Portfolio Isabelle Arvers

game art maChinima I am a french media art curator, criic and author, specializing in video and computer games, net and digital art, retrogaming, 8 bit, machinima, indie games and free and open cultures. indie games retrogaming d i g i ta l a r t 8 bit net art Curator & art critic www.isabellearvers.com [email protected] Skype ID : zabarvers www.youtube.com/zabarvers In 2000, I was the image content manager of Gizmoland, a web portal dedicated to electronic cultures. It was an online gallery and a magazine for which I selected games, digital and interacive artworks, animaion and screensavers. In 2001, I became the project manager of Villete Numérique in Paris and curated Playime the gaming room, and a net.art gallery on Sound Toys. Then I became a freelance curator and focused on the relaionship between art and video games. From 2003 to 2005, I worked for the Cinema department at the Pompidou Center on the arisic program of the Web Plasicians and on Turn around the web, featuring french and internaional arists. In 2004, I organized a 8 bit music concert with Bubblyish and Glomag and a chip tunes music fesival High Score. I also curated the wireless art event Wiiledefrance for la Region Ile de France. I was also the net. art curator for the Banana RAM fesival on the theme Mind control in Italy. The same year, I curated the exhibit Reacivate in Melbourne analyzing the interacions between games, music and cinema. In 2005, I co-curated a game art exhibiion featuring artworks created with open source and free sotware and hardware, No fun games and the gaming experience, in Bergen and in 2006, some game art installaions and a workshop around games for Mal au Pixel in Paris. Since 2005 I have been showing machinima in theaters, animaion and short ilms fesivals in France and abroad and in 2010 I began to organize machinima workshops in order to show that mass media can be used as a way of expression and as a tool for creaion. Also, since 2009 and thanks to my collaboraion with the fesival Gamerz in Aix-en-Provence, I curate machinima exhibiions: Idenity, otherness and video games in 2012, Machiniglitch in 2013. My last projects include game art, retrogaming and indie games like the retrogaming exhibit Games Heroes (2011), or Games Relexions (2013). More recently I curated two shows on the mutaions of borders, mixing art and research and itled the aniAtlas of Borders (2013/2014). I am currently curaing Evoluion, a gaming show with the CDM in Vancouver that will happen in the summer of 2014. game art games reFlexions Le Carreau, Cergy 18 octobre - 30 Novembre 2013 Are video games building our percepion of reality or is our percepion of reality that builds the imaginaion of video games? How much do video games afect and inluence our imaginaion? What architecture of reality is induced by video games? Games Relexions is a game, video and photography exhibiion, it tries to answer these quesions. Games as a relecion of reality, games as the main focus for relecion, or mirror efects from one game to another or within the game (games that reference or parody other games) is what is explored in this exhibiion. In the ways of Oscar Wilde in Decay of Lying, Games Relexions is an essay about games as an imitaion of life or life as inluenced by our game experience. Artworks: Scinillaions, david Calvo / PGRA, Pierre giner / Parallel, harun Farocki / Carjacked, Colleo / Flying and Floaing, robert overweg Because power is based on violence, children play at war. Because the world is in a constant virtualizaion, inside the images and informaion low, arists borrow codes from video game to mirror a reality increasingly illusory. The exhibiion Playing to real presented in Meudon in December 2007, provides a vision of the relaionship between art and video games and put the real into the perspecive of video and computer games. The minimalist installaion by the arist Damien Aspe – Russia with fun – is a wall of volumes represening the famous game Tetris invented by Alexey Pazhitnov in 1983. It has been said that this game was one of the most powerful weapons of the Eastern bloc against the proitability of capitalism in the West … Relecing a ime when the fate of the world hung by a red buton , that of nuclear weapons. In a daily log, Quenin Desieu, Romain Senatore of Dardex – Mort2faim perpetuate work reappropriaion / recycling objects surrounding us with Camping Staion. A “staion” which transforms the audience into DJ and VJ. Mathias video of the French arist Yann Groleau, plays its part, the ellipical narraive in a completely redesigned a player massively muliplayer World of Warcrat interview. A young man that looks like a young person tells his ights with an ax, knife with merchants or virtual enemies and tells how he separates his women by killing them . The gap between the ultra violent speech and image of the young man is amazing. Playing to real médiathèque de meudon la Forêt 27 nov.-5 dec. 2007 Artworks: From Russia with fun, damien aspe / Camping Staion, dardex – m2F / Play All, Vitoria Polato / Mathias, yann Groleau / Samorost, Jakub Dvorsky 2 game art mal au Pixel Festival Mains d’oeuvres, Saint-Ouen 19 – 29 april 2006 Pixelache is a fesival of electronic art and subcultures. Pixelache presents projects experimening with media and technology from a broad range of disciplines: arists, engineers, designers, researchers and architects. Pixelache focuses especially in presening aciviies of various internaional grassroot networks and communiies such as vJ community, media acivists, open source community and demoscene. The goal of Pixelache fesival is to act as a bridge between the tradiional creaive disciplines and rapidly developing electronic subcultures. For this irst édiion of Pixelache in Paris, we focused on arists interested in video games & playful culture and on open source and we invited Amy Franceschini for a workshop inside the city