CRUCIFIXION AND EPIPHANY
digital video, color, sound, 22’ 59”, 2020 (Hong Kong)
Created by Edwin Lo
Introduced by Luca Miranda
A follow up to Those Who Do Not Remember The Past Are Condemned To Repeat It (2020) and The Rupture of Promised Land (Or We Can Never Get There) (2020), Crucifixion and Epiphany is a commentary on religious iconography through the lenses of video games and archival materials. Using the format of desktop documentary, Lo disrupts the conventional dichotomies – real vs. simulacral, fiction vs. fantasy – to visually articulate the “downfall of mankind” narrative. Following Kevin B. Lee’s dictum that desktop cinema has cinematic aspirations but operates as a blank canvas, Lo’s screen performance is a captivating and multi-layered visual experience. Crucifixion and Epiphany is a creative (re)mix of multiple sources, a hybrid of machinima, desktop cinema, and archival footage. A study in media res, this work is the outcome of an experimental practice that resembles the vernacular obsession for narrativizing the so-called lore of popular fantasy video games on YouTube and Twitch.
Edwin Lo is an artist and researcher working with sound in various contexts and media such as performance, text, recording, video, installation and video games. Lo received a Master of Arts from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. His work was exhibited in several countries, including Hong Kong, United States, Berlin, Tokyo, Shenzhen, Paris, Brazil, Switzerland, Sweden, and Shanghai. His work was presented by the Goethe-Institut and Para/site in Hong Kong, the Tokyo Arts and Space, the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, Loop in Barcelona and Meinblau Projektraum in Berlin. His artist residencies include China, Germany, Japan. Lo lives and works in Hong Kong.
ANIMAL CROSSING: ALL MINE
digital video, color, sound, 7’ 05”, 2020 (United States)
Created by Brent Watanabe
Introduced by Matteo Bittanti
Conspicuous consumption is the implicit goal of innumerable video games, but Animal Crossing: New Horizons is, by far, the most shameless celebration of capitalism. Released in March 2020, the latest installment of the popular series became the most popular video game during the most intense months of the Covid-19 lockdown in Europe and the United States. A commercial triumph – more than twenty two million copies sold in four months – New Horizons gave players the possibility to escape from their brick-and-mortar homes and relocate to a minuscole island in the middle of the ocean. All they had to do was to purchase the innocent sounding “Deserted Island Getaway Package” from a development company called Nook Inc. Lured by the promise of playful evasion and endless growth, American artist Brent Watanabe soon found himself enslaved by perpetual debt, surrounded by a mountain of waste, and forced to compulsively perform bullshit jobs. An unofficial adaptation of Maurizio Lazzarato’s The Making of the Indebted Man, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the most sophisticated simulation of neoliberalism ever concocted: suffice to say that players must take a mortgage on their virtual houses to start “playing”. Assuming the role of a modern day Robinson Crusoe with entrepreneurial skills, Watanabe spent more than one hundred fifty hours hoarding as many consumer goods as possible and displaying them on his island. He documented his performance with a machinima.
Brent Watanabe is an artist combining a background in traditional materials and practices (drawing, sculpture) with emerging technologies (computer programming, electronics), exploring an artistic field still uncharted. For over a decade, Watanabe has been creating computer-controlled gallery installations populated by kinetic sculpture, drawing, projection, and sound. His 2016 project, San Andreas Deer Cam was streamed live on the internet, had over 800,000 visitors in the first three months, and was mentioned in several international publications, including New York Magazine, the BBC, and WIRED. Watanabe has participated in several group shows and screenings nationally and internationally, including Through Machine Eyes curated by James Bridle at the NeMe Arts Center, in Limassol, Cyprus, Game Changers at MassArt Art Museum, in Boston and Playmode at the MATT Museum, in Lisbon, Portugal. He has had recent solo exhibitions at SOIL Art Gallery (Seattle, 2006), McLeod Residency (Seattle, 2008), Jack Straw New Media Gallery (Seattle, 2009), Gallery 4Culture (Seattle, 2011), Anchor Art Space (Anacortes, Washington State, 2013), and Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival (Seattle, 2016).
We’re happy to announce the release of volume one in the new series GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES edited by Matteo Bittanti: Machinima vernacolare by Riccardo Retez.
Available both on Amazon and Blurb in Italian, Machinima vernacolare examines the relationship between cinema, television, and video games, focusing on fandom productions that made machinima into a recognizable expression of popular culture and one of the most popular examples of user generated content.
