DayZ

MMF MMXXIV: BEFORE KNIT’S ISLAND, THERE WAS MARLOWE DRIVE

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Marlowe Drive, digital video, color, sound, 34”, 2017.

Before embarking in their ambitious project Knit’s Island, which will be screened on March 14 2024 at IULM University in the context of the Game Video Essay program, filmmakers Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h directed a machinima documentary set in Grand Theft Auto V titled Marlowe Drive, an experimental film that explores video games environments as a context for making a documentary. 

This is how Guilhem Causse describes the film:

A director, Adam Kesher, from David Lynch’s film Mulholland Drive, lands in another fictional Los Angeles. It is in this Hollywood film landscape recreated by Rockstar Games, that this director sets out to find someone to talk to. He is looking for a bridge between the banks of reality and the imaginary. The film takes place on the game's multiplayer platform to meet “real” characters. It collects information on the individuals who inhabit this space and reintegrates the process of documentary filming into a virtual world. In a back and forth between staging and raw capture, the protagonist then lets himself be carried away into the current of a chaotic world that fascinates him, but which gradually overtakes him. Through his character and his encounters, we ourselves discover a virtual world. An autonomous world strangely close to a form of reality.

In other words, the conceptual foundation of Marlowe Drive (2018) was to document the virtual lives of avatars controlled by real people, thereby examining the intersection of our reality with the virtual environments created by video games. This is so meta, it hurts.

At any rate, this initial exploration set the stage for their later work, Knit’s Island, although the two projects engage with virtual spaces in distinctly different ways. The choice of GTA V for Marlowe Drive was deliberate, leveraging the game’s thematic elements of consumerism and the American dream to contrast sharply with the survivalist, post-apocalyptic setting of DayZ, the game chosen for Knit’s Island. This thematic divergence highlights…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Marlowe Drive, digital video, color, sound, 34”, 2018.

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Knit's Island, digital video, color, sound, 95”, 2022.

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MMF MMXXIV: EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT KNIT’S ISLAND...

The Milan Machinima Festival is thrilled to present the full length documentary Knit’s Island as part of the Game Video Essay program. The film will be screened on March 14 2024 at IULM University. We are equally excited to present Angelo Careri’s insightful interview with the filmmakers, Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier and Quentin L’helgoualc’h. We are also sharing with our Patreon supporters the first of a series of exclusive excerpts of the film.

Thanks to Careri’s clever questions, we learn about the filmmakers’ deep engagement with the virtual world of DayZ, as they set out to examine the social and existential dimensions of online gaming communities. Their work blurs the boundaries between documentary filmmaking and virtual exploration, offering insights into how digital spaces can reflect and influence real human experiences and connections.

In this comprehensive and always compelling conversation that was shared with us by the film distributor, Square Eye Films, Causse, Barbier and L’helgoualc’h explain that the idea for the film began as an experiment during their studies at the Beaux-Arts. The young filmmakers were initially intrigued by the possibility of observing, rather than playing, within online games. This curiosity led to the discovery that games could serve as venues for documentary filmmaking, particularly after encountering players who used the game spaces for social interaction beyond the game’s intended mechanics.

The shift from Grand Theft Auto V, which was initially selected as a case study, to DayZ was influenced by the desire for a game that offered more realistic interactions and survival elements, contrasting with GTA V’s focus on consumerism. DayZ’s environment, which simulates a post-apocalyptic world requiring survival strategies and fostering player interactions, presented a compelling setting for exploring virtual community dynamics. The filming process involved significant preparation, both within and outside the game. The team had to manage survival elements like food and health for their avatars, navigate the game’s day/night cycle, and adjust to game updates that affected filming.

They described the experience as living a “double life,” balancing their real lives with their virtual existence in the game. The filmmakers experienced a gradual integration into the DayZ community, eventually being recognized and respected by other players. This acceptance allowed them to explore the communal and individual stories within the game, revealing layers of personal engagement and the blurring of lines between players’ virtual and real lives. The team was interested in how players and their avatars interact with the game’s boundaries and its virtual environment. They noted how the game became a space for contemplation and social interaction, contrasting with the fast-paced nature of contemporary internet culture. Knit’s Island is, first and foremost, an ethnography of online gaming spaces. 

