GAMESCENES

EVENT: YEAR OF THE ROBOT: THREE MACHINIMA SHORTS (OCTOBER 3 2023, MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA)

Still from How to Disappear (2021), Total Refusal. Courtesy of the artist

Year of the Robot: Three machinima shorts

A machinima retrospective curated by Jini Maxwell

Part of The Melbourne International Games Week Film Series

October 3 2023

ACMI Museum

Federation Square (Level 2 cinemas), Melbourne, Australia

 

Never previously shown in Australian cinemas, these three short films use screen-captured footage from Grand Theft Auto V and Battlefield to consider how videogames reflect (or reinforce) the sociopolitical reality.

Full program

Why Don't the Cops Fight Each Other? (2021)

Grayson Earle, 9 mins 4 sec, English, DCP

Still from 'Why don't the cops fight each other?' (2021), Grayson Earle. Courtesy of the artist

Grayson Earl’s Why Don't the Cops Fight Each Other? (2021) is desktop performance that considers how the ‘blue wall of silence’ manifests in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto V (2013). Over the course of ten minutes, the artist records his repeated attempts to modify the game, revealing how social structures are embedded in the way police officers behave in the game's code itself.

It's Just Math (2021)

Mathias Wolff, 29 mins 52 sec, English, DCP

Screen capture from Mathias Wolfe's It's Just Math (2021). Courtesy of the artist.

Mathias Wolff’s It's Just Math (2021) uses Grand Theft Auto V's fictional city of Los Santos as the setting for an experimental documentary on predictive policing, and its impact on everyday life of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in Los Angeles. By appropriating and repurposing Grand Theft Auto V, the film shows how so-called Dirty Data — inaccurate, incomplete or inconsistent data, especially in a computer system or database — are created through discriminatory policing practices and how the usage of such data within predictive policing software directly affects BIPoC.

How to Disappear (2021)

Source: Refreshing Films, Courtesy: Total Refusal, 21 mins 6 sec, English DCP

Still from How To Disappear (2021), Total Refusal

In How to Disappear (2021), pseudo-marxist media guerilla Total Refusal considers the political function of combat desertion in both the real and digital world (2021). An anti-war film, this short considers the possibilities for peace in the unlikely setting of the multiplayer war game Battlefield (2002).

LINK: Year of the Robot: Three Machinima Shorts (Thanks to Jini Maxwell)

LINK: Melbourne International Games Week Film Series

EVENT: VRAL #75: FILIP KOSTIC (SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 12 2023, ONLINE)

Filip Kostic VS Filip Kostic

digital video, color, sound (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 16’ 28”, 2019, Serbia/United States

created by Filip Kostic

online premiere (brand new edit)

 

Filip Kostic VS Filip Kostic (2019) is a performative artwork by artist Filip Kostic, staged as a live Twitch stream. In the piece, Kostic plays a match of FIFA Soccer against Serbian athlete Filip Kostic, who shares his name and nationality. The prize at stake is the @filipkostic Instagram handle. For years, Kostic’s online identity was conflated with that of the athlete due to sharing a name and IMDb page. After being contacted by Kostic’s PR team to purchase his Instagram handle, the artist instead proposed this competitive FIFA face-off to settle the score. Presented as an eSports event, the Twitch stream featured a custom layout with sponsors and a halftime show performance. It is now presented on VRAL in a new format.

Filip Kostic is an interdisciplinary artist working across video, performance, sculpture, and interactive media. His video and new media works have been shown internationally at venues including Ars Electronica Festival, Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art, and SPRING/BREAK Art Show. He has exhibited sculpture and installation works at galleries in the US and Europe. Kostic holds an MFA from Bard College and a BFA from ArtCenter College of Design, where he currently teaches in the Interaction Design and Fine Art departments. He has previously taught at Otis College of Art & Design and Cal State Northridge. From 2018-2021, he worked as a technical artist and game designer at WEVR on VR experiences for the Harry Potter franchise. Through his multimedia practice, Kostic invites viewers to examine and challenge assumptions about identity, reality, and the role of technology in shaping human experience. His work aims to collapse boundaries between the real and the simulated. Originally from Belgrade, Serbia, he is currently based in Los Angeles.

