EVENT: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL (MARCH 16, 2018)

MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL

The aesthetics and politics of video game cinema: IULM University hosts the first edition of the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL.

MILAN - On Friday March 16,  2018 from 6.00 p.m. in the Sala dei 146 (IULM OPEN SPACE) IULM University will host the first edition of the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL, an official event of the Milano Digital Week 2018.

A follow-up to the 2016 exhibition GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY organized by IULM University, this retrospective features a selection of machinima produced by international artists. Situated at the intersection between video games, experimental cinema and video art, machinima is an audiovisual genre that defies easy categorizations. Artists appropriate and modify pre-existing video games to create visually idiosyncratic experiences.

The first edition of the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL features Tayla Blewitt-Gray (Australia), Alan Butler (Ireland), Jacky Connolly (United States), Thomas Hawranke (Germany), Jonathan Vinel (France), and Eduardo Tassi (Italy) among others. A surprise screening will be announced the day of the festival. By hijacking Grand Theft Auto, The Sims, and other titles, these filmmakers created digital shorts focusing on such themes as sexuality, politics, alienation, creativity, and violence.

Curated by Matteo Bittanti, the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL is presented by Laura Carrera and Gemma Fantacci, students of the Master of Arts in Game Design of IULM.

Sponsored by the City of Milan, Department of Digital Transformation and Public Services, the Milan Digital Week (March 15-18, 2018) celebrates the driving forces that are reshaping work, leisure, and learning. By highlighting the interplay behind production and consumption made possible by digital technology, MDW aims at connecting citizens, companies, institutions, universities, and research centers.  

MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL

March 16th 2018

From 6.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

IULM Open Space (IULM 6)

Via Carlo Bo 7

20143, Milano

Free and open to the public, upon registration

milanmachinimafestival.org

BOOK: MACHINIMA. FROM VIDEOGAME TO VIDEOART NOW AVAILABLE

We're happy to announce the release of Machinima, dal videogioco alla videoarte [Machinima. From video game to video art].

Published by Mimesis Edizioni in the Heterotopie series, the book investigates the relationship between art and video games from a variety of perspectives. Featuring eight contributions from international scholars, Machinima. From video game to video art introduces new ways of looking at game-based video art. Cover design by Marco Goran Romano (Goran Factory).

The book is available on Amazon. 

Here's more information [in Italian]

BOOK; MACHINIMA. 32 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE ART OF VIDEO GAMES NOW AVAILABLE

We are thrilled to announce the release of MACHINIMA. 32 conversazioni sull'arte del videogioco, a new book featuring interviews with international artists using video games to make art. 

MACHINIMA. 32 conversazioni sull'arte del videogioco expands, in print form, both the exhibition GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY, curated by Matteo Bittanti and Vincenzo Trione in 2016 at IULM University, in Milan, Italy, and the official catalog, released by Silvana Editoriale in June 2016.  The vast majority of the conversations with the artists featured in the show were produced by the students enrolled in the M.A. in Arts, Cultural Heritage and Markets Program at IULM. Topics discussed range from the practice of appropriating games for making art to the artists' approaches to the medium, providing scholars, critics, and artists a set of invaluable resources to better grasp the meaning and practice of machinima.

Click here to order a copy on Blurb.

Click here to visit the official page.

MACHINIMA. 32 Conversazioni sull’arte del videogioco

Edited by Matteo Bittanti
Release date: March 08, 2017
Features: Softcover, 158 pages, black and white
Format: 15×23 cm, 6×9 inches
ISBN: 9781366258540
Language: Italian
Price: $15.99

Featured artists:

Larry Achiampong, Rewell Altunaga, Hugo Arcier, Marta Azparren, Benjamin Bardou, Ashley Blackman, David Blandy, Josh Bricker, Joseph Delappe, Claire Evans, Harun Farocki, Foci + Loci, Anita Fontaine, Chris Howlett, Ip Yuk–Yiu, Hui Wai–Keung, Kent Lambert, Lawrence Lek, Les Riches Douaniers, Miltos Manetas, Marco Mendeni, Victor Morales, Oscar Nodal, Baden Pailthorpe, Paolo Pedercini, Tom Richardson, Philip Solomon, Kent Sheely, Georgie Roxby Smith, Palle Torsson, Michiel Van Der Zanden, Angela Washko, Brent Watanabe.

EVENT: TRAVELOGUE (SEPT 7 - 11 2016, MANTUA, ITALY)

We are delighted to announce an upcoming art exhibition in Mantua, Italy:

TRAVELOGUE

Curated by Matteo Bittanti

September 7- 11 2016

Cantine di Vincenzo I Gonzaga

Piazzetta Santa Barbara, 46100 Mantua MN

Open every day from 8.15  AM until 19.15 p.m.

Admission: 3 euros

An official event of Festivaletteratura 2016

Official website: travelogue.space

Trailer

Mantua, August 14 2016 - TRAVELOGUE is a survey of audiovisual artworks made with or inspired by video games. Using machinima and interactive installations, fifteen artists examine the virtual automobile as medium, message, technological commodity, status symbol, interface, and prosthetics. Created through a process of appropriation and remix, these works lie at the intersection of fiction and documentation, performance and simulation, video art and experimental cinema.

TRAVELOGUE takes the viewer for a ride through landscapes that are simultaneously familiar and uncanny, featuring dematerialized vehicles in autopilot mode; glitches, ghosts and algorithms; weapons of mass distraction and feedback loops; sudden acceleration, absolute speed, and endless stasis. Until the inevitable crash.

The exhibition is staged in the Cellars of Vincenzo I Gonzaga, a part of the Gonzaga Palace. Featuring an impressive structure with exposed brick walls and beamed vaulted and barrel ceilings, the space features several rooms covering an area of about eight hundred square meters located in a XV Century building.

FEATURED ARTISTS

Max Almy & Teri Yarbrow

Dave Ball

Bob Bicknell-Knight

Clint Enns

COLL.EO

Matthew Hillock

Kristin Lucas

Victor Morales

Leonardo Sang

Palle Torsson

Jean-Baptiste Wejman

+ Surprise artist

COLLATERAL EVENTS

CRASH: GAME AESTHETICS AND CONTEMPORARY ART

Isabelle Arvers e Valentina Tanni in conversation. + SURPRISE SCREENING

Sunday September 11 at 11:30 AM

Cantine di Vincenzo, Piazza Santa Barbara, 46100, Mantua Italy

Admission: 6 euros

What is the difference between video games and game videos? What are the affinities and divergences between video games and video art? What role do electronic simulations play within the current visualscape? Isabelle Arvers and Valentina Tanni discuss the influence of game aesthetics on contemporary art. The conversation is moderated by Matteo Bittanti.

END GAME

Dear all,

On August 1, 2016, GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY has been taken down and IULM's Contemporary Exhibition Hall has returned to its original condition.

We are now working on new projects and events, including the upcoming MILANO GAME FESTIVAL (IULM Milan, Italy, September 8-12, 2016) and TRAVELOGUE (Mantua, Italy, September 7 -11, 2016) which will focus on independent game design and contemporary art respectively. 

This website will remain online for at least 12 months. We hope that scholars, critics, artists, and curators will find it useful for research purposes alongside the recently published catalogue. 

On behalf of IULM University and La Triennale di Milano I would like to thank you all for these 3+ amazing months. 

Ciao,

Matteo Bittanti