A hand in the game
Digital video, color, sound, 35’ 08”, 2017, Sweden
Created by Hillevi Cecilia Högström, 2017
A hand in the game is a video essay documenting the artist’s experience with SimPark (1996), a simulation published by Californian game company Maxis in which players cultivate and manage a successful park. Developed by Roxana Wolosenko and Claire Curtin, SimPark was explicitly targeted toward children: its objective was to educate the young about ecology and biodiversity. SimPark was accompanied by a 77-page manual which included tips on how to incorporate the game in the curriculum. Twenty years later, the artist intentionally tried to “mismanage the park enough to terminate all living things” in order to bring forth the simulation’s underlying ideology, which is grounded in capitalistic values and neoliberal imperatives. Specifically, Högström played four iterations — titled Termination 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 respectively — by altering the main variables, from the ratio between tropical, desert, and cold regions to the degree of animal agency, not to mention the effects of climate change upon the flora and fauna. The more she played, the more she realized that SimPark is deeply flawed: a supposedly pedagogical aid becomes a tool of disinformation.
Hillevi Cecilia Högström was born in 1994 in Jönköping, Sweden. She is currently completing her M.A. in Fine Arts at Malmö Art Academy. Previously, she received a B.A. in Fine Arts at the Iceland University of the Arts. Her work is concerned with the Anthropocene, which she defines as “the point in time where humans became an actual geological force capable of reforming the surface of the planet”, and its effects on the world. Her recent exhibitions include A Hand in the Game (solo, 2017), Bachelor Exhibition, Kubburin, Reykjavík, Iceland, and Full Vision (2020), Jönköpings länssmuseum, Jönköping, Sweden, Af stað!, Norræna Húsið, Reykjavík, Sweden (2019), and the 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2018), Main Project, Moscow, Russia. Her video works were featured at several international festivals, including EXiS (2021), Seoul, South Korea, and Impakt Algorithmic Superstructures (2018), Utrecht, Netherlands. Högström works and lives in Malmö, Sweden.
Becoming a Legend
Gweni Llwyd and Owen Davies
May 28 - June 10 2021
Introduced by Luca Miranda
vral.org
The practice of customizing characters and assets in video games has a long tradition within vernacular as well as avant-garde subcultures. In fact, artists have often pursued this route to create their artworks. Few, however, reach the meta playful levels of Becoming a Legend which introduces the imperious character of Da Man!, a post-human, virtual übermensch, a diabolical, green-haired “divin codino”. Created with/in the popular video game Pro Evolution Soccer, Da Man! embodies the notion of toxic masculinity and the neoliberalist mantra of self-optimization.
Gweni Llwyd (she/her) is a Welsh artist based in Cardiff. Her practice reflects on a human condition caught between tactile physicality and intangible digital realms. Predominantly working in video, 3D animation, and installation, Gweni creates abstracted rhythms and narratives, mirroring the often chaotic, disjointed nature of the contemporary world by collecting, modifying and rearranging the most disparate sources and materials, including first hand and found footage, game engines and concrete artifacts. She is also co-founder of RAT TRAP, a collective of artists and musicians that find their own routes through the maze of protocols and ways of doing things.
Owen Davies (he/him) is a Welsh filmmaker based in Cardiff. Mainly working in live-action narrative film, his work revolves around the limits of human connection and interaction. Owen’s upcoming short film Arwel’s House, funded by Ffilm Cymru and the BBC, is shooting in July and will air on BBC4 in the UK later this year. The film follows the mother of a dead YouTube star as she gives tours of his childhood home in South Wales to fans from around the world. In 2018, he was shortlisted for the Armani Laboratorio where judge David Kajganich (Suspiria, The Terror) described his script Money Now as “just fantastic — a kind of moral emergency for the modern age that left me both queasy and totally fascinated.”
MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL
UNCANNY
15 marzo 2019/march 15 2019
18.00 - 20:00
SALA DEI 146 - IULM OPEN SPACE
UNIVERSITÀ IULM
VIA CARLO BO, 7
20143 MILANO, ITALIA
This event showcases artistic excellence in contemporary digital image culture and experimental new media art through several on-screen works. The MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL is the only event in Italy solely dedicated to machinima, a genre of digital video art created by appropriating and manipulating video games that emerged in the mid-1990s.
The theme of the 2019 program is the UNCANNY, the perceptual phenomenon caused by experiences that are at once familiar and alien. Haunting hallucinations 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 disquieting 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 and the current fascination with technology’s dystopian impact on public and private life.
The 2019 lineup includes an impressive roster of short films and longer works by national and international artists and filmmakers such as Lisa Carletta (Paradise Found), COLL.EO (Reasonable), Joseph DeLappe (Elegy), Kara Gut (Resonant Flash, Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis (Swatted), Chris Keric (Dynamic Kinetic Sculptures), Luigi Marrone (Avatar_Ascension), Luca Miranda (Alma), Leonhard Müellner (Operation Jane Walk), Bram Ruiter (Perpetual Spawning), Brenton Smith (Crashforms Studies), Petra Szeman (How to Enter a Fictional Realms), Twee Whistler (Edgy Time with Mom), and Brent Watanabe (Possessions). The vast majority of these artworks have never been shown in Italy before.
