GAMESCENES

EVENT: MATTHEW EARL WILLIAMS’S INDIANS FROM THE UNCANNY VALLEY (JANUARY 25 - MARCH 7 2024, ITHACA, NY)

Matthew Earl Williams

Indians from the Uncanny Valley

January 25 – March 7, 2024

Ithaca College 953 Danby Road, Ithaca, NY 14850

1/25/2024 Opening Reception 5 – 6:30pm

1/25/2024 Artist Talk: 1:15p.m

A Tintype is a one-of-a-kind positive image on a metal plate and a popular visual medium of the Mid 1800’s. Around this time my ancestors were being forced to decide between signing away most of their rights in treaties or face extinction by colonizers. These portraits are created by documenting people's avatars in the cowboy roleplaying video game Red Dead Redemption 2. In the game you can create and play with around 24,000 other real people online daily. Most people create some sort of cowboy player but there are forums and social groups of players that choose to create their characters or avatars as Indians in the game. I have been meeting up with them in the game and taking Tintype portraits of them in this virtual world. I’m curious about why someone would want to roleplay as a Native American character during one of the hardest times in their history. Is it because the romanticized images of the so-called vanishing Indian have become so commonplace in common media? Do they not know that these images have fueled identity issues that many natives still struggle with? Do they think that by playing as these figures that they are somehow honoring us? Just as they think they honor us with a school mascot. Do they hope to find some connection to the native experience that will help with the guilt? Or do they just like to root for an underdog?

Matthew Earl Williams, The Lord Marvel, 8” X 10” Tintype, 2021 (c) Matthew Earl Williams

Williams is an artist, educator, and enrolled tribal member of The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. M. Earl received a Master of Fine Arts in Photography and a Master of Arts in Studio Art from the University of Iowa. He also received a BFA in Photography at the University of Oregon. His work is shown internationally with recent cities including Rome, Los Angeles, Berlin, Chicago, New York, Denver, Portland, and Phoenix. Currently he resides in his ancestral homelands, the Oregon Willamette Valley, where he is the Multimedia Specialist for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.

Indians from the Uncanny Valley is currently on display in the context of the exhibition Just Plating Around, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU, 1855 S.W. Broadway, Portland.

LINK: Matthew Earl Williams

LINK: INDIANS FROM THE UNCANNY VALLEY

EVENT: HARRISON WADE REISHMAN (JANUARY 17-30 2025)

Ida B. Wells: A Red Record

digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 39’ 34”, 2020, United States of America

created by Harrison Wade Reishman

 

Ida B. Wells: A Red Record is a biographical machinima that examines the life and contributions of Ida B. Wells, a trailblazing African American journalist and activist. Conceived during the Covid-19 lockdown through the innovative use of the Red Dead Redemption 2 game engine, the film transforms Wells’ seminal investigative journalism into a sophisticated cinematic narrative. By leveraging the intricate virtual environments of the game and employing a nuanced narration, the film reconstructs Wells’ relentless documentation of lynching atrocities in the American South during the 1890s, drawing extensively from her landmark publication, The Red Record. The production combines historical accuracy with the creative latitude afforded by video game aesthetics, deploying almost thirty characters to re-enact pivotal moments of Wells’ life. 

Hailing from Hurricane, West Virginia, Harrison Wade Reishman is an accomplished filmmaker and innovator in machinima whose work explores the confluence of traditional cinema and game-driven narratives. A graduate of the University of Virginia with dual degrees in Psychology and Marketing, Reishman combines narrative sophistication with technical expertise in his visual storytelling. His career trajectory includes roles as a UTA agent trainee and a television development executive at Entertainment One, where he contributed to acclaimed productions such as Hung (HBO) and Hell on Wheels (AMC). Transitioning to independent filmmaking, he received a Taliesin Nexus grant in 2018 to direct Crosswinds, and has since directed and produced a series of critically recognized short films. Currently based in Los Angeles, Reishman continues to push the boundaries of machinima as a transformative medium for storytelling.

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