on the Poliics of Play. Artworks: Electroscape, Fabric / sCrAmBlEd ?HaCkZ!, sven König / Burnstaion, Platoniq / Kick Ass Kung-Fu, Animaaiokone ■ Workshop: Poliics of play with amy Franceschini (Future Farmers) et myriel milicevic no Fun GAMES AnD THE GAMInG ExPERIEnCE, PIkSEL FREE AnD OPESnSOuRCE SOFTWARE FESTIvAL Hordaland kunstener Bergen, Norway, 16 – 23 octobre 2005 If you ask a hard core gamer why he likes a game, his answer will oten be: «I like it, because it’s fun» Why has fun nowadays become such a serious quesion? Because, today, game beneits are the largest in the entertainment industry, and as a mater of fact, they have become the new media by excellence: a tool used massively to manipulate, to communicate and inluence certain behaviors. Then, there is another reason to think about games as a serious quesion: they represent a new mode of interacion to the world for a whole generaion. So, game content is a huge quesion. Our world is not so fun and especially when mass media tends to present it as a big and violent virtual game with its deep visual cinemaic as 9/11, Saddam under arrest, Iraq War images. And in this game, you are not allowed to play, you just have to consume its representaion. To react to this, (t)error by Robert Praxmarer deals with the fact by taking the posiion of mass killers, to make you feel how narrow the line can be between reality and its representaion. Robert reports that once, a player of (t)error said, «I just played Osama Bin Laden, I was killing people, was it fun?» Artworks: FPS, malte steiner/ (t)Error, robert Praxmarer / Mindbending, robert Praxmarer / Cavity Resonator, time’s up / Interacive Light net, achim Wollscheid / Travel Agent, drone & s.o.u.P 3 Fesival Gameime, Library of victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 2004 Adelaïde Film Fesival, 2005 game art reaCtivate reAcivate! is an exhibiion that invesigates the ways in which arists//ilter-feeders/collaborators/(h)acivists/ players have used game art as a pro-acive tool for addressing poliical issues of migraion and cultural gheto-ism, have brought a fresher perpecive on established art forms and re-freshing our relaionship with digital technology. In the reAcivate! exhibiion, arists and designers from diverse pracices invesigate the use of the computer game as a primary creaive tool. reAcivate! invesigates game∂s inluence on re-coniguring established art forms such as ilm and literature through stories and documentary narraives presented as interacive spaces; the development of demos and the subversion of commercial game engines as a form of pro-acive criic of shoot-em-up scenarios or form of dealing with real-life social issues; the hacking of rules and systems range as part of a creaive process; the appropriaion of games for the development of Internet art, among others. Artworks: 366 days, ultralab / Safe Society, Marin Lechevalier / Hollidays Movies, KOLKOZ ■ Interacive ilms: Sens dessus dessous, Postproducion Plokker ■ Websites: Selecion, Nicolas Clauss / Hématome, Emmanuel Kodjo, Romain Delache / Rolitoland, Rolito ■ Games: Audiogame, Marc Em / Isabelle, Thomas Cheysson, Belisa / Society, Panoplie. prod / Borderland, Julien Alma, Laurent Hart Playtime La villete numérique Paris 2002 Installaion: Aricle 30, les virtualistes ■ Video projecion: Plug & Play, invader, andrew sharpley ■ Games on CD-ROM: neoangin, Jim avignon / Borderland, laurent hart ■ Arists’ Web sites: Sissyight 2000, eric Zimmermann / Honey Lover, collecif Saasfee / The Intruder, natalie bookchin / Praystaion, Joshua davis / eBoy, eboy / unitled-game, Jodi / Guerillanews network, gnn ■ Network performance: Miltos Manetas, Rafael Rozenthal, Andreas Angelidakis, Angelo Plessas ■ Websites: Heavy (www.heavy.com), heavy team / Hoogerbrugge (www.hoogerbrugge.com) hoogerbrugge / Lecielestbleu (www.lecielestbleu.com), Jean Jacques birgé, Frédéric Durieu, Krisine Malden / Flyingpuppet (www.lyingpuppet.com), nicolas Clauss Playime is fun ime. A ime for players to take revenge on the image and by immersion in the image permiing the game; we can dominate it just as it dominated us earlier. The tyranny of images in the world has forced ideals on us which do not correspond to our reality. Playing is a symbolic manner for humans to get the word back… PLAY TIME - the gaming room explored the froniers between art and entertainment with a retrospecive of video games created over the last 30 years.works from n. Bookchin, E. Zimmermann, virtualists, Space Invaders, Gnn networks, Heavy, Miltos Manetas, JODI, Saasfee... and new media as means 4 cultural democracy. By mixing of disciplines I wanted to enable the public to experience - through play - the technological evoluion and to chang games status as well as confrontaing high tech and low tech aestheics. For the irst ediion of villete numérique, I also invited the japanese arist Akitsugu Maebayashi to present Sonic Interface and three internaional digital ilm fesivals : Resfest Fesival/new York, OneDotZero/London, The Film Fesival/Roterdam, as well as the SIGGRAPH / San Antonio, [email protected] / Monaco and French fesivals e-magiciens / valenciennes ... OneDotZero presented Lens Flare, a program of video games cinema ics screened on a very large screen. 