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EVENT: CÉCILE B. EVANS'S REALITY OR NOT (OCTOBER 18 - NOVEMBER 26 2023, BOLOGNA, ITALY)

Cécile B. Evans, Reality or Not, 2023, Production still made with IncWorks

CECILE B. EVANS, REALITY OR NOT

FOTO/INDUSTRIA VI BIENNIAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY ON INDUSTRY AND WORK

18.10 – 26.11.2023

Musei Civici Bologna MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna

Via Don Giovanni Minzoni, 14, Bologna, Italy

 

Reality or Not is a video installation that narrates the intriguing tale of a group of students hailing from a high school nestled in the northern suburbs of Paris. They embark on a daring experiment, one that seeks to seize control of the reality enveloping them and reshape it according to their own vision. This project marks the latest milestone in the extensive research journey undertaken by the artist, Cécile B. Evans, spanning the entirety of their career. At its core, Reality or Not strives to redefine the very essence of reality in a society increasingly inundated with alternative digital realms. The installation challenges our capacity to differentiate between the tangible and the virtual in the contemporary world. Moreover, it delves into the psychological and cognitive consequences arising from this fusion of realities.

Cécile B. Evans, an American-Belgian artist residing and creating in La Plaine Saint Denis, France, has carved a niche in the art world by examining the intrinsic value of emotion and its defiance when confronted with ideological, physical, and technological constructs. Their impressive body of work includes notable commissions at prestigious institutions like Tate Liverpool, Tramway, Serpentine Galleries, Castello di Rivoli, Museum Abteiberg, and Centre Pompidou. Additionally, Evans' art has graced the galleries of Whitechapel Gallery, Haus der Kunst, Renaissance Society Chicago, Mito Art Tower, and many others. Notably, Evans' cinematic creations have garnered acclaim at renowned film festivals such as the New York Film Festival and Rotterdam International. Their artistic legacy also endures in esteemed public collections, including MoMA NY, the Whitney Museum, Centre Pompidou, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul.

LINK: Cécile B. Evans's Reality or Not

LINK: Cécile B. Evans

EVENT: HEECHEON KIM: DOUBLE POSER (DECEMBER 1 - JANUARY 7 2024, LONDON)

Heecheon Kim: Double Poser
1 Dec 2023 –⁠ 7 Jan 2024
HENI Project Space, Hayward Gallery
Hayward Gallery, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX

press release

Kim’s work conflates virtual and physical realms, embracing yet questioning our obsession and trust in advanced technologies.

In his video works, Kim manipulates both filmed and found footage to challenge our habitual manner of processing visual and sensory information. They consider how our bodies, memories, emotions, identities, physical experiences and the banality of daily life are constructed and represented in digital space.

Using technologies such as GPS, augmented reality, virtual reality and face-swap applications, the artist creates ambiguous and, at times, decidedly nonsensical narratives.

This exhibition includes a new moving image commission created using a ‘game engine’, which is a software platform for developing video games. It takes inspiration from the brutalist architecture of the Hayward Gallery and brings together elements of computer-generated imagery, video game aesthetics and skateboarding culture.

You can also see Kim’s 2019 video work Deep in the Forking Tanks at this exhibition.

Heecheon Kim lives and works in Seoul. He was awarded the 2023 Hermès Foundation Missulsang Art Prize.

Developed in collaboration with Seoul’s Art Sonje Center, this exhibition is part of Korean Season 2023. Korean Season 2023 is hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Korea) and organised by KOFICE (Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange) and KCCUK (Korean Cultural Centre UK).

Heecheon Kim (b. 1989) graduated from the architecture department of the Korea National University of Arts. He has held solo exhibitions at the Asian Art Museum (2018, San Francisco) and Doosan Art Center (2017, Seoul) and taken part in numerous group exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (2019, Seoul), İstanbul Museum of Modern Art (2017, İstanbul), ZKM (2019, Karlsruhe), and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (2019, Manila).

LINK: Heecheon Kim: Double Poser

LINK: Heecheon Kim

EVENT: FIRAS SHEHADEH (SEPTEMBER 7 - 21 2023, ONLINE)

Like An Event In A Dream Dreamt By Another — Rehearsal

Single-channel video (color, sound, narrator: Mamusu Kallon), 14’ 19”, 2023, Palestine

Created by Firas Shehadeh

Originally commissioned by Singapore Art Museum

 

Part of Shehadeh’s ongoing research into video games and Palestinian youth culture, Like An Event In A Dream Dreamt By Another — Rehearsal combines found-footage of Twitch streamers and custom game mods for Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar Games, 2013). Unpacking video game mods as a form of contemporary archive — and therefore digitizing historic and contemporary architectural sites in addition to seemingly ubiquitous objects — the artwork proposes Los Santos, a virtual replica of Los Angeles, as the biblical “land of milk and honey”.

