A phenomenal talk (cum transcript) by Paolo Pedercini aka Molleindustria about Apple's decision to kill Flash (spoiler: platform capitalism).
Here's an excerpt:
LINK: Paolo Pedercini's Gone in a flash
11/27/2020
08/14/2020
RESOURCE: GAME PHOTOGRAPHY AS AVANTGARDE
An introduction to game photography with artist overview by Hart Fowler published on Digital Trends.
LINK: Third-person shooter: In-game photography is becoming an avant-garde art form
07/05/2020
GAME ART: BARDUU'S PHOTO TUTORIALS FOR THE LAST OF US PART II (2020)
Petri Levälahti aka @Berduu is making super short photo mode tutorials for The Last of Us Part II on Twitter. Check'em out!
Petri Levalhati currently works at EA DICE as a Screenshot Capture Artist.
You may remember his brilliant machinima that we covered a few years ago.
RESOURCE: FRIEZE JULY/AUGUST 2020
The July/August 2020 issue of Frieze features a series on articles on play and games, including but not limited to: Darran Anderson's reverie about escaping into the classic arcade game Street Fighter II (1991) during the Troubles in Northern Ireland; Orit Gat on sports writing as a visual experience not dissimilar to writing about art (click here to read the full article); Simon Denny and Joanna Pope update the world’s first socialist board game Class Struggle (1978); Jennifer Kabat takes a close look at Lynn Hershman Leeson’s use of avatars and antibodies; and Azby Brown asks: what went wrong for Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Stadium?
Unmissable.
LINK: Frieze
08/29/2019
VIDEOS: LOOKING FOR GOOD
Looking for Good (LFG) is a student-run group at the University of Florida facilitated by Kyle Bohunicky, Assistant Professor of Digital Arts and Sciences at University of Florida. LFG produces live-streams on Twitch addressing artistic, technical, social, and cultural topics across the arts and computer sciences while playing relevant games. Each stream features a video game that the students play while discussing relevant topics. It's a terrific resource for anybody interested in understanding the relationship between games, art, and culture.
Here are some examples:
Digital Museums and Art Curation with Kristopher Purzycki, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The Physics of Masculinity with Dr. Amanda Phillips, Georgetown University
Queer Representation in Digital Games with Dr. Bo Ruberg, University of California Department of Informatics
CURTAIN and Queer Futures with Dr. Edmond Chang, Ohio University
02/12/2018
Book: Giochi video. Performance, spettacolo, streaming
I'm delighted to announce the release of Giochi video. Performance, spettacolo, streaming, a new collection of essays on the rise of game videos edited by Enrico Gandolfi and I. Released in Italy, the book features contributions on machinima, videoart, live streaming, speedrunning, let's play videos and much more. It's the follow up to Machinima. Dal videogioco alla video arte and, once again, features a jacket design by Italian illustrator Marco Goran Romano.
Below is the synopsis in Italian:
Oggi, il game video è importante tanto quanto il video game.
Termine ombrello che indica le pratiche di produzione, distribuzione e consumo di audiovisivi inerenti al videogioco – dai live stream di Twitch alla videoarte del machinima, dai walkthrough ai Let’s Play, dagli speedrun ai tutorial – il game video oggi rappresenta un importante fenomeno culturale, artistico ed economico. Giochi video. Performance, spettacolo, streaming propone, per la prima volta, una mappatura di un territorio dai confini fluidi grazie ai contributi di studiosi internazionali. Applicando un approccio innovativo alle metodologie di ricerca e di analisi, gli autori esaminano numerosi nodi teorici, con una forte attenzione all’evoluzione del medium. Tra i temi portanti spiccano le trasformazioni delle modalità spettatoriali, le influenze crossmediali e le contaminazioni estetiche, a conferma che oggi il videogioco si configura innanzitutto in chiave performativa e spettacolare. Il libro si rivolge agli appassionati di nuovi media e a quelli di cinema, televisione e arte contemporanea. L’orientamento pluridisciplinare e il prisma dei punti di osservazione applicati ai fenomeni considerati offrono spazi di riflessione originali all’interno dei game studies contemporanei.
Titolo: Giochi video. Performance, spettacolo, streaming
Curatori: Matteo Bittanti e Enrico Gandolfi
Editore: Mimesis
Collana: Eterotopie
Data di pubblicazione: 15 febbraio 2018
Lingua: Italiano
Pagine: 220, con illustrazioni in bianco e nero
ISBN-10: 8857540952
ISBN-13: 978-88-5754-0955
Prezzo: 18 euro
LINK: Giochi video
10/26/2017
RESOURCE: When Art Is Put Into Play (Dissertation)
Artist and researcher at Gothenburg University Arne Kjell Vikhagen has just completed his dissertation about game art.
English Keywords: Game Art, Computer Games, Video Games and Art, Play, Artistic Research, New Media Art
ISBN: 978-91-982421-5-7 (printed version) ISBN: 978-91-982421-6-4 (digital version)
Full-text: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/
Description: When Art Is Put Into Play: A Practice-based Research Project on Game Art is a practice-based research project that aims to contribute to the understanding of the relation between play and art from the specific perspective of computer-based Game Art. This is done firstly through the production of nine works of art that through their means of production all relate to Game Art as it has come to be known in the last twenty years or so. Secondly, the relation between games, play and art is discussed from a Game Art perspective. This project as a whole aims to map and exemplify cases where Game Art successfully inherits rule-systems, aesthetics, spatial and temporal aspects from computer games. This work has in turn resulted in a provisional response to the question of the possibility for Game Art to successfully create a state of play, whilst still maintain agency as a work of art. The claim is that the friction between art and play makes it doubtful that art can maintain its agency as art through play. This claim is made as a result of the artistic process leading up to the works of art that were made as a part of the thesis. It has been strengthened through the study of the concept of play and how it relates to artistic practice.
12/24/2014
Video: NYU Game Center Lectures
Fantastic Christmas gift from NYU Game Center: all the video lectures and presentations are now available for free. Film and/or video recordings of all entries can be found in the NYU Game Center archive.
Below is Cara Ellison's lecture The Birth of the Gamemaker, which took place in November 2014.
LINK: NYU Game Center Lecture Archive
Submitted by Matteo Bittanti (via NYU Game Center)
04/15/2011
Resources: SWITCH #27 is out: Game Art/Games and Art
"CADRE has been working overtime completely revampingSWITCH: New Media Journal. If your not already familiar with the program, CADRE Laboratory for New Media is an interdisciplinary academic and research program dedicated to the experimental use of information technology and art at San Jose State University. The revamping of SWITCH took a lot of time and energy from the team, but their work paid off and you can read the latest issue online now. It has everything from articles on Games as Art to Digital Humanism. Check out SWITCH and pass it on!" (Sarah B, Zero1)