GAMESCENES

EVENT: GROUP HUG (SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 20 2024, NEW YORK)

Concept art for Feral Metaverse by Connor Willumsen, courtesy of ONX Studio

Group Hug

curated by Julia Kaganskiy in partnership with Serpentine Arts Technologies and Rhizome

161 Water St, Floor 4 - Entrance on Water & John Street, New York

September 26 to October 20, 2024

Opening and Public Hours: To be announced

 

Group Hug is an ambitious exhibition that aims to redefine the boundaries of video game installations. Held in collaboration with Water Street Projects and curated by Julia Kaganskiy in partnership with Serpentine Arts Technologies and Rhizome, this exhibition transforms the London gallery space into a dynamic playground where visitors are invited to explore and engage with large-scale, site-specific works.

Group Hug challenges the conventions of individualistic gameplay by promoting radical collaboration. Through a selection of pioneering works by leading artists in the field, the exhibition foregrounds cooperative experiences where communication, shared discovery, and mutual reliance are essential for navigating unfamiliar worlds. Visitors will find themselves immersed in multi-sensory environments that blur the lines between player and participant, artist and audience.

The exhibition is a testament to our evolving curatorial model, which emphasizes collective curation and diverse perspectives. Alongside the installations, Group Hug will feature a series of public programs, set to be announced in early September, that further explore the themes of collaboration and community.

Featured artists: Theo Triantafyllidis, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, and Tale of Tales

Artworks

Still from Feral Metaverse courtesy of Theo Triantafyllidis and ONX Studio

Theo Triantafyllidis – Feral Metaverse Triantafyllidis’s Feral Metaverse drops players into a chaotic landscape where survival depends on disinhibition and cooperation. Breaking away from traditional gaming logic, the work invites participants to navigate a world that prioritizes collective action over competition. The installation, anchored by a custom-built medieval catapult, embodies the artist’s vision of a “feralized” society where synchronicity and shared experience take precedence. Feral Metaverse is curated for Group Hug by Julia Kaganskiy.

Theo Triantafyllidis (b. 1988, Athens) is an artist who blends digital and physical media to explore space and embodiment in hybrid realities. His work, characterized by awkward interactions and precarious physics, invites viewers into uncanny and poetic environments. Using monster theory, Triantafyllidis delves into themes of isolation, sexuality, and violence, often incorporating computational humor and AI improvisation. He holds an MFA from UCLA and a Diploma of Architecture from the National Technical University of Athens. His work has been exhibited in institutions such as the House of Electronic Arts, Hammer Museum, and NRW Forum, and he has participated in events like the Athens Biennale, Sundance New Frontier, and the Venice Biennale.

Still from THE LACK: I KNEW YOUR VOICE BEFORE YOU SPOKE courtesy of Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and ONX Studio

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley – THE LACK: I KNEW YOUR VOICE BEFORE YOU SPOKE Brathwaite-Shirley’s THE LACK is a deeply personal exploration of Black Trans identity through the lens of a choose-your-own-adventure game. The installation incorporates performance elements, with bespoke dance mats serving as controllers and soundscapes generated by player interaction. In this space, the audience becomes a crucial part of the work, blurring the line between creator and participant. Curated by Serpentine Arts Technologies, THE LACK transforms the gallery into a site of active engagement.

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (b. 1995, London) is a Berlin/London-based artist working in animation, sound, performance, and video game development. Their practice creatively retells the stories of Black Trans people by blending lived experience with fiction. Brathwaite-Shirley's work has been featured in solo exhibitions and performances at venues including Fundació Joan Miró, LAS, Studio Voltaire, and SCAD, and in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Julia Stoschek Foundation and Barbican. They received a BA from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2019.

Still from The Endless Forest courtesy of Tale of Tales and ONX Studio

Tale of Tales – The Endless Forest In The Endless Forest, players inhabit the tranquil world of a multiplayer online game where they explore a vast forest as deer. Devoid of traditional goals or objectives, the game encourages peaceful interaction and exploration. This dreamlike environment, sustained by a dedicated community for nearly two decades, is curated for Group Hug by Rhizome.

