EVENT: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2019 (MARCH 15 2019)

THE SECOND EDITION OF THE MILAN MACHINIMA FILM FESTIVAL PROMISES UNCANNY VISIONS.

The MACHINIMA FILM FESTIVAL returns to Milan on March 15 2019 during the Milano Digital Week. 

Featuring a selection of artworks created by artists appropriating, repurposing, and remixing commercial video games, the MMF includes short films and experimental works created by Lisa Carletta, COLL.EO, Joseph DeLappe, Kara Gut, Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis, Chris Keric, Luigi Marrone, Luca Miranda, Leonhard Müellner, Bram Ruiter, Brenton Smith, Petra Szeman, Twee Whistler and Brent Watanabe.

An international panel of critics, curators, and academics contributed to the selection and evaluation process: Valentino Catricalà (Artistic Director of the Media Art Festival in Rome), Marco De Mutiis (Digital curator at Fotomuseum Winterthur), Stefano Locati (member of the Scientific Committee of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival in Venice and Director of the Asian Film Festival in Bologna), Henry Lowood (Curator for the Germanic Collections and the History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University), and Jenna NG (Professor of Cinema and Interactive Media at the University of York).

This year’s theme is the UNCANNY, the perceptual phenomenon caused by experiences that are at once familiar and alien. Disquieting visions pervade an eclectic program in which glitches, shocks, and disturbing repetitions become a metaphor for societal chaos in the age of algorithms, surveillance capitalism, and artificial intelligence. These alternative narratives question the relationship between authenticity and performance, identity and self preservation in everyday (digital) life. Two longer documentary works examine the unexpected side (effects) of virtual gaming.

Curated by Matteo Bittanti and presented by Gemma Fantacci, the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2019 is organized by the Master of Arts in Game Design at IULM University. Admission is free upon registration. The screenings take place in Sala dei 146 located in the IULM Open Space.

Two days before the Festival, on March 13, 2019, Jenna NG will deliver a keynote as part of the ongoing GAME TALKS series at IULM. Titled MACHINIMA AND THE ALLURE OF EPHEMERALITY: GAMEPLAY, LIVE STREAMS & DIGITAL CULTURE, the talk will address the explosion of interest in the live streaming of gameplay as witnessed in the popularity of Twitch, whose latest number of daily active users has reached 15 million, as well as other major platforms such as YouTube Gaming, Mixer, and Facebook Live. Specifically, the talk will link the current phenomenon of video game live streams with machinima and its origins in game demos and captured video game play, arguing not only for live streams to be the next logical evolution for machinima, but also for a critical theorisation of screen media that pursues a realist trajectory, one which potentially works its way from neorealist cinema to drone culture.

Sponsored by the City of Milan, Department of Digital Transformation and Public Services, the Milano Digital Week 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 connects citizens, companies, institutions, universities, and research centers.

LINK: MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL