosophy…

LINK: THE OVERKILL FESTIVAL

GAME ART: THE WULF. AVANTGARDE MUSIC PERFORMANCES WITH(IN) VIDEO GAMES

the wulf. is an experimental collective featuring Lil' Jürg Frey, Liam Mooney (a.k.a. lmoo, 266437144916648607844), a composer, performer, and instrument maker based in Los Angeles and Isaac Schanklerand. Among other things, they make experimental music with video games. In their latest performance, they reimagined and reorchestrated the music of Erik Satie within the world of Nintendo's Super Mario Maker 2. 

Here they are making music in Animal Crossing: New Horizon:

Also check out Liam Mooney's SELECTED HOT GARBAGE, a suite of noisy musical landscapes constructed within the world of Nintendo's Super Mario Maker 2.

Finally, check out these cool music instruments:

LINK: the wulf. (Thanks to Eron Rauch for the heads-up!)

GAME ART: OLAVO EKMAN'S COLORS FADE (2020)

Colors Fade is a video clip created by Brazilian Estudio Bijari for the independent electronic trio Lumen Craft, an electronic pop trio from São Paulo, Brazil. Entirely filmed in virtual locations of Grand Theft Auto V, Colors Fade shows three different characters travelling through the landscapes of a dystopian future that presents remnants of a technocratic civilization. As the authors write:

The futuristic narrative in road movie style, references pop culture and science fiction. It is meant as a homage to artists like Moebius, Simon Stalenhag, Ralph McQuarrie, Syd Mead, Katsuhiro Otomo, Masamune Shirow, James Cameron, Neill Blomkamp and others. The video alludes to faded signs of resistance to a technocracy. The idea is directly related to the growth of right-wing movements in the world and at the same time questions our increasing dependence on technology, machines and social networks. In this universe of "Colors Fade" only three characters, representing the members of Lumen Craft (John Evans, Ceah Pagotto and Noah Guper), are seen following a journey whose destination is unknown.Colors Fade was scripted, directed and edited by Olavo Ekman. Art and animations by Alexandre Marcati, Audrey Martini, Raphael Minhoso, and Olavo Eckman. It was produced by Geandre Tomazoni, Gustavo Godoy, João Rocha, Maurício Brandão, Olavo Ekman, and Rodrigo Araújo

Estudio Bijari is a visual arts studio that brings together a multidisciplinary group of artists, architects, scenographers, designers, video directors and planners. 
Bijari was formed in 1997 in Sao Paulo. Current members are Geandre Tomazoni, Gustavo Godoy, João Rocha, Maurício Brandão, Olavo Ekman and Rodrigo Araújo studio.

LINK: Estudio Bijari

GAME ART: FOCI+LOCI'S BOUNCING MOON (2017)

Another formidable work by foci+loci, Bouncing Moon is an algorithmic music device built in LittleBigPlanet 3. Truly avantgarde. 

As the Brooklyn-based duo explains:

The user trigger emission of a triangle in any of four rows- percussion, droplets, bass and piano- by pressing buttons on the controller. Each triangle has three possible notes and plays whichever one lands point-down in the slot it finds. The moving white light indicates what step the sequencer is on. As it passes each triangle, it triggers a note. The user can also, 'reset' any row by thrusting them back upwards to resettle as they fall. The tempo is also controllable.

Treating the map editors in video games as virtual sound stages, foci + loci create immersive electro-acoustic spaces with virtual instruments and timed audiovisual events. Saving and replaying digital game data, camera movement in space can be disassociated from time, changing traditional filmic relationships. foci + loci is Tamara Yadao and Chris Burke.

LINK: foci+loci

GAME ART: HUGO ARCIER'S INLAND (2019)

Hugo Arcier, Inland, Audiovisual performance: live music, video in audio reactive 3D computer images, 2019 - Music: Annabelle Playe & Marc Siffert, music - video in 3D computer graphics with audio reactivity: Hugo Arcier

Passages, crossings and metamorphoses weave the odyssey of « inLAND | come back in broad day ».These universes are explored live as a 3D video game in which we wander. This exploration is carried out on site or remotely with Discord gamer tool. In these multiple spaces, perception is disturbed between reality, matter and appearance. Abstraction gives way to landscapes, echoes of the inner worlds that a narrator seems to unfold. The visions crumble, the image turns out to be an illusion. We then experience what can't be said or represented. (Hugo Arcier)

Hugo Arcier is a French digital artist - or, rather, “an artist in a digital world” - who uses 3D computer graphics in various ways: videos, prints and sculptures. Initially interested in producing special effects for feature films, he worked on several projects with such directors as Roman Polanski, Alain Resnais, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. This practice has allowed him to gain a deep understanding of digital tools, in particular 3D graphic images. His artistic works have been exhibited at international festivals (Elektra, Videoformes, Némo), galleries (Magda Danysz, Plateforme Paris, etc.), art venues (New Museum, New Media Art Center of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Le Cube, Okayama Art Center, Palais de Tokyo, etc.), and contemporary art fairs (Slick, Variation)

LINK: Hugo Arcier

EVENT: SCRAPBOOK (OR, WHY CAN’T WE LIVE TOGETHER) (AUGUST 16. 2019, NEW YORK)

foci + loci, Affordable Engines: Bramble, 2015-2019

Scrapbook (or, Why Can’t We Live Together)

July 12 – August 19, 2019

Microscope Gallery 
1329 Willoughby Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237
T: (+1) 347 925 1433

Featured artists:

Zoe Beloff, Bill Brand, MV Carbon, Diane Dwyer, Bradley Eros, foci + loci, Morrison Gong (w/ J. (Jialing) Shih), Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Marni Kotak, M. Lamar, Le’Andra LeSeur, Jeanne Liotta, Simon Liu, Bruce McClure, Julian Louis Phillips, Tenzin Phuntsog, Raha Raissnia

The highlight of the exhibition is foci + loci's performance Affordable Engines: Bramble (2015-2019) on Friday August 16. Below is a sneak preview :

Friday August 16, 7:30pm
Scrapbook: foci + loci, MV Carbon
Live sound and visual performances

Microscope is very pleased to present an evening of live sound and visual performances by foci + loci (Chris Burke & Tamara Yadao) and MV Carbon as the 9th of 10 performance events taking place as part of our exhibition “Scrapbook (or, Why Can’t We Live Together)”.

foci + loci
“Affordable Engines: Bramble”, 2015-2019

This newest iteration of foci + loci’s “Bramble”, is a two-channel custom video game environment which the artists operate in live performance. A ghostly musical instrument rises out of the shell of a broken down player piano in the desert. A bush made up of electrical wires and circuit boards grows algorithmically nearby. Day and night pass at an accelerated rate. As the performers navigate through and around the bramble, it blooms and evolves, while its underlying code makes as many choices as the musicians.

foci + loci’s practice is reliant on proprietary digital tools. We test a game engine’s limits by prodding, poking and breaking the system. The idiosyncrasies of the tested code allow us to create systems with high levels of machine agency, affording a relationship between the machine and the player/performers. This relationship emphasizes codified connections to events in a responsive numerical space, played out through an improvised, musical conversation with the system. — foci + loci

LINK: Microscope Gallery + Tamara Yadao