NEW ACADEMIC PROGRAM: CRITICAL GAME ART (URBINO, ITALY)
Accademia di Belle Arti
Via dei Maceri, 2
61029 Urbino, Perugia
Italy
The Critical Game Art program, a brand new two-year initiative at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Urbino, explores the videogames as a language, critical tool, and starting point for understanding contemporary issues. Situated in Urbino, a historic center known for its cultural and artistic heritage, the Accademia di Belle Arti offers a rich academic environment conducive to creative exploration and critical inquiry. The curriculum addresses the digital ecosystem (environments, procedures, narratives) by examining issues arising from the relationships between simulation and representation, power and aesthetics, big data and ideologies, approached through the lenses of art and new technologies. Students enrolled in the course will be encouraged to question how media and objects of digital culture are used and exploited, and whether the idealized (utopian and dystopian) settings of videogames, beneath their playful facade, conceal visions with significant social repercussions. How can artists and industry professionals intervene consciously to make the messages hidden by technologies accessible? The program aims to foster analyses that bring together cultural criticism and poetic thought to uncover and, if necessary, challenge the dynamics proposed in videogame environments and digital communication artifacts. Therefore, the course addresses the field of videogame design by developing projects primarily focused on artistic goals.
Animation, 3D environments, soundscapes, interactive digital interfaces, videogame experiences, storytelling and cinema are among the disciplines that shape the personal development path in contemporary contexts. The course aims to use the aesthetics, procedures, and technologies typical of videogames as fields from which to emerge artistic proposals, such as installations, videogames, videos, digital art, generative art, etc. These aesthetic experiences transform screens and environments into spaces for transmedial experimentation. Key educational objectives include awareness of language use, digital tools, and messages conveyed through art dynamics, contributing to debates on the role of videogame aesthetics within established mechanisms of artistic production.
The topics covered in the curriculum intersect with a rapidly expanding sector, one of the most prosperous in terms of economic investment and public attention. As a result, the highly professionalizing educational path offers multiple career prospects, including opportunities for freelance work in the art field as a digital author and artist, in the videogame sector as a game artist, developer, or art director, and in digital communication.
1st Year / ECTS Critical Design 1 / 12 (120 hours) Game Engines / 8 (80 hours) Videogame Cinematography – narrative through images / 8 (80 hours) Digital Animation Techniques / 8 (80 hours) Post-videogame Photography / 8 (48 hours) Theory and Analysis of Cinema and Audiovisuals / 8 (48 hours) Digital Cultures / 5 (50 hours) Digital Modeling Techniques – 3D computer / 3 (72 hours)