The Covid-19 pandemic which began in March 2020 mirrored some of the post-apocalyptic themes in DayZ, adding a layer of relevance to the film. The lockdowns and restrictions of the pandemic paralleled the isolation and survival themes within the game, influencing both the players and the filmmakers. Post-filming, the directors expressed ambivalence about returning to DayZ purely for leisure, highlighting how their experience has irrevocably changed their perspective on the game. They feel that their connection to the game and its community is now intertwined with their roles as filmmakers.

Finally, we learn that the title Knit’s Island reflects the filmmakers’ intention to name and define the virtual space they explored, drawing inspiration from the concept of “ghost islands” on maps, places that are marked but don’t actually exist, analogous to the virtual spaces in video games…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Knit’s Island, 2023.

Read more about the 7th edition of the Milan Machinima Festival

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MMF MMXXIV: GAME VIDEO ESSAY

Image by Dall-e 3

The Milan Machinima Festival MMXXIV is excited to unveil the 2024 Game Video Essay series, featuring a curated selection of international machinima that boldly departs from traditional narrative structures. Join us on Thursday, March 14, at Sala dei 146, IULM 6, for screenings of four groundbreaking works that push the boundaries of the documentary form, including two insightful presentations by the creators themselves.

Game video essay

March 14 2024, 14:00 - 17:00

Sala dei 146

IULM 6, IULM University

Via Carlo Bo 7, 20143 Milano

curated by Matteo Bittanti

Artists and filmmakers: Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll, Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L'helgoualc’h, Gina Hara, Yemen Liu.

Introduced in 2019, Game Video Essay showcases innovative machinima that transcends traditional narrative structures to explore a wide range of topics, from cultural and philosophical to environmental and abstract, using video games as an expressive canvas. These works diverge from conventional storytelling in machinima, instead offering a rich analysis and commentary on diverse issues through the unique perspective of video games. By repurposing game visuals and mechanics, these essays invite viewers to engage deeply with subjects that challenge and expand the dialogue beyond gaming into a broader cultural and societal context.

The Milan Machinima Festival is proud to present these game video essays as a testament to the evolving potential of games and video essays alike, fostering a deeper appreciation for this dynamic form of expression. The featured works in this year’s program explore themes of environmental change, artificial intelligence, virtual identity, and the role of machinima in contemporary art.

Yewen Liu’s Irreversible documents Greenpeace Poland’s innovative project to recreate the Bialowieża Primeval Forest within the virtual world of Minecraft. The forest, which has faced numerous challenges such as deforestation and ecological shifts, serves as a poignant symbol of the ongoing struggle against irreversible environmental changes. Liu’s machinima captures this virtual reforestation effort, juxtaposing it against the backdrop of the forest’s real-world struggles.

In Crowd Control, Canadian artists Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll examine the intersection of crowd simulation technology and the growing surveillance industry, focusing on the representation of the French Revolutionary mob in Assassin’s Creed Unity. By reflecting on depictions of crowds in art history and contemporary video game crowd simulations, the work questions how these technologies might shape the future of collective action and social unrest in an era of artificial intelligence.

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h’s full-length documentary Knit’s Island delves into the online game DayZ, exploring a 250 square km virtual space where players enact a survivalist fiction. Using avatars, the filmmakers interact with the game’s community, blending in-game experiences with personal stories. The film investigates the dawn of virtual life integration and its implications for our world, offering insights into online interactions, virtual friendships, and the boundaries between digital and real-life identities.

Gina Hara’s MachinimaBodiesSpaceRhythm is a pioneering episodic series that showcases the voices of women and non-binary creators within the machinima sphere. Situated at the intersection of video games, cinema, and digital art, the series illuminates machinima’s unique, hybrid nature. Hara not only highlights machinima’s artistic potential but also prompts reflection on digital identities and the medium’s role in contemporary art.

These four works demonstrate the power of game video essays to explore complex themes and ideas, leveraging the unique affordances of video games to create compelling and thought-provoking experiences. By blurring the lines between gaming, cinema, and digital art, these essays challenge our understanding of what is possible within the machinima medium and invite us to consider the profound ways in which video games can shape our perceptions of the world around us.

