NEWS: ANDREA LUCCO BORLERA IN BERLIN!

ANDREA LUCCO BORLERA’S SURREAL HORSES WAS AMONG THE NOMINEES OF THE 2019 EDITION OF A MAZE., THE 8TH INTERNATIONAL GAMES AND PLAYFUL MEDIA FESTIVAL IN BERLIN. CHECK IT OUT!

A recent graduate of the M.A. in Game Design, Andrea received an M.A. in Cinema, Television and Multimedia from the Università Roma Tre in Rome. In addition to several experimental videos and avant garde short films, Andrea developed Horses, a narrative game inspired by silent, surrealist films, as a final project during the 2017-2018 academic year. Although Horses did not win the first prize, the game was extremely well received by critics and attendees.

Since 2012 A MAZE. has been awarding a prize for The Most Amazing Game. The winner is selected by an interdisciplinary, international and independent jury. In 2019, the international selection committee of about 50 people and the A MAZE. team reviewed 181 submissions from 32 countries. A MAZE 2019 took place in Berlin between April 10–13 2019. Horses was the only Italian game nominated this year.

Photos: Andrea Lucco Borlera; Twitterverse

Thanks to Pietro Righi Riva.

NEWS: GAME TALK #4: KIERAN NOLAN (APRIL 14 2019)

GET READY FOR KIERAN NOLAN’S TALK ABOUT THE AESTHETICS OF VIDEO GAMES!

On Wednesday April 14, artist-researcher, indie-game designer, and academic Kieran Nolan will deliver an alternative primer in game aesthetics. Videogames are technologically mediated aesthetic experiences, with the communicative link between player and game shaped by the affordances and constraints of the host platform, the interface type used, and the game environment, in terms of the situated space of the player, as well as the inner space of the game world itself. Exemplars of breakthroughs in game aesthetics spanning game design history will be discussed, from retro through to current generation platforms. Kieran will also present his ongoing series of game based experiments in arcade interface aesthetics. These works explore themes including interface constraints, materiality, and user context, combining to form a self-reflexive, experiential composite overview of the arcade interface. For gamers, makers, hackers, artists and dreamers. 

Admission is free. Click here to register.

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Mercoledì 14 aprile, l’artista-ricercatore, designer indipendente e accademico Kieran Nolan presenterà una storia alternativa dell’estetica videoludica. La tesi portante è che i videogiochi sono esperienze audiovisive immersive e tecnologicamente mediate. La relazione tra gioco e giocatore dipende da tre fattori: costi e caratteristiche tecniche della piattaforma; l’interfaccia e l'ambiente ludico, inteso sia come lo spazio situato del giocatore, sia come spazio del mondo videoludico. Nolan illustra come il concetto di estetica videoludica si è evoluto, delineando una traiettoria che parte dalle piattaforme vintage e giunge alla generazione attuale. Nolan presenterà i suoi progetti sperimentali nell’ambito delle modifiche delle interfacce arcade, che tematizzano aspetti quali l’interazione, la materialità e il contesto di fruizione, creando un mosaico complesso, auto-riflessivo ed esperienziale sull’evoluzione dei coin-op. Per gamers, makers, hackers, artisti e sognatori.

L’ingresso è gratuito, la registrazione necessaria.

VIDEO: JAKE ELLIOTT, JENNA NG AND JOSEPH DELAPPE

I PRIMI TRE GAME TALK SONO DISPONIBILI IN FORMATO VIDEO. CLICCA SULLE IMMAGINI SOTTOSTANTI PER VEDERLI.

THE FIRST THREE GAME TALKS ARE AVAILABLE IN VIDEO FORM. CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW TO WATCH THEM.

MEDIA COVERAGE: OUTCAST SU JAKE ELLIOTT

OUTCAST, UNA DELLE PIÙ IMPORTANTI TESTATE ITALIANE DEDICATE ALLA CULTURA VIDEOLUDICA E ALL’IMMAGINARIO VIRTUALE, HA DEDICATO UN EPISODIO DEL SUO WEEKLY PODCAST AL PRIMO GAME TALK DELLA STAGIONE DEDICATO A KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO.

