Interview

INTERVIEW: PETRA SZEMÁN, TAKE TWO

To celebrate the release of VRAL Season One, we are sharing a sneak preview of Gemma Fantacci’s new interview with Petra Szemán about her monumental project Monomyth: gaiden

In 2020, we spoke to Petra Széman about Monomyth: gaiden / Return (2019), the third installment of the epic series Monomyth: gaiden (2018-2020). Back then, she was working on the final chapter, Master of the Two Worlds, which marks the end of the journey for her digital persona, i.e., Yourself, across multiple planes of reality of the contemporary media landscape.

One year later, we reconnected with Petra in order to discuss the trajectory of Monomyth: gaiden in lieu of its latest developments. In this interview, which expands our previous discussion, Széman describes her relationship with her alter ego, the difficulty of wrapping the fragments of a multiple shared reality in a single place, and the inspiration behind an all encompassing project situated at the intersection of the epic poem and anime. Széman has created an online archive hosting the complete Monomyth: gaiden series, which also functions as a repository featuring supplemental resources, including a short visual novel, a dress up video game, a few essays and book excerpts.

Gemma Fantacci: At the beginning of Monomyth: gaiden/ Master of the two worlds, we see a beautiful image: Yourself holds an asterisk on the palm of her hand, a meeting point of multiple reality planes. Her Skyrim avatar, her 2D animation walking around the game environment, photos of Japan and a pixel art/arcade exemplify the complexity and variety of the media landscape that Yourself is navigating. I was thinking about the asterisk and its different meanings: in its typographic use, it indicates a moment of suspension but also operates as a bridge, a portal: it links to a footnote; in science, it is used as a multiplication symbol and, in computer science, it stands for a variable. It suggests different stages of being: momentary suspension and deviation from the main storyline, the multiplication of elements, and data variability. However, when her hand tries to grasp this multiplicity, the asterisk breaks down into thousands pieces, alluding to the difficulty of addressing the concept of identity and reality in a univocal way. Perhaps it is necessary to speak of identities in the plural, pointing to the various layers of reality simultaneously connected. What can you tell us about this particular scene? What role does the asterisk play both as a shape and a concept in the series?

Petra Széman: The star shape is something that I chose without any specific intentions at first. I just wanted to create a 3D shape from several screens, and the simple asterisk was an easy one to start with. My intention was to do some tests with that and then move onto building something more complex, but I found myself reaching back to the original star, and its significance became clearer with time. Until now, I hadn’t considered how the star relates to the concept of gaiden as a detour from the main line of narrative. The most important part of the star is the middle area, where all of its planes intersect. That space where everything overlaps momentarily isn’t visible, but it’s a space that contains all of the realms that build it up, and it is this elusive experience of “wholeness” or a conclusive reality that I’m trying to pinpoint in my work. At the moment, I don’t think this is comprehensible in a straightforward way, and what I’m chasing after in the videos is grasping the instability of the viewing position necessary for understanding that precise point of intersection. If I had to reduce my practice to a singular goal.

The hand reaches out and tries to hold this multiplicity, but this interaction fractures it to a thousand pieces. I’ve always been fascinated with those scenes in films when the glass breaks and you get a slow-motion view of the shards flying everywhere. In Evan Calder Willams’s Shard Cinema, he spins the whole book around this moment, using it to visualize the set of relationships between screens, perception, time, and cinema. A heightened sense of multiplicity and fragmentation.

Gemma Fantacci: “What does your avatar see as the real?”: How do you think Yourself would answer this question? This makes me think about how we tend to feel that it is our physical self pulling the strings of all our digital identities, a puppeteer directing a set of characters on a stage, when actually not a single self is more relevant than the others or holds a higher truth about our identity. As in real life, our online presence is scattered into several characters, all performing. Each role we interpret is an iteration of ourselves, and it is only the sum of them that can perhaps give us a vision of who we are. What’s your take?

