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NEW-MEDIA-CURATING  October 2007

NEW-MEDIA-CURATING October 2007

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Subject:

Re: exchange pieces and time structures

From:

marc garrett <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

marc garrett <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:49:59 +0100

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Hi Verina and all,

Some interesting points raised here,

I just wanted to respond to this part of your text when you say "I was
thinking about work where the actual content of the artwork and the
desire on part of the maker is to address ‘limits’ of inter-activity and
engagement. Where – beside of using technology in a so-called productive
way..."

After the success of the Game/play exhibition last year which was also
part of the London Games Festival Fringe, as well as shown in various
venues around the UK, at our space the HTTP Gallery, London and Q Arts,
Derby and elsewhere. (Catalogue can be downloaded here -
http://blog.game-play.org.uk/files/GamePlay_Final.pdf if anyone is
interested.); we became aware of how so much time was spent playing the
games rather then standing back at a distance to explore other aspects
of what was actually going on, and then wondered what else is there for
all to explore about games when the interaction is taken out of the
interaction - what is left?

This year, the Furtherfield.org crew with Corrado Morgana critical games
theorist, are presently showing a co-curated exhibition at the London
Games Festival Fringe this year, called 'ZERO GAMER'.
http://www.http.uk.net/zerogamer/

Some of the works being shown at the London Games Festival Fringe, at
Zero Gamer are works such as

Max Payne Cheats Only by Jodi

Boys in the Hood by Axel Stockburger

Mario Trilogy by Myfanwy Ashmore

CarnageHug by Corrado Morgana

Progress Quest by Eric Fredricksen

1d Tetris by Ziga Hajdukovic
and more...

A collaborative text written between myself, Ruth Catlow & Corrado
Morgana (http://www.http.uk.net/zerogamer/exhibition.shtml) explores
some of these issues and ideas.

"The meaning of contemporary media art is often crafted by the context
in which it is encountered by its audience or participants. The way in
which participants interact when engaged (in games and art) remains an
important factor for both artists and game designers, gamers and
audiences for videogame-art. This provides a starting point for this
exhibition. It considers on the one hand, avidly and actively immersed
gamers, and on the other, the gamer-in-every-viewer of art games who
encounters game modifications, appropriations and detournements as jolts
to the mesmerizing flow and illusory worlds of regular game play. They
are thereby placed in a more thoughtful and reflective relationship with
them. This is the fertile antagonism that informs Zero Gamer.

So, what happens when the action is taken out of interaction?

Of course, the works in this exhibition don't remove all action from
interaction, but they do shift the sites, times and agents of action.
The works presented either document the results of a prior performative
action or an automated performance defined by software affordances such
as artificial intelligence and in-game physics. Much of the presentation
of these works touches upon the arena of Machinima. Games creatives,
whether videogame artists or amateur enthusiast producers have made
Machinima, a contraction of 'machine' and 'cinema', a significant form.
This form uses videogame engines- hacking, modifying or performing
within multi-player games- to produce normally a video document
following some form of formal, cinematic intent. However this term may
need some adjustment before we apply it to artists' documents of in-game
performance or other activity- perhaps Experimental Machinima or
MachinimArt (coined at the Gameworld exhibition 2006 in Laboral) will
stand in for these more exploratory forms which belong to expanded forms
of cinema or documentary not normally or intentionally associated with
Machinima."

Another interpretation worth considering here is that, we longer need to
hang onto the 'spectacle' of interaction as the main function, purpose
or valid reason for being part of it, when engaging with video-games
now. Claiming the media is not the same as interaction, but sometimes an
emotional trick can arise where one may mistakenly feel as though they
gain a kind of agency through the process of being interactive when in
actuality the opposite is occurring between the user and game.

"Naturally (or unnaturally) digital technologies allow us to get caught
up in what is real. In our minds, using common sense, we might say that
a good argument or conversation at a screening event is real. The
hallmarks of this might be the sense of humans talking, the smell of the
room, the interjection of one voice over another or a familiarity with a
place. However, if Baudrillard were to play SimCity I'm sure he might
say that it was just as real as visiting Newcastle or Denver.