Retez focuses on Grand Theft Auto V’s Rockstar Editor, a popular video editing tool used to created countless machinima. The author describes the production, consumption and distribution practices within an increasingly complex media environments. The analysis, which is accompanied by six case studies, demonstrates that far from being passive users, video game players can become guerrilla video makers.
Born and raised in Florence, Riccardo Retez received a Master's Degree in Television, Cinema and New Media from the IULM University of Milan in 2019 and a Degree in Graphic Design and Multimedia from the Free Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 2017, where he studied the relationship between technology-based art practices culture and the humanities. Passionate about cinema, video games and visual culture, in the past five years Riccardo produced, edited, and directed several short films and video clips. Machinima vernacolare is his first book.
GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES examines the complex interaction between digital gaming and the visual arts through academic contributions situated at the intersection of different disciplinary areas – game studies, art criticism, visual studies, media studies and cultural studies – and gives voice to a new generation of researchers as well as established scholars. Both a critical and creative laboratory, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES promotes open dialogue, constructive debate, and sometimes idiosyncratic investigations of ideas, practices, and artefacts that – by their very nature – occupy different layers of today’s visual culture. Using a comparative rather than specialized approach, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES probes the most diverse visual experiences inspired by digital gaming.
To learn more about Machinima vernacolare, please visit this page, which includes a video walkthrough (in Italian).
To learn more about GAME VIDEO/ART STUDIES, please click here.
Siamo felici di annunciare la pubblicazione del primo volume della nuova collana GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES diretta da Matteo Bittanti: Machinima vernacolare di Riccardo Retez.
Disponibile su Amazon e Blurb in lingua italiana, Machinima vernacolare esamina il rapporto tra cinema, televisione e videogiochi e le dinamiche del fandom videoludico che ha elevato il machinima a una marca di riconoscimento delle produzioni user generated.
Retez esamina il Rockstar Editor, il software di montaggio video integrato a Grand Theft Auto V (2013),. L’autore descrive le dinamiche di produzione, consumo e distribuzione del machinima all’interno di un ecosistema mediale sempre più complesso. L’analisi, impreziosita da sei studi di caso, attesta che gli utenti di videogiochi non sono consumatori passivi di testi audiovisivi, bensì soggetti attivi in grado di comprendere e manipolare i significati variabili codificati in tali testi, proponendo sofisticati remake.
Nato e cresciuto a Firenze, Riccardo Retez ha conseguito una Laurea Magistrale in Televisione, cinema e nuovi media presso l’Università IULM di Milano nel 2019 e una Laurea in Graphic Design e Multimedia presso la Libera Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze nel 2017, dove ha studiato la relazione tra la cultura tecnico-artistica e tradizione umanistica. Appassionato di cinema, videogiochi e culture visive, Riccardo ha realizzato numerosi cortometraggi e videoclip. Machinima vernacolare è il suo primo libro.
Laboratorio critico e creativo, la collana GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES promuove un dialogo aperto, un confronto costruttivo e una disamina non necessariamente ortodossa di temi, pratiche e fenomeni che, per loro natura, s’intersecano con differenti livelli della cultura visiva. Privilegiando un approccio comparativo anziché specialistico, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES scandaglia le più diverse esperienze mediali ispirate dal e al videogioco per dare voce a una nuova generazione di ricercatori così come a studiosi consolidati.
Per ulteriori informazioni su GAME VIDEO/ART STUDIES, cliccate qui.
HOW TO FLY
digital video, color, sound, 6’ 23”, 2020 (United Kingdom)
Created by David Blandy
How to Fly was originally presented by John Hansard Gallery in Southampton as part of the Digital Array programme supported by the Barker-Mill Foundation.
Introduced by Matteo Bittanti
Originally commissioned by John Hansard Gallery in the United Kingdom and exhibited in May 2020, How to Fly uses the format of online video tutorials to explore ideas about life, nature, and technology. Created during the most intense months of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe, How to Fly begins with the artist providing detailed information on how to make a short video about flying using the tools available on a computer, such as the Rockstar Editor, a popular video editor embedded in Grand Theft Auto V. “Hi guys. I’ve been thinking about making a film about flying,” the artist calmly tells the viewers in voiceover, before illustrating the process step by step. The entire procedure takes place on a computer screen: flying is enacted with the touch of a few strokes on the keyboard and experienced virtually. But How to Fly is not an ironic commentary on the state of the world. It is not earnest either. So, what is it? You decide.