Firas Shehadeh is a Palestinian artist and researcher exploring issues of identity, meaning, and aesthetics in the digital age. Currently based in Vienna, his interdisciplinary practice engages with post-colonial effects, technology, and history through the lens of worldbuilding and internet culture. Shehadeh holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he is currently a PhD candidate. His education also includes studies in conceptual art, video, and architecture in Vienna, Barcelona, and Amman. Investigating topics like colonial legacies, memory, and belonging, Shehadeh creates speculative narratives that reveal unseen structures and realities. His research-focused practice utilizes and subverts the visual languages of new media, examining how technology transforms society’s relationship with knowledge and power. His work, which has been exhibited internationally, offers a critical perspective on the role of the internet and digital imaging in shaping contemporary identities, histories, and ways of world-making.

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GAME ART: MARIO MU'S THE SUN, THE MAST OR GRAVITY (2022)

Mario Mu, The Sun, The Mast or Gravity, 2022 (video installation, HD, 7 min. ,wood panels)

Mario Mu has unveiled his latest video creation, titled The Sun, The Mast or Gravity, which delves into the intricate interplay of architecture and decay. This 7-minute film was crafted using the Unity video game engine and draws inspiration from the visionary architectural concepts of 20th-century Yugoslavian architect Vjenceslav Richter, which never came to fruition. At the core of Mu's work lies an intricate neural-like structure constructed from weathered steel cables, seemingly providing the life force for the virtual realm it inhabits. As these cables twist and coil, the surrounding architecture undergoes a mesmerizing metamorphosis. It transitions from an interpretation of Richter's unrealized concrete mast intended for the Yugoslavian pavilion to the haunting remnants of the National Museum of Aleppo in Syria, a casualty of the ongoing civil conflict.

As Mu writes in his artistic statement, this work strives to redefine our perception of space by merging the constructed environment with the echoes of destruction. Mu translates Richter's modernist visual language into a novel digital domain, the language of video games, skillfully arranging geometric forms and images into intellectually stimulating configurations. The result is a contemplative and cyclical exploration of the delicate equilibrium between construction and decay. Mu's video underscores the fragility of even the most ambitious architectural endeavors, as they ultimately succumb to disarray. Yet, from these remnants, new forms emerge, perpetuating the eternal cycle.

The Sun, The Mast or Gravity is the latest installment in Mu's. ongoing artistic venture, Sites of Encounter. It represents a groundbreaking utilization of video game technology to address key questions concerning human progress versus entropy. As Mu continues to refine his digital world-building prowess, anticipation builds around the possibilities his future works may unveil within the realm of new media art.

Mario Mu is a Berlin-based visual artist and director known for his work on research projects often presented as extended gaming platforms. His creative practice spans game design, 3D animation, performance, sound, and drawing. Mu holds a BFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia, and an MFA from the University of Arts in Berlin, Germany.Between 2016 and 2017, Mu was actively involved with the Research Center for Proxy Politics. Since 2017, he has been an author and collaborator on a series of events held at various prestigious venues, including the TAP-Théâtre auditorium de Poitiers in France, V2 Rotterdam in the Netherlands, MGLC Ljubljana in Slovenia, MAAT Lisbon in Portugal, Play Co London in the UK, Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and several locations in Berlin, Germany such as Ufer Studios, Galerie gr_und, and Silent Green, among others. He has also participated in events in Zagreb, Croatia, including MSU, Pogon, and GMK. Mario Mu's digital and online projects involve collaborations with notable entities like AVYSS, Mizuha, The Killscreen, The Carillon, BoCA Biennial, Milan Machinima Festival, Gamescenes, Itch.io, Gestalten Publishing, FACT Magazine, Wrong Biennale, The School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe, STYLY, Lima Sky, Pivilion, and Inquiry Inc. His multidisciplinary work has made a significant impact on the intersection of art, technology, and gaming.

LINK: Mario Mu

EVENT: MERLIN DUTERTRE (AUGUST 25 - SEPTEMBER 7 2023, ONLINE)

Lullaby

Created by Merlin Dutertre

digital video,  color, sound (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 11’ 51”, 2019, France

August 25 - September 7 2023

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti

vral.org

 

Developed with(in) Zoo Tycoon 2, Lullaby is set into a magic forest where people are mysteriously transformed into animals. The metamorphosis proves to be therapeutic as the former human animals are finally at peace.