Auriea studied sculpture at Parsons in New York, and Michael graphic design at Sint-Lucas in Ghent. They began their digital art careers with entropy8.com and zuper.com, meeting in 1999 through the hell.com artists collective. As the duo Entropy8Zuper!, they created notable net.art projects like Skinonskinonskin and The Godlove Museum, earning the SFMOMA Prize for Excellence in Online Art in 2000. Transitioning to video games as Tale of Tales, they released influential titles such as The Endless Forest, The Graveyard, and The Path. Their game Luxuria Superbia won the IGF Nuovo Prize in 2014, and they received Indiecade's Trailblazer award in 2018. Since 2015, Michael has focused on virtual reality and Auriea on digital sculpture. They relocated from Ghent to Rome in 2019 and married in 2024.

Exhibition Partners

Water Street Projects An interdisciplinary platform dedicated to amplifying creative voices across performance, visual arts, and more, Water Street Projects operates with a fluid and expansive approach that invokes the spirit of Cedric Price’s unrealized Fun Palace—a laboratory of fun and a university of the streets.

Julia Kaganskiy As a curator and cultural strategist, Julia Kaganskiy has been at the forefront of art, science, and technology since 2009. Her work explores the intersection of these fields through exhibitions and commissions that challenge and expand our understanding of contemporary art.

Serpentine Arts Technologies A leading force in exploring the impact of technology through art, Serpentine’s Arts Technologies program fosters innovation and supports projects that navigate the intersection of art, science, and technology. Through dedicated research labs and knowledge-sharing initiatives, the program nurtures new art ecologies.

Rhizome A pioneering organization in the digital art space, Rhizome has been integral to the development and preservation of digital art since its founding. With initiatives like the 7x7 art and technology program and a longstanding partnership with the New Museum, Rhizome continues to champion digital art for all.

LINK: Group Hug @ ONX Studio

LINK: Theo Triantafyllidis

LINK: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

LINK: Tale of Tales

CALL FOR PAPERS: GAME ENGINE CULTURE(S) (DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 15 2024)

Project overview

Game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine have transcended their initial confines in video game development, evolving into versatile platforms that now influence a wide array of creative and scientific fields. These powerful tools are not just limited to gaming; they have reshaped Hollywood visual effects, virtual production, and even pre-visualisation of movie sets, as well as contemporary art and architecture. Game engines are also utilised to create training simulations for various industries, including the military. As these engines standardise aesthetic and functional practices, they simultaneously raise critical questions about artistic authorship, expressive diversity, accessibility, environmental sustainability, and the impact of increased digital consumption.

Entitled Game Engine Culture(s), this international research initiative aims to critically examine the contemporary use of game engines within the visual arts. It seeks to explore the convergence of media studies, game studies, platform studies, curatorial practice, and art history. Through in-depth analysis and prototyping under the guidance of artists and practitioners, the project investigates methods to preserve authorship and foster critique within complex digital ecosystems. Our objective is to collaborate with scholars, artists, curators, critics, and practitioners to generate new insights into the social, aesthetic, and technical dimensions of game engines.

Call for papers details

The Department of Art, Media, and Performance “Giampaolo Fabris” at IULM University, Milan, the School of Digital Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University, and the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London, under the guidance of Matteo Bittanti, Valentino Catricalà, and Paolo Ruffino, invite scholars, artists, developers, and practitioners to submit abstracts for a forthcoming publication and series of collaborative research activities centered around the theme of Game Engine Culture(s).

We welcome submissions that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• The transformative impact of game engines on visual culture and artistic expression;
• Critical analyses of aesthetic standardization and homogeneity in production management and 'pipelines' across different fields;
• The circulation of digital assets across diverse fields of cultural production;
• Platformisation tendencies and commercial interests driving game engine development;
• The role of game engines in promoting or hindering diversity and accessibility in digital art and culture;
• Case studies on specific artists (e.g., Ed Atkins, Alice Bucknell, Ian Cheng, Jacky Connolly, Lawrence Lek, Lu Yang and many more);
• ​The use of game engines beyond gaming, including in film, architecture, and other creative industries;
• ​The accessibility of game engines for diverse populations and their role in democratizing digital art creation, including related narratives and discourses;
• The techno-ideologies and geopolitics of game engines;
• Sustainable practices and the challenge of e-waste in the context of game engine proliferation;
• Strategies for preserving artistic authorship and originality within game engine ecosystems.

Game Engine Culture(s) is fully funded by IULM University, ensuring comprehensive support throughout its development. The resulting publication, scheduled to be released in English, will be published by a leading academic publisher, guaranteeing wide dissemination and accessibility within the scholarly community. To accompany the release of the book, we are planning various events, including conferences, talks, screenings, and more.

Important dates

• Abstract submission deadline: September 15, 2024
• Notification of acceptance: October 15, 2024
• Full paper submission deadline: December 15, 2024
• Publication date: 2025

Submission guidelines

• Abstracts: Should be between 300-500 words, clearly outlining the research question, methodology, bibliography, and potential contributions to the field.
• Biographies: Please include a brief biography of the author(s) with the abstract submission.
• Full papers: Should be between 6,000-8,000 words, including references and footnotes, formatted according to MHRA style. Please use British English.
• Format: Submit your chapter as a .docx or .pdf file.
• Submission email: Send submissions to [email protected] with the subject line “Game Engine Cultures Submission”.

Contact information

For further information, please contact:

• Matteo Bittanti: [email protected]
• Paolo Ruffino: [email protected]
• Valentino Catricalà: [email protected]

This call seeks to foster innovative research trajectories both conceptually and methodologically, promoting an original and interdisciplinary approach to studying the impact of game engines on contemporary visual culture. By bringing together experts from various disciplines and creative sectors, this project not only aims to map the state of the art but also to delineate new future research directions.

We look forward to receiving your contributions and to fostering rich discussions and insights into the complex nexus of game engines and contemporary visual culture.

image: Game Engine, by Dall-E, 2024

EVENT: NINA DAVIES’S GLITCH GUISERS (AUGUST 23 2024, LONDON)

Nina Davies: Glitch Guisers

04:00pm - 07:30pm, Fri 23 Aug 2024

The Photographers' Gallery

16-18 Ramillies St, London W1F 7LW, United Kingdom

 

London's The Photographers Gallery is hosting a free outdoor performance by Nina Davies, titled Glitch Guisers, in the streets of Soho Photography Quarter. This event builds on the fictional narrative from Davies’ film, Never Let Them Know Your Next Move, which will be screened on the Gallery's third floor throughout the evening.

Glitch Guisers features five dancers engaging in 'glitch guising' as they move through the streets to a central point where they will freeze, evoking the 2016 viral Mannequin Challenge. This performance reflects the film’s themes, where protagonists discuss the automation of labor. Workers at a distribution center reclaim agency by performing glitch-like movements, confusing the system and allowing themselves a break. Click here to learn more about Davis' practice.

Coinciding with the performance is a presentation of Nina Davies’ For An Imaginary Page. Glitch Guisers will take place on the hour from 4pm to 7pm in Soho Photography Quarter. Attendees are encouraged to film the performances and share the content online to celebrate the artist's work.

Additionally, Never Let Them Know Your Next Move will be screened on a continuous loop on the Gallery's third floor. The film is 10 minutes long. All exhibitions in the Gallery are free to enter until 8pm as part of the Friday Lates program.

Nina Davies (b. 1991) is a Canadian-British artist who considers the present moment through observing dance in popular culture. She questions how it is disseminated, circulated, made, and consumed.

LINK: Nina Davies

LINK: Glitch Guisers

EVENT: FERNANDO PEREIRA GOMES (JULY 19 - AUGUST 1 2024, ONLINE)

Light Study

digital video (1280 x 720), color, sound, 28’ 32”, 2015, Brazil

created by Fernando Pereira Gomes

 

In Light Study, a male avatar from Grand Theft Auto V stands unwavering, gazing into the camera for nearly thirty minutes as weather and light conditions shift subtly yet continuously, painting the scene with an ever-changing palette. The camera remains mostly fixed, with slight movements adding to the contemplative stillness. Dominant wind sounds blend with ambient city noises, creating an immersive backdrop. The artist discovered this scene by accident when the game idled into screen-saver mode. He noticed the light changing on the avatar’s face from morning to night and back. Fascinated by this passage of time, he recorded the scene, furthering his exploration of digital realms and their parallels with our experience of life and time.

