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

NEWS: GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY CATALOGUE NOW AVAILABLE

GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY, THE OFFICIAL CATALOGUE OF THE EXHIBITION, IS PUBLISHED BY SILVANA EDITORIALE. TEXT IN ENGLISH AND ITALIAN.  FULLY ILLUSTRATED. 112 PAGES.

Featuring critical contributions by: Claudio De Albertis, Mario Negri, Vincenzo Trione, Vanni Codeluppi, Stefano Bartezzaghi, Anna Luigia De Simone, Isabelle Arvers, Henry Lowood, and Matteo Bittanti. It also includes visual and critical information about all the artists featured in the show.

Game Video/Art. A Survey brings together recent works by more than thirty international artists who use video games as raw material. Also known as machinima, these videos explore themes related to simulation and representation, replay and re-enactment, architecture and urbanism, sex and race, politics and ideology through the lenses of digital gaming.

GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY can be purchased online on Amazon or IBS.

EVENT: MILANO GAME FESTIVAL

Curated by Pietro Righi Riva - 1/2 of indie studio Santa Ragione and Program Coordinator of new Master GAME/PLAY, the first edition of the Milano Game Festival will take place at IULM University in Milan, Italy every night from the 8th to the 12th of September 2016.

"Five evenings of play that will take place along the lines of a film festival, including the participations of international guests and premieres – the Milan Game Festival is dedicated to the curious, to film and media art fans, and to those looking for an intelligent and original entertainment experience.  The Milan Game Festival offers an entirely new format for enjoying videos games: a real play hall with many seats, similar to a movie theater, in which to dedicate the right amount of time to enjoying immersive interactive experience. All participants play the same game at the same time, and will share a common experience to discuss and remember.  Part of the XXI Triennale, Milano Game Festival exemplifies "Design After Design" in digital art and in interactive storytelling. The festival is a celebration of a new kind of authorial design – cultured and radically independent – in one of the most technology ­driven industries: video games."

Featuring ABZÛ, Gorogoa, Possum Springs, Future Unfolding, and The Town of Light.

Additionally, every night, before playing the game from the main selection, participants will be able to try a selection of experimental games produced by internationally renowned authors.

LINK: MILANO GAME FESTIVAL (official website)