With cinematic flair, Merlin Dutertre’s oeuvre weaves ethereal narratives and unique visuals, often unfolding within immersive video game worlds. At Paris 8 University, he honed an acute comprehension of the interplay between art and technology, which he channels into crafting transcendent experiences that break norms and blend genres. By seamlessly fusing found footage with virtual domains, Dutertre’s films redefine visual storytelling, harnessing his passion for the digital medium. Marked by an atmosphere of serenity and surrealism, his meticulously framed works invoke tranquility and contemplation. Lullaby and Saule Pleureur exemplify his creative acumen, guiding audiences through territories where the extraordinary and ordinary intertwine, where real and virtual dimensions harmonize. Based in Paris, Dutertre continues molding innovative and evocative films that reveal a distinct artistic vision.

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EVENT: NSFW (AUGUST 4 2023, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, USA)

NSFW

Friday August 4th, 2023
7-11 PM
During the Unblurred gallery crawl

205 North Evaline St
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

press release

An evening of X-rated games dealing with sex work, pornography, internet censorship, gay hookup culture and much more.
All the projects in the exhibition, while not pornographic, challenge the notion of games as children’s entertainment, and push at the boundaries of what is thematically accepted in a playable form. Viewer discretion is advised.

Works by: Robert Yang /// Fellatia G /// Lena Chen, Goofy Toof, Maggie Oates, Avatar Lilith /// Pierre Corbinais /// Seemingly Pointless /// Heather Kelley

LINK: LIKELIKE

EVENT: PETRA SZEMÁN OPENINGS !!! (29 JULY – 12 AUGUST 2023, LEICESTER, ENGLAND)

Petra Szemán
Openings !!!
29 July – 12 August 2023
Opening Night, Friday 28th July
Two Queens
2 Queen Street
Leicester
LE1 1QW

press release

Inhabiting the interstitial zones of anime credit sequences, video game loading screens and regional train journeys, Openings !!! (2022) intensifies the gaps between the layers of animated imagery in an attempt to grasp the kinds of experience that may lie beyond human perceptual boundaries. The video follows the protagonist ‘Yourself’ as they ride local trains through intermedial landscapes. From this uniquely conceived and drafted kinetic viewpoint, fragments of different worlds segue into view, signalling perceptual ruptures that seemingly force subjectivity outside of itself, into strange new relationships of interdependency and intoxication with the moving image. Part of the artist’s ongoing exploration of the radical potential of animation and fandom, Openings !!! rejects its own filmic boundaries, surrendering instead to the free play of a multi-planar and ultimately elusive meta-worldview.

Petra Szemán is a moving image artist working with animation and game-like landscapes. Their practice focuses on the murky borderlands along the arbitrary line separating real and fictional, and the kind of lives and experiences that are possible there. Using a virtual version of themself as a protagonist journeying through animatic realms, they explore liminal spaces and threshold situations, looking to dissect the ways our memories and selves are constructed within a landscape oversaturated with fiction (both on- and off-screen). Turning away from thinking of the cyberspace as a radically ’other’ realm, Petra hopes to walk the line situated between dystopian and utopian frameworks, eyes set on new queer horizons.

The exhibition will be supported by an Artist Talk and Artist Development Workshop.

Details for the Artist Development Workshop on Sunday 6th August can be found here.

This project is made possible by public funding from The National Lottery through Arts Council England.

LINK: Petra Szemán's Openings !!!

LINK: Petra Szemán

EVENT: MIKHAIL MAKSIMOV (JULY 28 - AUGUST 10 2023, ONLINE)

The New Game Is Over

video walkthrough (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 10’ 15”, Russia

Created by Mikhail Maksimov

VRAL is delighted to present an artist walkthrough based on Mikhail Maksimov’s latest project, The New Game Is Over, an interactive experience which revolves around a remarkable machine that generates emotions and desires, allowing players to take on the role of a demiurge. In this position of power, players can develop, preserve or even destroy self-sustainable systems. The New Game Is Over is a commentary on the intricate interplay between creation and destruction, growth and decay.

Mikhail Maksimov is a Moscow-based artist and filmmaker whose multimedia practice bridges architecture, technology, and moving image. After receiving degrees in Architecture and Photography, Maksimov began exhibiting experimental films and installations that investigate game aesthetics, 3D graphics, algorithms, and neural networks. His works have been featured internationally at Manifesta 10 (2014), Locarno Film Festival (2018), Hamburg KurzFilmFestival (2019), Riga Biennial (2020), Venice Architecture Biennale (2021), Art for the Future Biennale (2022), and DA Z festival in Zurich (2022), among others. Blurring the real and virtual, Maksimov’s practice contemplates emerging technologies and their role in shaping our social environments and collective imagination.

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