Fernando Pereira Gomes was born in São Paulo, Brasil in 1993, currently living and working in Paonia, Colorado. After spending his teenage years in Europe, Gomes moved to New York where he earned his BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts (SVA). In New York, he created a body of street photography depicting life in the city, seeking moments of stillness and poetry within the ever buzzing metropolis. In 2014, his groundbreaking in-game photography series Procedural Generation garnered international attention, both in print and online, culminating in a solo exhibition curated by Alexandra Ungern-Sternberg at Ateliê Alê in São Paulo, Brazil, titled Geração Processual. Additionally, selected images were featured in the group exhibition Transition at the Y Gallery in Minsk, Belarus, also in 2014. Gomes’s work has been presented at prominent venues such as the Noorderlicht Photofestival, Miami-Project, and Photo-LA.

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EVENT: FILE 2024: QUBIT AI (JULY 3 - AUGUST 25 2024, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL)

FILE 2024: QUBIT AI

July 3 - August 25 2024

Centro Cultural FIESP

Avenida Paulista, 1313 Em frente a estação Trianon-Masp do Metrô

Bela Vista, São Paulo - SP, 01311-200, Brazil

 

In the heart of São Paulo, at the FIESP Cultural Center, the FILE 2024 festival unfurls a groundbreaking intersection of art and technology through its latest exhibition, QUBIT AI: Quantum Computing and Synthetic Artificial Intelligence. Curated by Ricardo Barreto and Paula Perissinotto, the exhibition, running from July 3rd to August 25th, promises to redefine the boundaries AI-inspired/co-generated digital art.

At the core of QUBIT AI is the revolutionary potential of quantum computing. This avant-garde technology, characterized by quantum superposition and entanglement, introduces novel creative avenues for artists. Barreto and Perissinotto articulate this paradigm shift in their curatorial text, emphasizing that quantum computing heralds an unprecedented frontier for both computer science and the arts.

For the first time, an art exhibition features a fully operational Quantum Computer. This cutting-edge inclusion is complemented by two pioneering Brazilian projects: Quantum Photography by Gabriela Barreto Lemos and Sounding Qubits by Eduardo Reck Miranda. Lemos’ work explores the visual possibilities inherent in quantum phenomena, while Miranda's installation translates the enigmatic behaviors of qubits into an auditory experience.

While quantum computing represents a nascent technological revolution, synthetic artificial intelligence is already reshaping artistic landscapes. Synthetic art, produced through AI in collaboration with human creativity, parallels the radical shifts of early modernity, offering new methods of creation across diverse media.

The exhibition's synthetic art section is divided into four thematic areas: Sound Synthetics, Aesthetic Synthetics, Cinematic Synthetics, and Architectural Synthetics. One of the standout installations, INTERATOR, is a three-dimensional cinema without VR glasses. This immersive experience allows viewers to navigate a space filled with simultaneous synthetic video projections, creating an interactive dialogue between the audience and the art.

Highlighted artists within Sound Synthetics include Dennis Schöneberg, whose works such as Bodydub and Transparenza blend visual and auditory stimuli to craft a multisensory narrative. The Spanish collective Iskarioto's dystopian AI films, paired with AI-generated music, further push the envelope of what synthetic art can achieve.

QUBIT AI’s interactive installations invite visitors to become active participants in the art. Klaus Obermaier's EGO uses the concept of alienation from psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan to distort the viewer's reflection, examining the tension between reality and symbolism. "The Forgettable Art Machine" places the visitor at the nexus of art and technology, turning each interaction into a personalized masterpiece.

Elizabeth Kolbert's influence is evident in Speculative Evolution, Prototype 1, an AI-driven simulator that allows visitors to create new species within a speculative ecosystem. Marc Vilanova’s Cascade immerses viewers in the hidden frequencies of waterfalls, transforming auditory experiences into a sensory exploration of environmental soundscapes.

Seph Li's Everything Before, Everything After transforms collective touch into a dynamic digital painting, capturing the fluidity of interaction in a visual symphony. Holly Herndon’s AI voice model, Holly+, stars in the music video Jolene, featuring Sam Rolfes, which showcases the capabilities of synthetic performers and their impact on contemporary music.