4 maChinima maChiniglitCh vector game + art fesival, Toronto, 2014 Gamerz 09, Aix en Provence, October 2013 a machinima exhibit on glitches, bugs and accidents The word « glitch » irst appeared in spaceship programmes in the uSA in 1962. A computer glitch is the failure of a system, usually containing a compuing device, to complete its funcions or to perform them properly. The word spread to electronic music in the 1990’s. Glitch goes with the noions of bug, repeiton , linearity or fragmentaion to quote Iman Morandi’s « Aesteheics of glitch », 2004. Made purposedly or not by the arist, beauty comes accidentally, from a bug. The art of glitch stems from manipulaion of the medium, programming experiment, playing with graphic cards… experimening with all the « back-stage » seing of a ixed or moving image just to see what happens, exactly as nam June Paik did with video art and the cathode ray-tube. Machiniglitch is an ode to the Glitch Aestheics! Machinimas: Jupiter and Beyond the Blocks, Félicien goguey & benjamin bartholet / Machinhuma, edouard taufenbach / Bitsplit, Florian dieude / Metropolis, Chris Howlet / Prepare to Qualify, Clint enns / Glitch Kungfu, Enter et Goto80 / Borders: boulders at la rotonda, mary Flanagan / The Fall Girl, georgie roxby smith / 8000 persons, Knut LSG Hybinete / Dust 2 Dust, Kent sheely / Memory of a broken dimension, datatragedy / 30 seconds or more 01 – Beyond the magic mushrooms, victor morales / knightshit, anita Fontaine / Remember when we walked to the edge of the world, Jon Cates / Formaion vI, baden Pailthorp identity, otherness, games & maChinima GAMERZ 08 ARCADE PACA, Aix-en-Provence, 19-28 October 2012 By seing foot on this planet, each of us is thrown into the big play, the rules of which we have not been allowed to choose. In this world, human acions are no events we can determine freely, but we always have to steer a middle course between the playing rules and the playroom in which human freedom resides. For as long as extra-terrestrial journeys to other life-sustaining planets remain conined to science icion movies, this earthly stage will be beginning and end, past and future, fate and hope of the play of life as it unfolds. The boundaries of this playing ield consitute the limits, within which seven billion tragicomedies are performed. Therefore, to all of us, the most important quesion in life is: ‘wanna play’? (Jeroen Timmermans, 2010) Machinimas: Codes of Honor, Jon rafman / Selecion, Relecion, Atenion, ahmed el shaer / This Spartan Life Episode 7, bongdern Producions / Free Fall, Palle Torrson / Under Examinaion, ahmed el shaer / Soul Lewit v1.1, Cyril lecomte languérand / Stranger Comes To Town, Jaqueline Goss / Woods: Episode 1, Shados (Crysis 2 Machinima) / I is an other, Isabelle Arvers / WAY, Coco & co 5 maChinima When maChinima talK about video games and When games reFleCt reality GAMERZ 07 ARCADE, Aix-en-Provence, November 2011 A selecion of ilms made from video game engines or from a Game Boy camera, as it is the case with Windshield Baby by Clint Enns. To give a criical look at a world that turns into a game and blurs the boundaries, with the ilm newtonianism Post by Josh Bricker, or Borderline, a game project by Mathias Fuchs. A criic of a world of empiness with the Secret Confessions by Systaime which takes dialogues of reality Tv to create machinima or the Moviestorm machinima audiion tape, by the digital punk arist Jon Cates who remix extracts from the sotware Moviestorm with theory around seducion or game culture. On the 3d december, the 6th ediion of the Gamerz Fesival will open in Aix-en-Provence. For the third ime i will be the co-curator of this event, even if my paricipaion is oten concentrated on the selecion of abroad arists related to the idea of gameart and also to machinimas. This year, i wanted to work again with the arist Fran Ilich, the irst ime we did something together was in 2004, for a net.art exhibit that i curated for the fesival Banana Ram in Ancona in Italy. Fran created for this occasion an interacive icion based on the idea : what can we do when there is no more television? This year, Fran ofered me to think about a game created for the Zapaista cause. Sill yet I don’t know which form this game will take but i am impaient about it. Also I curated a new program of machinimas, mostly arisic or experimental, criics of the social networks or the result of live performances… gamerZ 06 Aix en Provence 3-19 december 2010 Machinimas: Same As It Ever Was, thuyan nguyen / Windshield Baby Gameboy Movie, Clint enns / The Masters of Forge, This spartan life Episode 8, bong dern Prod / Moviestormmachinima audiion tape, Jon Cates / The G-Mod Idiot Box (Series, Half-Life 2), DasBoschit / Borderline, mathias Fuchs / Post Newtonianism (War Footage/ Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Footage), Josh bricker / Confessions secrètes, systaime / The Leet World, smooth Few Films Artworks: Pasamontañas: a videogame, Fran ilich ■ Machinimas: Google Stooge, Phil rice / MooN – spyVspy Aeon, slimgirlFat / Sphere, William Fink / Paricipaion 0.0 – Part I, Linda Hilling / Max Miptex: Glitch Machinima, Julian oliver, Chad Chaterton / Kamikaze, Les Riches Douaniers / Romanic Interludes, Frédéric nakache / Abstract Livecoded Machinima (Missile Command), david Griith / Patern Island, benjamin nuel 6 Arcade, Seconde Nature, Fondaion vasarely Aix en Provence from nov. 26 to dec. 4 2009 maChinima gamerZ 05 Co-curator for the internaional artworks Back from Brasil this summer, I wanted to invite in Gamerz05 some of the arists I really enjoyed while staying in Sao Paulo. First, I would like to give a tribute to a wonderful arist, Tania Fraga. Her work is related to poetry and geometry, to cosmic and organic forms, music and architecture. Rick Castro is an arist from Sao Paulo who could also lies into the virtual reality animaions of Tania. In his video Super Rick he invites himself inside the lashy animaions of the video arist Rodrigo Dutra. very refreshing and full of glitering power, it heals any pain as it gives energy and happiness to anyone who looks at it. Also shown at this summer Mostravideo in Belo Horizonte (BR), the Machinima selecion screened at ARCADE aims to present the latest possibiliies ofered by game engines, Machinima tools or virtual environment like Second Life, to create movies. If it can be said that at the beginning, Machinima’s content was mostly related to game universes and themaic, it deals now with aestheic, poliics and social maters. Artworks: Danca Maluca, tania Fraga / SuperRick, rick Castro ■ Machinimas: Game over, Pierce