An international panel of critics, curators, and academics contributed to the selection and evaluation process, including 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).
Among the festival’s highlights is Jenna NG’s keynote talk on March 13 2019 as part of the ongoing GAME TALKS series at IULM. Titled MACHINIMA AND THE ALLURE OF EPHEMERALITY: GAMEPLAY, LIVE STREAMS, AND DIGITAL CULTURE, the talk will address the explosion of interest in the live streaming of gameplay as illustrated by 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 machine vision.
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.
The MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL was curated by Matteo Bittanti (Artistic Director), presented by Gemma Fantacci (Communication Manager), and organized by the Master of Arts in Game Design at IULM University. Screenings take place in Sala dei 146 located in the IULM Open Space. Admission is free upon registration.
La rassegna presenta lo stato dell’arte della cultura visiva digitale contemporanea e la new media art sperimentale. Il MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL è l’unico evento italiano interamente dedicato al machinima, un genere di video arte prodotta attraverso l’appropriazione e manipolazione dei videogiochi che si è affermata a partire dalla seconda metà degli anni Novanta.
Il tema dell’edizione 2019 è UNCANNY, il fenomeno percettivo che contraddistingue esperienze insieme familiari e anomale, declinato all’interno di un programma eclettico in cui glitch, shock e inquietanti ripetizioni alludono al crescente senso di smarrimento sociale nell’era degli algoritmi, dei Big Data e dell’intelligenza artificiale. In queste opere, lo spazio ludico genera narrazioni alternative, sollecitando una riflessione sul rapporto tra autenticità e performance, identità e preservazione del sé. Due mediometraggi esaminano gli effetti collaterali del videogioco e la fascinazione contemporanea per la dimensione distopica della tecnologia.
Il programma dell’edizione 2019 include una selezione di cortometraggi e mediometraggi realizzati da artisti nazionali e internazionali come Lisa Carletta (Paradise Found), COLL.EO Reasonable), Joseph DeLappe (Elegy), Kara Gut (Resonant Flash, Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis (Swatted), Chris Keric (Dynamic Kinetic Sculptures), Luigi Marrone (Avatar_Ascension), Luca Miranda (Alma), Leonhard Müellner (Operation Jane Walk), Bram Ruiter (Perpetual Spawning), Brenton Smith (Crashforms Studies), Petra Szeman (How to Enter a Fictional Realms), Twee Whistler (Edgy Time with Mom), e Brent Watanabe (Possessions). La maggior parte di questi audiovisivi sono inediti in Italia.
Al processo di selezione ha contribuito una giuria internazionale composta da critici, curatori e accademici: Valentino Catricalà (Direttore artistico del Media Art Festival di Roma), Marco De Mutiis (Digital curator del Fotomuseum Winterthur), Stefano Locati (membro del Comitato scientifico del Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival di Venezia e Co-direttore dell’Asian Film Festival di Bologna), Henry Lowood (Curatore per la Germanic Collections e l’History of Science and Technology Collections all’Università di Stanford) e Jenna NG (Professore di cinema e media interattivi all'Università di York).
Tra gli eventi correlati spicca il keynote di Jenna NG nell’ambito dei GAME TALKS all’Università IULM che si terrà il 13 marzo 2019. Intitolato IL MACHINIMA E IL FASCINO DELL'EFFIMERO: GAMEPLAY, LIVE STREAMS E CULTURA DIGITALE, l’intervento esamina l’esplosione di interesse per il live streaming videoludico come attestato dalla popolarità di Twitch, il cui numero di utenti attivi su base quotidiana ha ormai superato i quindici milioni e a cui si aggiungono piattaforme come YouTube Gaming, Mixer e Facebook Live. Secondo NG, il fenomeno dei live stream dei videogiochi è legato a doppio filo al machinima e alle origini della cultura demo e dei replay. Per questo motivo, la ricercatrice definisce il live stream l’evoluzione diretta del machinima. NG propone inoltre un inquadramento teorico dei media a schermo che persegue l’imperativo estetico del realismo illuminando le relazioni tra il cinema neorealista e la machine vision.
Promossa dal Comune di Milano, Assessorato alla Trasformazione Digitale e Servizi Pubblici, la Milano Digital Week propone le più interessanti iniziative che stanno trasformando il lavoro, il tempo libero, la formazione e le dinamiche della progettazione e della produzione attraverso le tecnologie digitali. Un’opportunità di riflessione e confronto per cittadini, aziende, istituzioni, università e centri di ricerca.
Curato da Matteo Bittanti (Direttore artistico) e presentato da Gemma Fantacci (Direttore della Comunicazione), il MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2019 è stato organizzato dal Master of Arts in Game Design dell’Università IULM. Le proiezioni si svolgono nella Sala dei 146 dello IULM Open Space. L’ingresso è gratuito previa registrazione.