Petra Széman: Turning back to the star shape, it’s at the intersection of these characters that you can pinpoint a cohesive idea of a self that envelops all of its perspectives, though I’m not really sure if you’d necessarily be able to create a shape that has a point where all of its building layers meet. The star shape is elusive. I think it’s only in specific locations that allow for the various worlds to align in that way. To attempt to map out a “true self” (using ‘true’ for lack of a better word - maybe objective? cohesive? holistic?) I’m not sure where one would have to start from. Perhaps the shapes that we can build out of these non-localized selves will always have some intermedial space between some of its layers, unable to reach into that space of certainty. This is what I think at the moment anyway, and what I can comprehend may change with time.

Something that I think about often is the places of disparity between Yourself and me, particularly when it comes to national heritage. In Japan I’m obviously white, and in the United Kingdom I’m an Eastern European immigrant. However, in terms of memories and personal history, Yourself has only ever been to Japan as far as real places are concerned, and the closest she’s been to Eastern Europe is Skyrim, which in my head basically equals the mountains and forests of the Carpathian/Pannonian Basin. So, where does my sense of ethnicity and national heritage fit within her worldview? I’m not sure. I’ve been working on some scripts where we work this out for the past few years or so.

Gemma Fantacci: While Yourself contemplates the landscape through the window of a train, your narrating voice says, “when the world outside is too oppressive to make sense of, I hold up my phone camera and force the components inside a frame”. During the pandemic, we have literally lived inside a frame. Our relationship to the screen has undoubtedly changed. On one hand, they have a protective value, while on the other they are a gateway to moments of shared conviviality. The screen has gone from being a point of interaction between different levels of reality to becoming a sort of Russian doll, with multiple layers of meaning. After the first global lockdown, how do you perceive the role of the screen in its double function of protection and access?

Petra Széman: I think the protection that the screen offers can also be a form of access: what really limits our range of motion and contact with the outside world isn’t the screen itself, but covid. The screens offer access to a shared social reality that otherwise would be entirely off-limits in this context. The idea of imposing a duality on the role of the screen doesn’t appeal to me because it echoes the real vs not-real dichotomy, whereas, for me, the value of the screens lie in the medial space that they offer and the transformative forces that they enact within the user-screen spectrum. If I think of the screens as this elusive midway realm instead of one end of a binary (screen vs. not-screen) spectrum. The pandemic has provided a heightened sense of our relationship to these screens, generally speaking, and forced many things inside this disjointed and inconclusive space, for better or worse. In my head, I think of that as an expansion of the screen-based reality, rather than its evolution... I’m not sure if I necessarily believe that anything fundamentally changed within the screens, but rather it’s horizontal movement that has occurred over the past year.

A personal anecdote. Because of the pandemic, I haven’t seen my partner for over a year now as we are in a long-distance relationship and traveling is impossible. We’ve gotten quite used to having the screen as a mediator in our relationship at this point, but the first time we got to play Animal Crossing together on the Nintendo Switch, I remember a distinct sense of bodily closeness as we ran around together with our little avatars, picking fruit and whatnot.

That was a nice moment.

Read the full interview on VRAL Season One

Visit Petra’s online archive

Also by Gemma Fantacci: EXPERIENCING LIFE AS CINEMATIC FICTION: THE MARVELOUS WITHIN THE DAILY MEDIA LANDSCAPE (full essay available in the academic journal AOQU. Achilles Orlando Quixote Ulysses)

NEWS: THREE CURATORS SHARE THEIR VIEWS ON THE MMF MMXXI

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Gemma Fantacci, Luca Miranda, and Riccardo Retez — part of the Festival’s curatorial team — discuss the key themes and trends of the MMXXI edition and the rationale behind their programming. (Interview in Italian without subtitles)

IN ITALIAN

Gemma Fantacci is the curator of HACKTHECUBE, an exhibition platform that uses both the format and the problem-solving nature of the Rubik’s Cube. She received an M.A. in Arts, Markets and Cultural Heritage from IULM University and later enrolled in the Master of Arts in Game Design, combining her interest for art with new media, especially video games, machinima, and in-game photography. She is a regular contributor to ATP DIARY, an online magazine focusing on contemporary art. She is also the Communication Manager of the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL and co-curator of VRAL, an online platform exclusively dedicated to avantgarde machinima. A Ph.D candidate in Visual and Media Studies at IULM University, Gemma Fantacci lives and works in Milan.