Portocarrero/ Phantasmagoria, William Flink / Seeing spot, beeing dots, evo szuyuan / Orchestral invesigaions #9, gumnosophistai nurmi (leif inge) and evo szuyuan / ORIENTATION, arahan Claveau, nebulosus severine, Chantal harvey / The Body is obsolete, Chantal harvey / Virtual Guantanamo, bernhard drax / Maseno Project, serenity mercier / Sorrow and hope, Carla broek game Play Mumia, Belo Horizonte, october 2010 Mostravideo, Belo Horizonte september 2009, Itau Cultural, Sao Paulo, Brésil August 2009 3 Machinima programs curated for the exhibiion Gameplay at Itau Cultural. This program mixes experimental ilms with narraive ilms such as “The Snow Witch”, by Michelle Peit-Mee, about a Japanese legend. We are watching the democraizaion of the phenomenon of the criic deviaion of videogames. That’s how a simple ilm, made from the site The Movies, was able to spread the planet last november. Designed by Alex Chan, a french designer from Paris, 27 years old, this ilm exposes the dangers of the French poliical system and turns to be the ‘voice’ of the suburbs during the riots. The Tendency of the press opinion and internaional community of players show that the Machinimas is about to become a means of poliical expression. Machinimas: Rusty Whispers: Denis, robert stoneman / Ballad of Black Mesa, ben hundley and Zachariah Scot / The Snow Witch, michelle Peit-Mee / What I Love About Xmas, Phil rice / Chevauchée Nocturne, les riches douaniers / L’Hotel, benjamin nuel / The Days Ater, André Pesch and Apollo Producions / Male Restroom Eiquete, Phil rice, Zarathustra studios / World of Electors, alex Chan 7 Aix en Provence January 2009 Video: Gold Farmer, axel stockburger ■ Machinimas: The Days Ater, andré Pesch / This Spartan Life, épisode 4, bong dern / Male Restroom Eiquete, Phil rice / Only, Phil rice / Bloodspell, hugh hancock / World of Electors, alex Chan / Fair Game, strange Company / Le Danger Ataque à l’aube, Bill et John, épisode 2, KBS Producions / My Second Life, douglas gayeton / Fair Game, strange Company maChinima gamerZ 04 Co-curator of internaional artworks and machinimas What is going on when video games turn to be a medium that allowed arists to create? When arists invest ields such as virtual universes, or network? When contemporary art meets entertaining and freaking universes? Back from Istanbul and for the fourth ime, the internaional events GAMERZ spreads over the city of Aix-en-Provence, taking over three locaions of contemporary art. From the very beginning of the year 2009, a real cultural tour emulates the city during a month, inviing the public to discover the new creaion through a series of exhibiions, meeings, and performances. Far from a simple fesival, GAMERZ deploys a deep work over arisic creaions and new intervenions around creaive processes. Realized in cooperaion with Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey, Austria, England, and in collaboraion with Second nature associaion, M2F Créaions is undertaking a real inter-cultural exchange and proposes an intense rendez-vous with contemporary arts in the region of P.A.C.A. WebPlastiCians maChinima vs demo Centre Pompidou, Paris May 2005 What aestheic emerges from the game culture ? Ficion, aestheic and video games. The ilmmakers use the game as a medium for storytelling. Adivering game from its unique fun vocaion directors use games as a medium for storytelling. The output in 1996 of the irst person shooing game Quake, was essenial in the development of machinima, because it allowed the player to save their game sequences. Used originally for teaching strategies to other players or to impress them, these demos are diverted to create drama in real ime in the environment of the game in which players guide their avatars in the scene as virtual actors. Debate and screenings: “366 Days”, ultralab / Red vs Blue burnie burns rooster teeth / demos by melon dezign 8 indie games games reFlexions Le Carreau, Cergy 18 octobre, Novembre 2013 This exhibiion presents the evoluion of graphics in video games while giving access to games that are created from this franic quest for realism, an imitaion of reality. Nowadays technologies are more accessible. The game engines that help develop games are less expensive and allow the opportunity for a greater number of projects – outside major corporaions – with a greater freedom related to the diferent representaion modes, which opens the way to a revival of pixel art games, ASCII, cubist or even geometrical ones. More room is also alloted to imaginaion and relecion: as if the mind could ll the spaces between the pixels, the voids, the geometric shapes. Indie Games: Year Walk, simogo / Candy Box, aniwey / Shelter, might and delight / Punksnotdead, merrit Kopas / Cathode Rays, Christofer Hedborg / Furiosity, bart bonte Mirror moon, studio santa ragione et Paolo tajé / Side Quest, Jordan Wilson / Gone Home, The Fullbright Company / Evoland, nicolas Cannasse / VVVVVV, terry Cavanagh / YYYYYY, Robson / Zineth, arcane kids / So Many Jagged Shards, niall moody / A good wife and A good husband, allen / Starlay, Les Édiions volumiques and david Calvo / Superhexagon, terry Cavanagh PolitiCal games PLAY AGAIn Imaginarium of Tourcoing 6 march to 13 July 2013 I was invited by Annick Rivoire (editorial manager) and Pierre Giner (art director) to give an interview about “poliics and video games” and asked to propose a selecion of poliical games and artworks for the exhibiion “Play again”. Past – present – future This exhibiion ofers at the same ime a historic perspecive of video game (historical game consoles and accessories, cult video games to play, interview of pioneers in the industry), a look at the present (recent games to play, increase and dematerialisaion of the medias, serious gaming…) and a forward looking perspecive (gamiicaion, new typologies of games). For this exhibiion I proposed a selecion of poliical games, machinimas and videos. Games: Unmanned, molle industria / Papers, please, lucas Pope / Illegal Heroes, Enter ■ Machinimas: Dead in Iraq America’s army online protest/memorial, Joseph de lappe / Post Newtonianism, Josh bricker 9 indie games Jeux rêve (Games dream) refers to the essence of the video game, which moves our imaginaion to make us dream. Here are the dreams of nature, islands, sea and endless staircases. More than games, as some of them were classiied as no-games, it comes to driting, walking, discovery. The player walks and discovers universe prose. He walks into the picture as a icion. Proteus and Dear Esther invite us on an island, the music accompanies us. Their aestheic is very diferent, if Dear Esther is made of syntheic image with hyper realisic but poeic visions, Proteus is a myriad of colored pixels. Here we walk among trees and green roses and crosses pixels. Games: Anichamber, alexander bruce / Passage, Jason rohrer / kairo, richard Perrin / Botanicula, Jakub dvorsky, amanaita design / Dear Esther, dan Pinchbeck / Bientôt l’été, tale of tales Jeux rêve Semaine Digitale, Bordeaux, march 2013 Pirate Kart Art school of Aix en Provence, 21 nov. 2011 Games: You Have To Go Down The Hole, sergio Cornaga, beathoven, aaronKi, 00800 / 1958 BNL, mike meyer / You Have to Put the Ball in the Cup, healy / Time Stopperz, block0man / Tetris Fight Club, alan hazelden and Paul Forey / The Alien Zit, Jeremy Penner / Spike Sisters, anna anthropy / SSSHIFTY, glen Forrester / Shoot-Em-Art, troshinsky / Shroom Eater, Jake Birket / Parachute Skiing, Leon Arnot / Passage 2, rob Fearon / memrriks, suashem, terry Cavanagh / Metal Spawn, Jake Birket / Mirage Cat, arcane Kids / and more... On the 21st nov. at the Art School of Aix-enProvence, Gamerz invites the audience to play to the Pirate kart : a compilaion of 300 games created at the last minute to paricipate to the compeiion of the next Independent Games Fesival in 2012 which awarded among others : Limbo or Minecrat, very popular and famous independent games. Isabelle Arvers presents and allows the public to discover 300 games created by 100 developers: an indie games presentaion and experimentaion inside a game art fesival intended to show the mind blinded evoluion of game creaion in the indie games scene, and to show the diversity and the originality of these games, quite diferent from the AAA games but which need to be considered as well. 10 retrogaming games reFlexions Le Carreau, Cergy 18 octobre, Novembre 2013 Retrogames: Microsurgeon, Editeur Imagic Plateforme Matel / Intellivision, rick levine / Adventure, editeur atari Plateforme / Atari VCS et Atari 7800, Warren Robinet / Breakout, editeur atari / Plateforme Atari VCS et Atari 7800, nolan bushnell, steve Jobs – borne arcade brad stewart (programmaion) – version Atari vCS / Weird Dreams, editeur Rainbird Sotware Plateforme Atari ST (Amiga, Commodore 64, MSDos), herman serrano, James hutchby, tony King, programmaion David Whitaker, Barry Leitch / LSD : Dream Emulator, editeur asmik ace entertainment, Plateforme Sony Playstaion, osamu sato The history of gazing and the diferent ways of representaion seem to repeat themselves from century to century. The ‘lat’ world of the Middle Ages transformed into a world of perspecives during the Renaissance, was then followed by the arists’ search to reproduce the real, which ended in 19th century realism. Photography eventually interrupted this pursuit of truth and likeness, which resulted in the appearance of abstracion, construcivism, cubism and minimalism. The transiion from 2D to 3D images in video games seems to follow a similar evoluion. The image becomes hyper realisic, it is magnifed, smoothed, cleaned, so clean that it almost becomes unreal. The game relects life, but ofers a constructed relecion which in turn inluences our way to see and imagine the world around us. game heroes Alcazar, Marseille, from march 8 to april 22 2011 This event deals with the history of video games through the heroes who have shaped the imaginaion of nearly 4 generaions of players: Pacman Zelda Supemario, Donkey kong, Sonic … The movement of retro gaming collect old video games and old computers and game consoles video game. By former video games, we mean the irst 4 generaions of consoles outputs from the 70s to mid 90s . What disinguishes these games is their graphics mainly in two dimensions and appearance pixelated. Hence a certain nostalgia for players to this type of game and this period, given the advent of 3D gaming to the gameplay, someimes much less creaive. Computers: apple ii – PC 8 bits, 1977, arKanoid / CPC 464 – PC 8 bits (1984) gauntlet / CPC 464, billy the Kid / CPC 6128 (1985) Iniiaion to the programming of mini games in BASIC / atari 1040 st, bomberman-Contra / atari 800xl, donKey Kong / amiga 500 (1985), PaCmania / Commodore 64 (1982), PaCman Consoles: Pong seb Telescore (1977) / Console Pong radiola (1977) / Galacica 6000 Société Occitane d’électronique(1979) / mario, nes (1985) / PACMAN, Atari VCS 2600 (1977) Atari VCS 2600 (1977) / soniC, sega megadrive (1988) / boogerman, sega megadrive (1988) / suPermario, snes (1991) / PiCKaxe Pete, vidéopac (1979) / alex Kid, sega master system (1985) / FlashbaCK : the Quest For identity, super nintendo (1992) / street Fighter, super nintendo (1991) / mortal Combat, sega megadrive (1993) / 3 Nintendo Game Boy / 3 Sega Game Gear 11 villete numérique Paris 2002 Retrogames: Computers: apple1 (1977), micral n(1973), goupil g2 (1982): sinclair ZX in basic/ spectrum (1982): Jet set Willy, Commodore 3032 (1979): space invaders in basic / Commodore C64 (1982): Pacman, thomson mo5 (1984): la mine aux diamants / amstrad CPC6128 (1985) arkanoïde / atari 520 stF (1985): vroom / amiga500 ( 1985): Pacmania / oric atmos (1984): xenon 1 ■ Consoles: Pong (1976): tennis, foot, squash games... / atari vCs 2600 (1977): Pacman / videopac (1979): duel / nes (1985): mario / megadrive (1988): sonic / snes (1991): supermario / Jaguar (1993) : rayman / saturn (1995): radiant silver gun / n64 (1996): mario 64 ■ Games: gtaiii / take Two Interacive, State of Emergency / Take Two Interacive, Metal Gear Solid2 / dance dance Revoluion / anarchy online / Dark Age of Camelot / GOA, Counterstrike retrogaming Playtime The idea behind Playime – the gaming room is to contrast the low-tech aestheics of the irst gaming computers and consoles with high-tech broadcasing devices (screen-walls, interacive installaions, giant broadcasing screens and online devices), to enable the public to appreciate the mind-boggling developments in graphics and the technology used in video and digital games over the last thirty years, while they are playing. All the games, whether old or current, can be accessed and played by the public at all imes, and are set up inside litle cubicles, or in lounge areas. The public come across them as they come to obstacles created by a maze. The area includes a retrospecive of the irst video games, computers and consoles, an exhibiion of console, PC and networked video games, and games by digital arists (online, oline and interacive installaions). d i g i ta l a r t antiatlas oF borders #2 La compagnie, Marseille 13 dec. - 1st march 2014 The exhibiion at La compagnie follows the one at the Musée des Tapisseries, ofering muliple levels of engagement: visitors enter a transmedia documentaion space and paricipate in interacive, arisic and transdisciplinary artworks. They interact directly with video games, wall images or installaions created by internaional arists: Masaki Fujihata associates computer generated imagery with GPS data in order to represent the topographic and temporal coordinates of borders; Kenneth Rinaldo intersects drones with hoovers in the context of a roboic artwork evoking the intrusion of securiizing technologies into the private domain (an exclusive creaion for the aniAtlas). Screening: Border Ficions: Sleep Dealer, alex rivera / Le Camp de Rivesaltes: ilms by till roeskens, serge lesquer, Claire angelini / Border Economy: De Outro Lado do Rio-Across the River, lucas bambozzi ■ Workshop: Machinima on borders and immigraion with isabelle arvers and ahmed el shaer Artworks: Drone Eat Drone: American Scream, Ken rinaldo / Decolonizing Architecture, Collecif DAAR / Watch the Med, boats 4 people & Forensic oceanography / Carte dynamique des étrangers détenus aux fronières des États, migreurop / Europa Inch’Allah, stephanos Mangriois / Samira, nicola maï / A crossing industry, video game by the Atelier hypermédia ESAAix / Field Work@Alsace, masaki Fujihata 12 Tapestry Museum Aix-en-Provence 1st Oct - 3d Nov 2013 d i g i ta l a r t antiatlas oF borders #1 Bypassing cartography, the aniAtlas of 21st century borders (www.aniatlas.net) program presents a new approach to the transformaion and experience of land, sea, air and virtual borders. The visitors get in close interacion with robots, drones, video games and speciic devices. The objecive is to challenge the contemplaive relaion between visitors and objects proposed in the exhibiion. The exhibiion thus help visitors to experience to what extent they are themselves directly afected by the changes at borders in the 21st century. Artworks: Walls, ian howard / Finger Print Maze, amy Franceschini / Paparazzi Bots, Ken rinaldo / Cartographie criique de Gibraltar, hackitectura / X-ray, Claude Chuzel / Planisphère des fronières fermées, stéphane rosière / Cartographie, Philippe rekacewicz / Robot ADM9, rybn / Froniers the game, gold extra / videomappings: Aida, Palesine, till roeskens / E-diasporas, dana diminescu / Samira (Emborders 1), nicola mai / Barbed Hula, sigalit landau / Borderxing, Heath Buning / The Texas Border, Joana moll & heliodoro santos / The Transborder Immigrant Tool, The Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0 - b.a.n.g. lab. (Micha Cardenas, Bret Stalbaum, Ricardo dominguez, amy sara Carroll, elle mehrmand) / Someimes doing something poeic can become poliical and someimes doing something poliical can become poeic, Francis alys / Crossing maps, Fabien Fischer, lauriane houbey, sarah mekdjian et anne-laure amilhat-szary, marie moreau / Borders, simona Koch digital salon Maison Populaire, Montreuil from March 14 to April 9 2011 digital cinema and video games Games Diversion or circuitbending are arisic reappropriaion prolonging machine life while divering them from their original use. Playful, poeic or acivist, this act can rethink a society based on the use of mass media. In a digital world where war is waged by remote controlled killers engines like drones, urban Proof, the installaion of Dardex M2F invites us to quesion our eyes, when it has the ability to act thousands of miles away and kills people without seeing the targets… videobug is itself an interacive installaion where every room, every game becomes a note, a sound clip or a musical rhythm. Artworks: Urban Proof, dardex m2F / Videobug, axel debeul 13 Bonlieu’s naional Scene Annecy March 21 – 24 2007 d i g i ta l a r t artiCule 3 Young digital swiss creaion: animaion, video and interacive installaion This exhibiion was conceived in the frame of La belle voisine, a cultural exchange program between France and Swiss. I curated an exhibiion of swiss animaion, video and interacive installaions in order to present the very dynamic and emrging swiss creaion. Among the animaion and interacive installaions, all the videos were presented on a huge cube placed in the middle of Bonlieu, the creaion scene of Annecy. artworks: Signs, Patrick tschudi / La Tronçonneuse, angela marzullo / Bubblecars, Collecif-Fact / Circus, Collecif-Fact / Strange Fire, Sylvie Fleury / No Signal, N3krozot WebPlastiCians vJing Centre Pompidou, Paris April 2005 The VJing, live performance with images on music, is a discipline that combines very diferent pracices. The Web Plasicians devote their meeing to vJing. The rise of video and