MILTOS MANETAS INTERVIEW

APROPOS OF ART AFTER VIDEOGAMES IS A SEVEN-PART INTERVIEW PRODUCED BY GREEK ARTIST MILTOS MANETAS SPECIFICALLY FOR GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY.

An edited version of this video is on display in the interview section of GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY featuring conversations with several other artists.

Parts 1 and 2 are available below:

Here's an excerpt:

When did you start using video games to make art?

Miltos Manetas: "It was in New York in 1995, a friend of mine Matthew Antecho that I was visiting, had a video game and was actually a computer game, It was called HORNET F/A -18, I think, for Apple computer. He was playing at it, so I said “Can I play? Can I try?”, he said “yes Naturally”. I started playing with this Hornet F/A 18, it was a little airplane, you could fly with it, it was an airplane simulator. I got bored, but just a second before I lost my attention, I noticed, if you would bring this airplane on the water instead of going down, as it should, it started running on the water.. “Wow!” I thought, “That’s interesting”. “No,” Matthew said, “It’s just a bug, a computer bug”. I said “Yes, that’s interesting, can I borrow the game please?” I did not borrow it to play with it, I borrowed to film it, I filmed it directly from the screen, right? From the computer screen and that’s how I made my first artwork from video games, Miracle. There was an exhibition I was invited to, “Joint Ventures” by Nicolas Bourriaud at The Basilico Gallery in New York, and they exhibited it there next to a painting on a little television screen as a friend of the painting. that’s how machinima started, I was told later." (Miltos Manetas)

LINK: MILTOS MANETAS

GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY OPENS IN MILAN

GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY

April 4 – July 31, 2016

Opening: April 4, 2016 at 6 PM

Open Space Contemporary Exhibition Hall, IULM

Via Carlo Bo 7, 20143 Milan, Italy

Artists featured: Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Rewell Altunaga, Hugo Arcier, Marta Azparren, Josh Bricker, Joseph Delappe, Claire Evans, Chris Howlett, Keung Wai Hui, Harun Farocki, foci + loci, Anita Fontaine, Kent Lambert, Lawrence Lek, Marco Mendeni, Miltos Manetas, Victor Morales, Oscar Nodal, Paolo Pedercini, Baden Pailthorpe, Tom Richardson, Kent Sheely, Georgie Roxby Smith, Palle Torsson, Michiel Van Der Zanden, Bill Viola with USC Game Innovation Lab, Angela Washko, IP Yuk-Yiu

Curated by Matteo Bittanti and Vincenzo Trione

Milan, April 1, 2016: An official event of the XX1T Triennale International Exhibition. 21 Century. Design After Design, GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY is the largest exhibition of game-based video installations ever staged in Italy. Transforming the spaces of IULM’s Contemporary Exhibition Hall into a visual landscape of made of pixels and polygons, GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY features thirty international artists working with video games. Also known as machinima, these video installations explore themes related to simulation and representation, replay and re-enactment, architecture and urbanism, sex and race, gender and politics.

GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY also showcases a selection of canvases and vibracolor prints by Greek-born artist Miltos Manetas who spearheaded the development of game-based video art with Miracle (1996), first shown at "Joint Ventures", an exhibition curated by Nicolas Bourriaud at Basilico Gallery in New York, and included in GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY to inspire a new generation of video players.

Ranging from institutional critique to new media production, GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY emphasizes the visual nature of digital gaming and its potential for creative expression, rather than mere escapism. By bringing together gaming technologies, experimental filmmaking, video and performance art, GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY invites viewers to see a different side of play.

Although a recent development in contemporary art, machinima allows for a unique and differentiated experience from non-interactive media such as painting and sculpture. Moreover, machinima is, by definition, derivative and recombinant, suggesting a blurring of boundaries between content consumer and creator. Accordingly, the exhibition also explores issues related to copyright, creativity, appropriation, and resistance. Finally, the show title alludes to the concept of Game Art, that is, the use of gaming technologies and aesthetics to produce artistic experiences. 

GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY is curated by Matteo Bittanti and Vincenzo Trione with the collaboration of students of the the 2nd Year Program in Arts, Markets, and Cultural Heritage at IULM under the guidance of Anna Luigia De Simone. An exhibition catalogue featuring critical contributions from art historians, critics, and scholars will be released in June 2016. Collateral events include screenings, panels, and performances, all taking place at IULM.