Lo potete ascoltare qui.

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PHOTOS: JOSEPH DELAPPE'S GAME TALK 3

ON MARCH 27 2019, ARTIST JOSEPH DELAPPE DECONSTRUCTED THE IDEOLOGY OF GAMING: BECAUSE THE PLAYFUL IS ALWAYS POLITICAL.

See more photos from Joseph Delappe’s presentation here.

EVENT: GAME TALK #3: JOSEPH DELAPPE (MARCH 27 2019)

GET READY FOR JOSEPH DELAPPE’S TALK ABOUT THE POLITICS OF GAMES AND THE GAMES OF POLITICS!

Tomorrow, Wednesday March 27, media artist and professor Joseph DeLappe will describe a lineage of creative projects and actions situated at the intersections of computer gaming, art/technology, and interventionist strategies engaging our geopolitical contexts. DeLappe will detail an approach to considering computer gaming environments online as a new type of public space; within which he has conducted a series of interventionist performances and actions, such as the 2006 project dead‐in‐iraq, to type consecutively, all names of America's military casualties from the war in Iraq into the America's Army first-person shooter online recruiting game. More recent projects include Elegy: GTA USA Gun Homicides (2018), a self-playing mod as a data visualizer of gun homicides in the United States as realized through this popular videogame.

Admission is free. Click here to register.

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Domani, 27 marzo, l’artista e professore Joseph DeLappe descriverà progetti, interventi e azioni creative che si collocano all’intersezione tra videogioco, arte, tecnologia e politica in differenti contesti geopolitici. Secondo DeLappe, i videogiochi online rappresentano una nuova tipologia di spazio pubblico, un palcoscenico virtuale nel quale dare vita a performance di ogni tipo, tra cui dead-in-iraq (2006), che prevedeva l’inserimento via chat dei nomi delle vittime militari statunitensi della guerra in Iraq nel videogioco di reclutamento online America’s Army fino al recentissimo Elegy: GTA USA Gun Homicides (2018), una modifica del popolare action game di Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto V, che visualizza in tempo reale le statistiche sugli omicidi da arma da fuoco negli Stati Uniti.

L’ingresso è gratuito, ma la registrazione necessaria.

NEWS: APPLE ARCADE: INDIE GAMING HAS A NEW HOME

Today Apple unveiled Apple Arcade, a new game subscription service for all iOS platforms that celebrates the creativity and ingenuity of video games. There’s never been a better time to create interactive dreams.

Apple Arcade is a new subscription game service from the Cupertino-based company. Unlike Google Stadia, Apple Arcade uses the existing App Store infostructure rather than streaming technology. More than 1 billion people have downloaded games from the App Store, and there are more than 300,000 games available already. Apple is aiming to curate some of these games into its Apple Arcade subscription service, hand-picking the best titles based on their originality, quality, creativity, fun and appeal to players of all ages. There will be one hundred new and exclusive games available on Apple Arcade, which will launch on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV in the Fall.

Some of the most renowned game creators and designers will develop exclusive content for Apple Arcade, including SimCity designer Will Wright, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Ken Wong, and dozens more. Apple is promising new content from Annapurna Interactive, Bossa Studios, Finji, Giant Squid, Klei Entertainment, Mistwalker Corporation, Snowman, ustwo games, among others. Apple is not simply curating the games for Apple Arcade, but it is also planning to contribute to the development costs of developing them. The company is fully committed to make games that matter.

Read more at Apple Arcade.

PHOTOS: JENNA NG'S GAME TALK #2

ON MARCH 13, 2019, PROF. JENNA NG TALKED ABOUT THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF MACHINIMA. IN HER CELEBRATION TO EPHEMERALITY, SHE ADDRESSED THE TRAJECTORY OF AN ARTFORM SITUATED BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA, VIDEO ART, AND GAMING.

See more photos from Jenna NG’s presentation here.