computer in the 80s, in twenty years, changed the visual world of music. It is now combined with video ediing performed in real ime by a new type of arist. The meeing brings together arists who work with very diferent visual content: graphics, video, cinema or 3D. Debate and performance live: bowling club ? / U IDEA, Marin Wheeler / Arno Coenen 14 Arcadi, Région Ile de France Paris, 2004 d i g i ta l a r t WiFildeFranCe WIRELESS ART EvEnT To promote alternaive and free uses of wireless communicaions by an exhibiion of wireless art projects. La Region Ile-de-France is promoing “alternaive and creaive” uses of WiFi networks in France with a July 3rd art event called WiFiledefrance. This event hosts noderunner Paris and projects called WellFu, Plage Arriere, and DaisyChain. noderunner is a wireless game in which teams race each other and the clock to ind open WiFi nodes, photograph themselves at that space, and then use that node to upload their photos to www.noderunner.com where a compeiive-photoblogscoreboard tracks the results. By turning a city’s open WiFi network into a playing ield, noderunner seeks to celebrate a city’s open nodes and likewise draw arists, technologists, and the general public into a dialogue about the legal and ethical issues surrounding the use open WiFi networks. Artworks: Node Runners, Carlos gomez de llarena and yuri gitman / RMI, Stefen Rault / Daisy Chain, guillaume stagnaro, Peter sinclair, nao, Kevan lemire, anne laforet and douglas stanley / Wellfu, Pavu.com 8 bit 8 bit, a doCumentary Documentary movie about art and games 2006 I was interviewed during the fesival High score for a documentary about 8 bit art and video games, by Jusin Strawhand and Marcin Ramocki. 8 bit, a documentary was selected in Barbara London’s 10 best ilms of 2006 on ArtForum. “Premiered at the Museum of Modern Art and voted by ArtForum as one of the year’s ten best ilms, 8 Bit is an acclaimed hybrid documentary exploring the history of arists and video games.This mélange of rockumentary and art exposé examines early hacker culture and interviews contemporary musicians, arists, and programmers who repurpose game hardware, modify exising games, and create original games.» (ACMI) Featuring Cory Arcangel, Isabelle Arvers, Bit Shiter, Bodenstandig 2000, Bubblyish, Mary Flanagan, Gameboyz Orchestra, Glomag, Rachel Green, Ed Halter, Paul Johnson, John Klima, Joe McKay, Tom Moody, Chrisiane Paul, Akiko Sakaizumi, Eddo Stern, teamtendo, Treewave and more 15 8 bit music, or “chip tunes”, by the people who play and produce it. Debate and live demo by Bubblyish. With Teamtendo, “T & J” du label Relax Beat et Bubblyish. Event animated by Isabelle Arvers. 8 Bits music is ” low tech ” answer to electronic music. These new kind musicians diver the sounds of famous nintendo games or computers like the Commodore 64 or Amiga to compose and perform pieces of electronic music. Arists: teamtendo / « t & J » label relaxbeat /bubbly Fish ChiP musiC FESTIvAL HIGHSCORE Espace Landowski, Boulogne November 2004 Landowski Space, mulimedia center of Boulogne-Billancourt, explores, 20 and 21 november, with “High Score”, the young video game history with a round table found on the Game Design (involving in paricular Eric viennot, Michel Ancel of ubisot Julien Millet, ariicial intelligence engineer, Manuel Bevand professor Supinfogame), a small exhibiion of anthologies consoles and 39 games in free access, a LAn party, and free concerts of GameboyMusic, with the cream of the genre, new Yorkers Bubblyish and Glomag, the French Teamtendo and the Polish Gameboyzz Orchestra. WebPlastiCians 8 bit musiC Centre Pompidou, Paris 16 June 2005 Arists: Gameboyzzz Orchestra (PL), Bubblyish et Glomag (US) et Teamtendo (FR) 16 Concepion & organisaion of a chip tunes music, gameboy music gigg. My friends from Belgium, the art collecive lab-au.com asked me if I could organize a gigg for their friends from the US, as they were touring in Europe. At that ime, I was friend with the arist Dinah Bird who was in charge of a litle space in the 17th arrondissement: the Project 101. Thanks to her, we were able to invite Glomag and Bubblyish in Paris and had the chance to get a press aricle on Libéraion by Marie Lechner. The event was full. Project 101, Paris March 2003 8 bit 8 bit Party Arists: Glomag, Bubblyish, Gameboyzband net art WebPlastiCians Fluxus online Centre Pompidou, Paris 15 December 2005 Artworks: Living Canvas, Jimmy Chim / Digitalsnapshot, lo iacono / Lapins (Nyulak), Peter Csornay / Portraits consenis (Retratos Consenidos), ana luísa Figueira sales / grau, robert seidel / Andromède, Carlos magno / L’été arrive (Indul a nyar), hajnal Zoltan / Pause_04, Claudio and gustavo santos / BRTLD_bertoldo, Crisiano Trindade / Tomber, Johannes burr / Liquidaion (Opruiming), mannin de Wildt / Somnambules, Pierre Wayser / Bains 1 (Banhos1), louise ganz / Venise, haruo ishii / 22 22, udqem / Biographie du Temps (Biograia do Tempo), marcos Pimentel and Joana oliveira / Ballast, ulrich Fischer / Studios Stop Moion – Series 13, david Crawford A monthly event focused on the new forms of creaion and images, organised by Géraldine Gomez, Cinemas of Tomorrow Presentaion by Isabelle Arvers of Fluxus online (Internaional Film Fesival on Internet), created by Francesca Azzi, director at “Zeta Films” in Brasil. Screenings of short ilms, animaion, experimental and documentary video selected in the 2005 ediion. The Web Plasicians are hosing the Brazilian fesival Fluxus – an Internaional ilm fesival on the internet – www.luxusonline.com Established in the year 2000 Fluxus radicalize contemporary cinema concept with a selecion of microilms, short ilms, digital video, animated ilms, net.art, videoblogs, videos made with phones or webcams and works of vidéodesign, to show the new possibiliies for the language of moving image. The fesival deinitely incorporates all the manufacturing processes forms: short movies