David Blandy’s practice consists of in depth investigations into the pop cultural forces that he experienced throughout his life, from hip hop and soul, to computer games and manga. His works slip between performance and video, reality and construct, using references sampled from the wide, disparate sources that construct and constantly reassemble his sense of self. David Blandy’s films are distributed through LUX. The artist is represented by Seventeen Gallery in London. Blandy’s work has been shown at numerous public institutions including Tate, London, UK; FACT, Liverpool, UK; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK; INIVA, London, UK; Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Germany; Spike Island, Bristol, UK; Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK; Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; Serpentine Gallery, London, UK; Witte de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Modern Art Oxford, UK; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany; Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK and Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, UK. Blandy lives and works in London.
We’re delighted to announce a new series, GAME VIDEO/ART STUDIES.
GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES is a new series of books published by Concrete Press and inspired by GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY (2016), an exhibition curated by Matteo Bittanti and Vincenzo Trione with the collaboration of the students of the Degree Course in Arts, Heritage and Markets of IULM University of Milan, an official event of the XXI Century International Exhibition of the Triennale di Milano. Design After Design.
GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES examines the complex interaction between digital gaming and the visual arts through academic contributions situated at the intersection of different disciplinary areas – game studies, art criticism, visual studies, media studies and cultural studies – and gives voice to a new generation of researchers as well as established scholars.
Both a critical and creative laboratory, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES promotes open dialogue, constructive debate, and sometimes idiosyncratic investigations of ideas, practices, and artefacts that – by their very nature – occupy different layers of today’s visual culture. Using a comparative rather than specialized approach, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES probes the most diverse visual experiences inspired by digital gaming.
The Scientific Board includes Valentino Catricalà, Maker Faire Europe; Gabrielle Jennings, ArtCenter College of Design, Los Angeles, California; Joseph DeLappe, Abertay University, Scotland, Marco De Mutiis, Fotomuseum Winterthur; Jenna NG, University of York; Enrico Gandolfi, Kent State University; Stefano Locati, Università IULM; Henry Lowood, Stanford University; Paolo Ruffino, University of Liverpool and Eddo Stern, University of California, Los Angeles.
Edited by Matteo Bittanti, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES will make its debut in September 2020 with the first release. The books will be Italian, English, and bilingual.
Siamo felici di annunciare la nuova collana GAME VIDEO/ART STUDIES.
Pubblicata da Concrete Press, la nuova collana GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES nasce come spin-off della mostra GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY (2016), curata da Matteo Bittanti e Vincenzo Trione con la preziosa collaborazione degli studenti del Corso di Laurea di Arti, Patrimoni e Mercati dell’Università IULM di Milano, evento ufficiale della XXI Esposizione Internazionale della Triennale di Milano, XXI Century. Design After Design.
Nello specifico, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES riprende e insieme espande gli spunti generati dall’esibizione e dalle iniziative successive dell’Università IULM, tra cui il MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL, proponendo ai lettori contributi accademici inediti che si collocano all’intersezione di ambiti disciplinari eterogenei – game studies, critica dell’arte, visual studies, media studies e cultural studies – per dare voce a una nuova generazione di ricercatori così come a studiosi consolidati.
Laboratorio critico e creativo, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES promuove un dialogo aperto, un confronto costruttivo e una disamina non necessariamente ortodossa di temi, pratiche e fenomeni che, per loro natura, s’intersecano con differenti livelli della cultura visiva. Privilegiando un approccio comparativo anziché specialistico, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES scandaglia le più diverse esperienze mediali ispirate dal e al videogioco.
Il comitato scientifico include Valentino Catricalà, Maker Faire Europe; Gabrielle Jennings, ArtCenter College of Design, Los Angeles, California; Joseph DeLappe, Abertay University, Scotland, Marco De Mutiis, Fotomuseum Winterthur; Jenna NG, University of York; Enrico Gandolfi, Kent State University; Stefano Locati, Università IULM; Henry Lowood, Stanford University; Paolo Ruffino, University of Liverpool e Eddo Stern, University of California, Los Angeles.
Curata da Matteo Bittanti, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES farà il suo debutto nel settembre 2020. I libri saranno disponibili in lingua italiana, in inglese e in edizioni bilingue.