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

NEWS: ANDREA LUCCO BORLERA'S HORSES IS COMPETING FOR THE "MOST AMAZING GAME " AWARD AT THE 2019 A MAZE. FESTIVAL

Andrea Lucco Borlera’s surreal Horses is among the nominees of the 2019 edition of A MAZE., the 8th international games and playful media festival in Berlin.

A recent graduate of the M.A. in Game Design, Andrea received an M.A. in Cinema, Television and Multimedia from the Università Roma Tre in Rome. In addition to several experimental videos and avant garde short films, Andrea developed Horses, a narrative game inspired by silent, surrealist films, as a final project during the 2017-2018 academic year.

Since 2012 A MAZE. has been awarding a prize for The Most Amazing Game. The winner is selected by an interdisciplinary, international and independent jury. In 2019, the international selection committee of about 50 people and the A MAZE. team reviewed 181 submissions from 32 countries. A MAZE 2019 takes place in Berlin between April 10–13 2019. Horses is the only Italian game nominated this year.

We wish Andrea the best of luck!

Click here to see all the nominees

GAME TALK #2: JENNA NG (MARCH 13 2019)

GET READY FOR THE SECOND GAME TALK OF THE YEAR, ORGANIZED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL!

JENNA NG

MACHINIMA AND THE ALLURE OF EPHEMERALITY: GAMEPLAY, LIVE STREAMS & DIGITAL CULTURE

March 13 2019, 18:00 - 19:00

Aula 135 (IULM 1)

Università IULM

Via Carlo Bo, 1

20143 Milano

Free and open to the public, Please RVSP

The presentation is in English

In collaboration with the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL

In this talk, Jenna Ng 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 videogame 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.

Jenna Ng first trained as a finance lawyer in Singapore and London before switching to film studies, in which she obtained a PhD from University College London (UCL), and currently teaches film and interactive media at the University of York, UK. She is the editor of Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds (Bloomsbury, 2013) and her current book project, Undoing the Screen: Space, Spectacle, Surface (Palgrave), explores the effacing of screen boundaries in relation to contemporary display technologies and the resulting erasure between images, objects, surfaces and spaces.

Click here to register

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JENNA NG

IL MACHINIMA E IL FASCINO DELL'EFFIMERO: GAMEPLAY, LIVE STREAMS E CULTURA DIGITALE

Nel suo talk, Jenna Ng discute il crescente interesse per il live streaming videoludico attestato dalla popolarità di Twitch, il cui numero di utenti attivi su base quotidiana ha superato i quindici milioni e a cui si aggiungono piattaforme come YouTube Gaming, Mixer e Facebook Live. Secondo Jenna, il fenomeno dei live stream dei videogiochi rappresenta un'evoluzione diretta del machinima e della cultura demo e dei replay. La studiosa propone inoltre un inquadramento teorico dei media a schermo che persegue l’imperativo estetico del realismo collegando il cinema neorealista alla machine vision dei droni. La presentazione è in lingua inglese.

Formatasi inizialmente come avvocato finanziario a Singapore e a Londra, per dedicarsi successivamente alla filmologia, Jenna Ng ha conseguito un dottorato di ricerca alla University College London (UCL). Oggi insegna cinema e media interattivi all'Università di York, nel Regno Unito. Ha curato l’antologia Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds (Bloomsbury, 2013) e sta lavorando a Undoing the Screen: Space, Spectacle, Surface (Palgrave), che esplora il concetto di bordo in relazione alle nuove tecnologie di visualizzazione e la cesura tra immagini, oggetti, superfici e spazi.

Cliccate qui per registrarvi gratuitamente

PHOTOS: JAKE ELLIOTT'S GAME TALK

On February 27, 2019, Cardboard Computer co-founder Jake Elliott led a guided tour through the electronic tunnels and nocturnal highways of the magic realist adventure game. Kentucky Route Zero.

Elliott paid special attention to the little detours and dead-end tunnels for a journey into virtual caves. The audience was mesmerized.