THE ART OF IN-GAME PHOTOGRAPHY

Somehow surprisingly, on May 7, 2016 the CEO of nVidia Jen-Hsun Huang mentioned the ground-breaking work of in-game photographers like Leonardo Sang, Josh Taylor, and Duncan Harris to promote the launch of the new GPU and its in-game content capture system , Ansel.

Corporate endorsement and co-optation of avant-garde art practices is a common marketing technique. Even though Huang was clearly reading the teleprompter and would never be able to distinguish, let's say, Sang's work from Tylor's, the very fact that this American corporation is recognizing that artists are often the first to recognize the true potential of new technologies is remarkable. Marshall McLuhan would feel vindicated.

Join us on May 20 and May 27 for a discussion on the art of in-game photography, featuring artist Marco Cadioli and curator Marco de Mutiis (RSVP recommended).

SOURCE: Virtual Geographic

MICHIEL VAN DER ZANDEN INTERVIEW

Michiel van der Zanden (b. 1979 in Gorinchem, The Netherlands) is a visual artist fascinated by the language of games and 3D graphics. He grew up playing playing first-person shooters and looking at virtual environments through the eyes of a painter.

Van der Zanden is not simply fascinated by games. He sees in gaming an attempt to recreate daily life phenomena through simulation. This desire can also be found in children’s toys and amusement parks, model making, and advertising. Van der Zanden's practice combines realistic painting and computer generated imagery. His work is characterized by a constant interaction between the real and virtual, between classical painting and digital imaging. The outcome is a painting style that looks like it was produced by a computer program, but also overly synthetic sculptures and software-based videos. Van der Zanden lives and works in Breda, Netherlands.

Michiel van der Zanden's machinima, Pwned Paintings #1 and Pwned Paintings #2 are currently on display in the RECORD level of GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY.

This video was created by the students of IULM's Master's Program in Arts, Markets, and Cultural Heritage. Editing and Subtitles: Mariacristina Maffeo.

Click here to watch more interviews

PRESENTATION SHOTS: ROC HERMS & OSCAR NODAL

Roc Herms, Postcards from Home, May 6, 2016, IULM, Milan

Oscar Nodal, Glitch as a Narrative Agent in Machinima, May 5, 2016

ARTWORK: FINDING FANON GAIDEN: ALTERNATIVE

Larry Achiampong and David Blandy's new machinima continues the artists' investigation of race, neo-colonialism, and ideology in the 21th century using the world of Grand Theft Auto V as a platform.

Inspired by the writings of political philosopher Frantz Fanon, Finding Fanon Gaiden: Alternative is currently on show at The Gallery, Tyneside Cinema, located in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. The work is a meditation on time, technology, identity, virtuality, and social interaction in the age of pervasive monetization by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and his acolytes. The piece is not intended as a "sequel" to Finding Fanon 2 - currently on display at GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY, but more like a divertissement, a variation on a theme, a "lost" play by Fanon resuscitated in machinima form. A lyrical, poetic rumination on surviving in a technocratic world, Finding Fanon Gaiden: Alternative is set both in natural and urban settings. It communicates both a sense of urgency - highlighted by the characters' frantic motion (running, swimming, climbing) - and stasis, or even paralysis. The work is truly polyphonic: several voices both accompany and (aurally) animate scene of uncanny tranquility. As ever, in the simulated spaces we inhabit, "it is impossible to dream".

MEDIA COVERAGE: WANDERNART ON GAME VIDEO/ART A SURVEY

WANDERNART is an excellent art blog curated by Marinica Digennaro.