cinema, portable cinema, intense abstract or poeic cinema of the interacion between technology and art of the web. 17 nET.ART ExHIBIT BAnAnA RAM Molle vallenina, Ancona Italie, 2004 net art Artworks: Metapet, nathalie bookshin / Finger Print Maze, Amy Franceschini, Richard Morimer humphrey, david lu, Playshop / no Playstaion, No TV, Just real life, Fran ilich / Vigilance 1.0, Marin Le Chevallier / Peoplejeans, nathan Hackivist, CarbonDefenseLeague / Infowar map game, Map Governing By Networks, bureau d’etude / Pavu, Pavu.com / Endgames: Waco Resurrecion, C-Level mind Control Entertainment has largely been perceived negaively in the western Roman Catholic tradiion of thinking. Entertainment is the soul’s perdiion. Etymologically, di-vertere means a subtracion from a whole, it’s a distracion for the spirit. This is the terrible FLY of the Thoughts of Pascal, which disturbs you when you try to think about your condiion as a human being, alone in front of your desiny of mortal humanity. This is what allows us to forget that we will die, and nonetheless that we have to work and ight for a master, whoever he is, and wait for our death. In this sense, entertainment can be seen as a good way to control people’s mind. It is part of the ancient rules that explain the civil obedience. “Why in the world do people consent to their own enslavement?” asked La Boéie in 1550. “Why do the bulk of the people acquiesce in their own subjecion?” La Boeie answered these quesions by explaining the governmental mysique created by the rulers and their intellectual apologists. By relying on custom, by providing both bread and circuses to the ciizens, and by creaing a vast network of governmental supporters dependent on poliical plunder, governments were able to engineer and sustain their own popular acceptance among the populace. turn around the Web GREECE Centre Pompidou, Paris 18 dec. 2003 Greece : Miltos Manetas introduce Neen A monthly event focused on the web producion of a country or a coninent, organised by Géraldine Gomez, Cinemas of Tomorrow. «neen-the meme- was born in 2000. Before leaving nY for Los Angeles, I commissioned to Sausalito-based company Lexicon, to come with a new term for Art. It had to be a word that myself and my friends could use, to call the very peculiar feeling of awe-inspiring beauty which rises someimes from a few arifacts we encounter in the computer screen.» Miltos Manetas, 2001 Arists: angelo Plessas, miltos manetas, andrea angelidakis 18 EASTERn COunTRIES Centre Pompidou, Paris feb. 2003 net art turn around the Web « Around the world of the web » makes a stop where it’s said that everything begann : In fact, some of the most prominent arists on the net come from East Europe. Criicism is one of the main sources for making artworks out of the Internet.. A big sense of humour, acivism, cyberfminism and also a coninuous relexion on the concept of net. art could deine a web producion that is not homogenous and varies by country and by decades... Devil of the polish webdesigner Dupal, Alexei Shulgin, Olia Laliana, Igor Stromajer, nikola Tosic. Invited arist to Paris : vuk Cosic. vuk Cosic is know as internet art pioneer and author of numerous net.art projects. Today reired net.arist and ascii arist, he is lecturer, writer and curator. He is co founder of neime, Syndicate,7-11 and Ljubljana Digital Media Lab. Invited arist to Paris : vuk Cosik Live Netmeeing with Kibla, Center for New Media in Maribor, Slovenia. dejan Pestotnik, Project Manager, will present the actual eastern european netart scene. Live netmeeing with Ljubljana digital media lab. spela Kucan, Programm Director, will explain to us what is the general situaion of media labs in East Europe. + a selecion of arists’ websites by Vuk Cosic & Isabelle Arvers sound toys villete numérique, Paris, septembre 2002 «In selecing the 20 compeitors for the online audio art compeiion, Isabelle Arvers had a speciic agenda in mind. I wanted to help the French audience understand what art on the Internet is all about, and that there is a new generaion of creators that merge cinema, music, gaming and visual art, she said. The jury awarded irst-place honors to Web Wuerfel Werkstat (Web Cube) by Akuvido, the nom de net art of ukranian-born, Berlin-based arists victor Dovhalyuk and Hanna kuts. The arists created their two-dimensional work in Macromedia Flash to suggest an alternate way of perceiving 3-D space: A deconstructed cube wired with sound cues spreads out on a single lat plane.» Extracted from an interview in Wired.com Artworks: Webwuerfelwerkstata, akuvido / Soundscraper, stanza / volume, inbar barak ruth ron / One day on the air, nicolas Clauss / 3D Sound sculpture, edward tang Przemyslaw moskal Woncheol lee / Infrasonic soundscape, minami hidekazu / Invisible maps, Paul Catanese / Colori, adriano abbado / Hematome, emmanuel Kodjo Romain Delache / Popular, holger lippmann / And2, su studio / 360°, sue Johnson alison Cornyn / The new dynasty, Scot Becker / I know where Bruce Lee lives, tim buesing, Peter muehlfriedel & gundula Markefsky / ursonikid, alan Peacock / Sophie der ilm, michael hofmann / Planetnemo, Frédéric Puech / Rythmic numbers, Jacques viel aymeric lepage / voiture 35, Fred maillard 19 Digital culture web portail online in 2000 - 2001 Gizmoland.com, an electronic art magazine and an online art gallery in which all the artworks could be downloaded for a modic price. A lab for experimentaions with sound, visual or digital arists, Transats, interviews from the outerspace from place to place and ime to ime to follow arists of the new age! The gallery to show artworks in streaming !music, animaion, digital art, games) and a gizmo console to advise you in funcion of your speciic tastes. net art giZmoland Arists of the online gallery: eric maillet, alain declerc, Philippe lejeune, audiorom, david nicolas, borderland de laurent hart, emmanuelle grangier, Philippe donadini, Jim avignon 20