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08 19 2008

GameScenes

Art: Stanley's Invaders at the Game Conference

by Matteo Bittanti

Next week at the Game Conference in Leipzig, French-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley will showcase a revamped/updated verison of "Invaders", an "interactive large installation, the players must prevent the catastrophe by controlling the well- known cannon at the lower screen border with their bodies and firing it using arm movements. Like the original, this trial is ultimately unsuccessful, thus creating an articulated and critical commentary about the current war strategy".

07 01 2008

GameCulture

News: Neural 30 is available

by Matteo Bittanti

The new issue of Neural is out with 16 pages in color and a brand new graphic layout. The cover story is "Dangerous Games". Lots of juicy articles inside.

06 25 2008

GameScenes

Event: BITMAP 2008 (Philadelphia, June 25 - July 25)

by Matteo Bittanti

BITMAP: as good as new is a group exhibition celebrating the history of the digital image, the aesthetics of early computing, and early video-game consoles. BITMAP, recently featured at the Museum of Modern Art, highlights old-school CRT’s, pixels, and 8-bit music. The exhibition will be held at Leonard Pearlstein Gallery at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Curated by vertexList. Exhibit runs June 25-July 25, 2008, free to the public.

05 19 2008

GameCulture

Event: Innovation Salon V: The Gaming (R)EvolutionThe Gaming (R)Evolution: Creating Social Change Through Games

by Matteo Bittanti

Celebrate 30+ years of innovation, art and community at the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts on June 3 2008 in San Francisco! Innovation Salon V: The Gaming (R)Evolution: Creating Social Change Through Games New media and alternate reality games are engaging new and more diverse audiences than ever before. In fact, games developed with a social change and/or education agenda are starting to explode into diverse social, educational and business environments.

05 07 2008

GameScenes

Interview: Harmon Riley

by Matteo Bittanti

A few weeks ago we discussed Harmon Riley's innovative artwork, “What it is without the hand that wields it” (2008) an electronic sculpture that allows players across the internet to connect and play Counter-Strike live on the server, and shows the 'real-life" of simulated warfare, that is, each time a player dies, a java script written in Processing sends serial commands to the micro-controller, telling it to spray fake blood.". We asked Riley a few questions about his ongoing research on the phenomenology and aesthetics of games. Here's the full conversation...

04 11 2008

GameScenes

Event: Try Again (Madrid, April 10, August 6 2008)

by Matteo Bittanti

"Try Again" (La Casadel Encendida, Madrid, ES, 10.04.08 to 08.06.08) is designed as a global project including the exhibition itself, a video programme, a variety of performances and concerts, and a series of films, all of which aim to showcase the work of approximately 30 creators (visual artists, film directors and musicians).

04 11 2008

TechnoludicFilm

Event: From Cinema to Machinima -- Software, Database and the Moving Image (SF, April 14, 2008)

by Matteo Bittanti

A panel discussion and virtual performance event to explore ways the digital medium has reconfigured the moving image and thereby redefined concepts of cinema. The digital medium has transformed the moving image. Image sequences have become discrete units that can be remixed in new constellations, through software processes or interaction by the viewer. Digital interactivity is connected to databases. The possibility of assembling and reconfiguring media elements from a compilation of image sequences have created new cinematic forms.

04 08 2008

GameScenes

Interview: Eddo Stern

by Matteo Bittanti

Rhizome has an interesting interview with Game Artist Eddo Stern. Here's a relevant passage of the conversation: "The emotional attachment that playing MMOs for extensive durations forces a melding of the player with their player character that essentially collapses the premise of roleplaying. That is to say, the hardcore players are no longer taking part in an act of "roleplaying" but are essentially playing as themselves in an alternate world as the relationships with real other human beings bring out..well..real emotions. In a single player game, say when a player character is disrespected, or in turn revered by an automaton NPC the emotional weight of the encounter is emotionally inconsequential (unless it affects game progress in which case we are getting into another issue altogether..)" (Eddo Stern, in a conversation with Ceci Moss)

04 03 2008

GameScenes

Game Art: “What it is without the hand that wields it” by Riley Harmon

by Matteo Bittanti

With “What it is without the hand that wields it", Riley Harmon has created an electronic sculpture that comments on Counter-Strike's use of fictional violence and gore. “What it is without the hand that wields it" will be on display March 31st through April 4th at the University of Oklahoma School of Art.

04 02 2008

TechnoludicFilm