Complementing QUBIT AI, the FILE LED Show 2024 illuminates Fiesp's facade with innovative creations from USP Visual Arts Course and IED São Paulo students. Under the guidance of Dr. Silvia Laurentiz and Daniel Grizando, these collaborations highlight the interdisciplinary nature of design and the transformative power of university partnerships

QUBIT AI at FILE 2024 is not merely an exhibition; it is a visionary journey into the future of art. By integrating quantum computing and synthetic AI, it challenges and expands our understanding of creativity, inviting us to explore the uncharted territories where art and technology converge.

LINK: FILE 2024: QUIBIT AI

EVENT: IP YUK-YIU'S LEVEL 66 - THE ARCADE PROJECT (JULY 28-AUGUST 4 2024, HONG KONG)

 

 IP YUK-YIU'S LEVEL 66 - THE ARCADE PROJECT

The Box Freespace

West Kowloon Cultural District 18

Museum Drive Kowloon, Hong Kong

Ip Yuk-yiu’s latest venture, LEVEL 66 – The Arcade Project, transforms The Box into an immersive theatre experience where the boundaries between gameplay and performance blur seamlessly. Known for his innovative integration of computer games into artistic practice, Ip Yuk-yiu once again challenges conventional narratives by inviting the audience to become active participants in a dynamic, interactive environment.

LEVEL 66 – The Arcade Project is not merely a performance; it is a participatory theatre experience where the audience steps into a human arcade game lab. The project presents a liminal space, an ambiguous midpoint in a convoluted and possibly manipulated process, where participants are faced with various scenarios and actions. The central question posed to each player is deceptively simple: to play or not to play.

This intriguing premise serves as a vehicle for exploring deeper themes. The project utilizes game mechanics as both method and metaphor, dissecting the interplay of choice, agency, and the inherent conflicts within a structured yet unpredictable system. By engaging with these scenarios, participants confront the underlying mechanisms of control and decision-making, mirroring the complexities of real-world interactions.

Developed in collaboration with students, teachers, and graduates from the School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, alongside the Technical and Production Team at West Kowloon Cultural District, LEVEL 66 – The Arcade Project epitomizes a collective effort in pushing the boundaries of experimental performance. This collaboration enriches the project, incorporating diverse perspectives and expertise, and fostering an environment where creativity and technology coalesce.

LEVEL 66 – The Arcade Project is presented under the aegis of TechBox, a collaborative platform established by West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) and the School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. TechBox is dedicated to merging the realms of media art and theatre design, encouraging experimental creations within a technological context.

IP Yuk-Yiu is an acclaimed experimental filmmaker, media artist, art educator, and independent curator. His diverse body of work spans experimental films, live performances, media installations, and video games. These creations have been widely exhibited at prominent international venues and festivals, including the European Media Art Festival, New York Film Festival (Views from the Avant-Garde), the Image Festival, FILE Festival, VideoBrasil, Transmediale, NTT ICC, ZKM, and the WRO Media Art Biennale. With over two decades of curatorial experience in film, video, and media art, IP Yuk-Yiu is a pivotal figure in the contemporary art scene. He is the founder of the art.ware project, an independent curatorial initiative dedicated to promoting new media art in Hong Kong. His efforts have significantly contributed to the visibility and appreciation of media art within the region. Currently, IP Yuk-Yiu serves as an Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. His recent artistic endeavors explore hybrid creative forms that draw inspiration from cinema, video games, and contemporary media art practices. His innovative approach and substantial contributions to the field were recognized in 2019 when he was awarded the Artist of the Year (Media Arts) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

LINK: LEVEL 66 – The Arcade Project

LINK: Ip Yuk-yiu

EVENT: ZHOU YAN'S CLOUD 9 (MAY 25 -JULY 7 2024, BEIJING, CHINA)

Zhou Yan, Blind Field (video still),
2022–2024, interactive video installation, real time, image
courtesy of the artist and SPURS Gallery

Zhou Yan, a Beijing-born artist with an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is renowned for his experimental approach, blending video installations, sculptures, paintings, and interactive media. His practice often interrogates the relational dynamics between individuals and collectives, delving into the subtleties of causality and interdependence. In Cloud 9, running from May 25 to July 7, 2024 at SPURS Gallery, Beijing, Zhou amplifies this exploration by leveraging video game engine technology to create real-time video installations that challenge viewers' perceptions and interactions.