Commentators such as Beck and Wade* would go as far as to pose a
generational shift where put simply those born after 1970 have been
absorbed in games culture as role play for life. Those born before - the
'analogue' baby boomers - see computer games as time wasting or passing
fads. What I pick up from contemporary media theory is a desire to
explain and summarise. The internet is definitely a good summary of
itself though." Simon Poulter - false mutiny and the collective amnesia
of bad sunrises. on August 8, 2006.
http://blog.game-play.org.uk/?q=node/34#comment-19

Part of what Simon suggests above is worth considering, especially in
regard to 'analogue' baby boomers, which I am sure many who frequent
this list are. When having a conversation about the same subject at the
beginnings of conceptualising the exhibition, Corrado Morgana said that
"many of the original gamers have simply just got older". We part of a
generation of people out who want more out of games other than just
playing them for its own sake. This opens up games culture to new
audiences, as well contemporary artists and thinkers to explore what
this now means for us all, on many different levels.

Not only has games culture now moved on, so have also many net artists
and media artists, who have taken it upon themselves to incorporate it
into becoming part of their own ongoing practices.

"I think the widespread idea of interactive art as a form of
collaborative authorship, is vastly overrated
First of all, I think all art takes place in the viewer. Interactive art
is no exception. Viewing art is always active, never passive. But that
doesn't mean that the user actually makes the piece (even though we may
sometimes make him feel like he is ;) ).


Second, authors of interactive pieces often use this myth of
users-as-creators to excuse themselves from making any statements or
adding any content. This is very convenient since in the context of
contemporary art, expressing an opinion seems to be considered
politically incorrect and in the context of videogames, making a
statement is deemed uncommercial."
Michael Samyn on August 8, 2006.
http://blog.game-play.org.uk/?q=node/34#comment-22

Of course, there are various degrees of interaction, and some artists
and game makers when building such environments are actively dealing
with these contemporary questions in their own work all of the time.
Other than those who are in the current Zero Gamer exhibition. Auriea
Harvey and Michael Samyn originally known as Entropy8Zuper!, now known
as Tale of Tales (http://www.tale-of-tales.com/). "the duo aim to
challenge the fundamentals of game play by creating a ‘plot free’
experience of exploration and contemplation. Jonah Brucker-Cohen,
rhizome.org

For me personally, two books have effectively approached the ever
continuing strong connection between media art and video-games culture,
expansively. There are some other great writings and books out there,
but for me these two have touched upon things that we at Furtherfield
feel are relevant, we that each of thwm dealt with these contemporary
issues in a fresh and genuine way. The first one, which is actually
being launched this evening , in the UK this evening, which I am gong to
is, Videogames and Art - edited by Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell. The
other is At The Edge of Art by Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito.

In Videogames and Art, Axel Stockburger's From Appropriation to
Approximation, writes an interetesting study of video-games and
contemporary art. In the Keynote texts Axel says "While many games are
criticised on the basis of an innovation in a weapon system or the
realism of car behaviour on specific tracks, ZERO GAMER invites players,
developers and critics who aim higher to stop playing for a bit, enter
the discursive platform it provides, and reflect on the current
situation. This break is necessary to be able to focus on those issues
surrounding games that open novel perspectives on contemporary culture.
These can only be addressed properly if one switches from mere
instinctive reaction to thoughtful planned action."
http://www.http.uk.net/zerogamer/keynote.shtml

What I liked about At The Edge of Art, is not necessarily there
approach to the subject currently being discussed but more how they have
tried to re-engage with media art, beyond the process of using history
to support their arguments and intentions. Even though, I take issue
with their twist regarding connections, in science - I wholly appreciate
their risk taking and passion to explore the varied subjects which to
serve to open up different possibilities in engaging with media art and
other connected practices.

So, getting back to games culture and media art. I feel that creative
interjections which act to inform potentially, wholesome cross-overs,
for curators, artists, game makers and audience can bring about a truly
engaging dialogue for all who are interested. Not only to put forward a
more insightful reasoning in understanding the culture itself, but also
to share ideas and issues of human nature as part of the contemporary mix.

Marc

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