NEWS: MEET OUR FACULTY: MARE SHEPPARD (ACADEMIC YEAR 2020-2021)

WE’RE DELIGHTED TO PRESENT A SHORT VIDEO CHAT WITH PROFESSOR MARE SHEPPARD, A TALENTED GAME DESIGNER WHO TEACHES GAME CONTEXTS IN OUR PROGRAM.

Mare Sheppard is one half of Metanet Software Inc., a boutique game developer based in Montreal, Canada that produced the acclaimed N, N+ and N++. Metanet is focused on revisiting the great designs of the past and re-evaluating them from a fresh perspective, making games which are engaging, innovative, intriguing and most importantly: fun. Mare finds a lot of inspiration in print, industrial design, architecture and fashion, and her goal is to incorporate more of those ideas into games, and to continue to explore and expand the medium.

GAME CONTEXTS examines the cultural and artistic relevance of play and discusses key traits of games, surveying the emergent and interdisciplinary approaches to the understanding of video games. Particular attention is paid to integrating knowledge and design approaches from other creative and critical fields, such as game studies, cultural studies, media studies, and contemporary art. Pivotal to the module is the process of helping students develop strategies to explore these approaches for the development and production of their own work. Special attention will be devoted to applying various principles of game design to the games discussed in class, and on how game design as a discipline interacts with changes in design and culture altogether. Each week during, the instructor will introduce and discuss several games. Students will be required to familiarize themselves with the games and contribute to the discussion. The themes explored in class will subsequently be used for development goals.

Nella stessa serie: PIETRO POLSINELLI (GAME WRITING), AURIEA HARVEY & MICHAËL SAMYN (GAME ART)

NEWS: THE ENDLESS FOREST, AURIEA HARVEY & MICHAËL SAMYN (JUNE 23 – JULY 7, 2020)

Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn, still from The Endless Forest, online multiplayer game, 2005/2020-ongoing.

Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn, are exhibiting their groundbreaking work The Endless Forest at bitforms gallery in streaming mode between June 23–July 7, 2020 .

To view this work streaming generatively, click here.

The full press release is below

bitforms gallery x Small Data Industries presents:
The Endless Forest, Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn
Streaming online June 23–July 7, 2020
bitforms.art/stream
 
bitforms gallery is proud to present The Endless Forest by Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn as the second work in a series of streaming generative artworks, presented in collaboration with Small Data Industries. The Endless Forest is an online multiplayer game where players interact as deer in a magical forest. There are no specific goals to achieve or rules to follow in the forest—players are encouraged to engage with other deer and explore and find magic in the wilderness. Access to this work has been offered online as a free download since 2005, given that users have a Windows machine and a fast 3D videocard. However, this unique collaboration with Small Data Industries allows viewers to access The Endless Forest in a live format without a Windows machine or downloadable files. In this configuration, the artwork is self-playing—referenced as Deer Observation Mode by the artists—and oscillates between a peacefully sleeping deer to variable glimpses of the lush forest and social interactions with other players (deer). (bitforms gallery)

Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn, "The Endless Forest," 2006/2020-ongoing from bitforms gallery on Vimeo.

Auriea Harvey is co-founder of Tale of Tales. Net art pioneers, she and Michael Samyn have been creating award winning independent games and digital artworks together for the past twenty years. From multiplayer deer screensaver The Endless Forest to IGF Nuovo prize winning sex game Luxuria Superbia to the extreme politics of Sunset to technicolor horror fairy tale The Path; Auriea has designed, modeled, and experimented with the medium of polygons inside game engines. Her philosophy is to do whatever it takes, whatever she can, to get across a concept. Using digital and analog techniques, drawing from diverse cultural references, she creates works of subtle (and not so subtle) expression. Her emphasis is always on what it means to be human with your finger on the button. She is currently creating paintings, sculptures, and experiments with VR. She teaches in Kassel, Germany, and Milan, Italy.

Michaël Samyn is half of Tale of Tales, an artist couple that has been masquerading as an independent game development studio for 12 years during which they published 8 games - The Endless Forest, The Graveyard, The Path, Fatale, Vanitas, Bientôt l'été, Luxuria Superbia and Sunset -, each of which was met with equal measures of applause and consternation. Michaël sort of hates games. But he loves the medium that videogames use because he sees in it the possibility to continue the great tradition of art and culture that was rudely interrupted by the modernism of the 20th century. With a background in graphic design, furniture design, music, web design, net.art and videogames, and a passion for Old Master art and Christian architecture, Michaël currently explores the amalgamation of the sacred and the digital in Tale-of-Tales' first post-games project, Cathedral-in-the-Clouds.

PHOTOS: TATIANA VILELA DOS SANTOS'S GAME TALK #8

ON JUNE 5 2019, TATIANA VILELA DOS SANTOS DEMONSTRATED THAT YOU DON’T NEED A SCREEN OR A JOYSTICK TO DESIGN A GREAT PLAYFUL EXPERIENCE

See more photos here

PHOTOS: JOHN SHARP'S GAME TALK #7

ON JUNE 4 2019, JOHN SHARP GAVE US 8 AND 1/2 REASONS WHY VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT FUN.

Watch the full video below:

BOOK: MACHINIMA: 32 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE ART OF VIDEO GAMES

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.