The centerpiece of the exhibition, Blind Field (2022–2024), epitomizes Zhou's innovative use of technology. Inspired by his experience in an MRI scanner, the installation invites the audience into a simulated environment where their movements alter the visual narrative. By stepping on an interactive pedal, viewers disrupt the video imagery, evoking a sense of restricted vision and prompting reflections on the limits of perception and knowledge. This piece underscores Zhou's ability to translate personal anxiety into a universal commentary on human experience.

Cloud 9 is a testament to Zhou's capacity to transform his personal pandemic experiences into profound artistic expressions. The animation installation Trophy (2024) mirrors the triumphant display of video game achievements, using three short animations to symbolize the erasure of process and the finality of completion. In contrast, Shortcut (2024) revives the journey, drawing from Zhou’s bouldering experiences to scatter remnants of intense physical activity throughout the gallery. These works encapsulate the dichotomy of finality and continuity, resonating with the fragmented nature of pandemic life.

Zhou Yan, Trophy 3, 2024, GIF
animation, acrylic, LCD screen, 30 x 21 cm, image courtesy of the artist and SPURS Gallery

Zhou Yan, Trophy 2, 2024, GIF
animation, acrylic, LCD screen, 30 x 21 cm, image courtesy of the artist and SPURS Gallery

The exhibition also features Endless Waiting (2024), a golden sculpture that captures the monotony and anticipation of the pandemic period. Nothing (2024), an assemblage of outdoor functional fabric, and Trap (2024), a video work with intermittent lights, further illustrate Zhou's meticulous attention to the mundane and overlooked aspects of modern life. By elevating these “dull, unimportant, and negligible” elements, Zhou imbues them with significant artistic value, inviting viewers to reconsider their own experiences and memories.

Zhou Yan, Blind Field (installation view)
2022–2024, interactive video installation, real time, image
courtesy of the artist and SPURS Gallery

Cloud 9 also reflects Zhou’s skepticism towards societal systems and his quest to unravel their operations. This critical perspective is woven into his works, which often dissect the tension between elitism and anti-intellectualism, a theme that has become more pronounced in the aftermath of the global pandemic. Zhou's art becomes a medium through which he disentangles his personal emotions and life experiences, presenting them as inquiries into the mechanisms of society.

Zhou Yan, born in Beijing, received his BFA in Visual Communication from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His artistic practice explores the interrelations and dependencies between individuals and collectives, focusing on minute details and causality through various media, including video installations, gaming, and artist books. Zhou's work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions such as "Cloud 9" (2024) at SPURS Gallery, Beijing, "Lazarus" (2022) at Click Ten Art Space, and "Pale Fire" (2020) at SPURS Gallery. His group exhibitions include "Motion Is Action—35 Years of Chinese Media Art" (2023) and "Art’s Language, Artists’ Game" (2022). He has also participated in screenings like the 29th Chicago Underground Film Festival (2022) and the 65th International Film Festival Oberhausen (2019). Zhou has received several awards, including the 2023 “RanRan” Young Artist Prize, “The Exploration Award,” and a nomination for the 2020 AAC Young Artist of the Year Award. His artist books are part of the Joan Flash Artist Book Collection in Chicago.

LINK: SPURS gallery

EVENT: 2GIRLS1COMP (JULY 5 - 18 2024, ONLINE)

Dancing Plague

digital video (1920 x 800), color, sound, 6’ 29”, 2024, Switzerland/Italy

created by 2girls1comp

In Dancing Plague, a mod for Grand Theft Auto V, the game’s traditionally gendered choreography is subverted, forcing every male NPC to dance feverishly whenever the player holds the H key. This intervention spotlights the inherent gender biases within the game’s animation system, where dance moves are primarily designed for female performers, often objectified as sex workers. By redirecting these choreographies to male characters, the mod disrupts the rigid gender binaries coded into the game, creating a spectacle where masculinity is both liberated and challenged. Interestingly, the male NPCs’s hypersexualized dance is mostly ignored by the female characters. Such an outcome becomes a playful and potent critique of the game’s inherent gender politics. To enhance the mod’s immersive experience, Azu Tiwaline, a French Tunisian musician known for blending contemporary electronic music with sub-Saharan trance traditions, was commissioned to create the soundtrack. Her work underscores the mod’s themes of ritual, trance, and liberation, providing a sonic backdrop that deepens the critique of gendered biases in digital spaces.

2girls1comp is a modding duo founded in 2023 by Marco De Mutiis (Italy, 1983) and Alexandra Pfammatter (Switzerland, 1993). Their work changes the logic of video games as an act of creative counter-play, revealing the social and economic fabric in which they are immersed: from reclaiming global digital infrastructures to commenting on free labor within the capitalist ideologies of the gaming industry, to showcasing the way play can influence its subjects through its mechanics. Their projects are distributed within the gaming and modding community, as well as cultural and artistic contexts.

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PROJECT: THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S GUIDE TO LOS SANTOS

In this video, Marco De Mutiis and Matteo Bittanti introduce The Photographer's Guide to Los Santos, an online companion to the eponymous exhibition which took place in the context of Fotofestival Lenzburg between May 22 and June 23 2024 in Lenzburg, Switzerland.

The Photographer’s Guide to Los Santos is several things at once.

Firstly, it’s a curated archive and expanding resource center documenting the most significant artistic projects created with Grand Theft Auto V in the past decade.

Secondly, it an educational project, introducing students to virtual photography practices through a thematic overview and a series of hands-on exercises.

Thirdly, as an "how to guide", it provides a series of manuals intended to photography and media arts students interested in experimenting with the game.

This online resource currently collects nine projects created by international artists working with Grand Theft Auto V, that is, 2girls1comp, Alan Butler, Raphael Brunk, COLL.EO, Mattia Dagani Rio, Elizabeth Desintaputri, Claire Hentschker, Mascha Negri, and Georgie Roxby Smith, which were all featured in the very first themed exhibition.

The repository is expected to expand substantially over the next few months.

In this video, the curators discuss the nine notable works currently featured in the online archive.

Explore the The Photographer's Guide to Los Santos

EVENT: VRAL #89: EKIEM BARBIER, GUILHEM CAUSSE, QUENTIN L’HELGOUALC’H (JUNE 21 - JULY 4 2024)

Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h

Marlowe Drive

digital video, sound, color, 34’, 2017, France

vral.org

 

In Marlowe Drive, an avatar named Adam Kesher embarks on an unconventional journey through Los Santos, a meticulously rendered virtual replica of Los Angeles in Grand Theft Auto V. Adam is crafting a pioneering game video essay, not merely documenting the game and its players, but filming entirely within the game’s landscapes. This ethnographic endeavor blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy, between players and their digital personas, while exploring the sociocultural dynamics of the simulation. Adam’s quest for a metaphorical bridge linking real-world experiences with virtual realities introduces him to characters and locations within the game that mirror broader societal themes such as ambition, identity, and self-expression. Marlowe Drive invites viewers to reassess the interconnections between gaming and cinema, between tangible realities and our collective imaginations.

Ekiem Barbier is a versatile composer and filmmaker who completed his education in drawing and video at the Montpellier Fine Arts School, graduating in 2017. His creative portfolio includes short fiction and animation films, and he has contributed to various collective exhibitions. Barbier’s directorial works include ANENT (2017) and Marlowe Drive (2017). His most recent project, Knit’s Island (2023), was a collaborative effort with Guilhem Causse and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, and premiered at Visions du Réel and since then screened worldwide, to great critical acclaim. 

Quentin L’helgoualc’h is an artist whose work spans the realms of cinema, drawing, digital imagery, and sculpture, exploring the interplay among these mediums. His artistic inquiries reflect on the societal role of the artist, interlaced with personal fantasies and challenges posed by new technologies. L’helgoualc’h co-directed Marlowe Drive (2017) and Knit's Island (2023), with Ekiem Barbier and Guilhem Causse.

Guilhem Causse explores the intricate relationship between image and sound. Influenced by science fiction, photography, and concrete music, Causse crafts immersive environments characterized by void and resonance, populated with enigmatic forms. He co-directed Marlowe Drive (2017), and Knit's Island (2023), with Ekiem Barbier and Quentin L’helgoualc’h.

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