As we navigate an increasingly digital landscape, the Game Video Essay platform serves as a vital platform for artists and filmmakers to interrogate the role of technology in our lives and to imagine new possibilities for creative expression. Through their innovative use of video game engines and their willingness to push the boundaries of traditional storytelling, these creators are charting new territories in the world of machinima and beyond.

Read more about the 7th edition of the Milan Machinima Festival

MMF MMXXIV: GUILHEM CAUSSE, EKIEM BARBIER, QUENTIN L’HELGOUALC’H

The Milan Machinima Festival is thrilled to present the full length documentary Knit’s Island as part of the Game Video Essay program. Join us for a special screening on March 14 2024 at IULM University.

Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h’s stunning documentary Knit’s Island ventures into the online game DayZ, exploring a 250 square km virtual space where players enact a survivalist fiction. Using avatars, the filmmakers interact with this community, blending game experiences with personal stories. The film investigates the dawn of virtual life integration and its implications for our world, offering insights into online interactions, virtual friendships, and the boundaries between digital and real-life identities.

Quentin L’helgoualc’h, born in Lyon in 1992, earned his Master’s in Plastic Expression from Montpellier's School of Fine Arts in 2017, followed by a post-graduate art program in 2018. His artistic practice, blending sculpture, video, and drawing, led to directing Marlowe Drive in 2017 and creating two video pieces, Between Empty Things and Cristaux Liquides, exploring digital spaces through live action and 3D animation. In 2021, he directed Les Neiges électriques at Fresnoy, National Studio of Contemporary Arts.

Ekiem Barbier, a multifaceted author, filmmaker, and musician born in Toulouse in 1993, has directed numerous short films and animations since 2012, scoring the music for them. After joining Montpellier's School of Fine Arts, he co-founded the In Extremis collective in 2015, contributing to several exhibitions. Post-graduation in 2017, Barbier directed documentaries including Anent and Marlowe Drive, with a focus on anthropology and digital experimentation. He currently resides and works in Marseille.

Guilhem Causse, from Narbonne and born in 1993, pursued his artistic education at Montpellier’s School of Fine Arts from 2012, developing works that intersect image, sound, and various artistic formats. His fascination with collapsology and natural phenomena fuels his creations of immersive, virtual installations. After earning his Master's in 2017, Causse’s work has particularly focused on exploring themes from the film Solaris through hypnotic video and sound installations.

Read more about the 7th edition of the Milan Machinima Festival

ARTICLE: A FEW THOUGHTS ON VIDEO GAME LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS

Jason Rouse, DayZ En Plein Air, Oil on board, 12’ x 18’, 2014

The emerging genre of video game landscape paintings is rife with contradictions. This is why it is so interesting.

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In Jason Rouse’s artistic practice, the distance between the canvas and the screen tends to disappear. What is at stake, here, is the same convergence that Anne Freidberg discussed in her masterful book The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft (2006), an overlap that applies both to framing devices and to what we could call, after John Berger, ways of seeing. This is especially manifest in Kossoff Flees Ukraine, in which a scanned painting of Leon Kossoff is imported through photogrammetry into a video game development toolkit and then “animated” via algorithms, images and sounds. The painterly nature of Kossoff Flees Ukraine is also evoked through the “slow pace” of the video itself, which in turn alludes to the popular first-person shooter/open world DayZ (Bohemia Interactive, 2018). We can look at a previous work by Rouse, DayZ En Plein Air (2014), as the ideal companion piece to Kossoff Flees Ukraine.

Created almost a decade ago, DayZ En Plein Air is the outcome of the artist’s ongoing study of the relationship between the medium of painting and the medium of the video game. Such exploration can be described as a process of de-contextualization: Rouse translates digital artifacts into paintings and vice versa. This practice, by all means, is far from unique. It is, in fact, relatively common within contemporary art: consider, for instance, the work of such artists as Aram Bartholl and Miltos Manetas. The former has consistently, almost compulsively introduced elements, assets, and even behaviors that originated within the domain of video games into the real world: such intrusions often trigger a cognitive dissonance in the viewer, whose impact is enhanced by a powerful aesthetic experience concocted by the German artist. In the meantime, Manetas has recreated through the medium of painting the iconography of digital tools such as Google Maps, as part of his ongoing, encyclopedic project Internet Paintings…

Matteo Bittanti

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Bohemia Interactive, DayZ, video game, 2018

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