Luca Miranda’s practice focuses on the relationship between reality and simulation. He is especially interested in the notion of the avatar as an aesthetic entity and its representational features. In his work, Miranda critically scrutinizes game mechanics and notions such as immersion, identification, and interpassivity. His work deals with the image of the avatar in contemporary culture. Miranda received a Master of Arts in TV, Cinema and New Media at IULM University, Milan, and previously a B.A. in Media and Art from the University of Bologna.

Riccardo Retez is a Doctorate candidate in the Visual and Media Studies program at IULM University, Milan, Italy. He is also a digital content creator specializing in contemporary visual culture including cultural studies and game studies. He is the author of Machinima Vernacolare (Concrete Press, 2020), the first academic study of the Rockstar Editor, a video editing software embedded in Grand Theft Auto V. He is currently studying live streaming culture.

Gemma Fantacci, Luca Miranda e Riccardo Retez — parte integrante del team curatorial del Festival — discutono i temi e i trend dell’edizione MMXXI e condividono alcuni criteri di selezione (intervista in italiano).

Gemma Fantacci è la curatrice di HACKTHECUBE, piattaforma espositiva che adotta la struttura e la logica del rompicapo del cubo di Rubik. Dopo aver conseguito una Laurea Magistrale in Arti, Patrimoni e Mercati presso l’Università IULM, nel 2018 ha ricevuto un Master of Arts in Game nel medesimo ateneo, coniugando l’interesse per l’arte con quello per i nuovi media, e in particolare per video games, machinima e game photography. Collabora regolarmente con ATP DIARY, magazine online di arte contemporanea, è la Communication Manager del Machinima Film Festival e co-curatore del progetto VRAL. Dottoranda nel Programma di Visual e Media Studies dell’Università IULM di Milano, Gemma vive e lavora a Milano.

Luca Miranda studia la relazione tra realtà e simulazione, l’avatar come entità estetica e le correlate dimensioni testuali e visive. Centrale, nella sua pratica artistica, è l’analisi delle meccaniche videoludiche, insieme alla riflessione critica sui concetti di immersione, identificazione ed interpassività. Investiga la figura dell’avatar nella cultura contemporanea. Ha conseguito una Laurea Magistrale in Televisione, Cinema e New Media presso l’Università IULM di Milano e una Laurea Triennale al D.A.M.S. dell’Università di Bologna.

Riccardo Retez è un dottorando in Visual e Media Studies presso l’Università IULM di Milano. Creatore di contenuti digitali che investigano la cultura visiva contemporanea, Retez si interessa di cultural studies e di game studies. È l’autore di Machinima vernacolare (Concrete Press, 2020), il primo studio accademico del Rockstar Editor, un software di montaggio presente in Grand Theft Auto V. Studia le culture del live streaming online.

NEWS: ALESSANDRA PORCU ON THE MALESTREAM

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In her game video essay Deconstructing the Algorithm, Alessandra Porcu explains how supposedly neutral algorithms introduce new biases based on gender, sex, and culture. The artist uses machinima to question the very notion of representation and to reconfigure her own identity in a context informed by white supremacy, patriarchal imperatives, and widespread misogyny. The passivity encouraged by digital games as well as cinema is further promoted by social media and live streaming culture, which are both dominated by the male gaze. In her work, the filmmaker and scholar rejects the pervasive malestream perspective in both video games and game videos. In this interview, Porcu discusses her work with Gemma Fantacci, Luca Miranda and Riccardo Retez (interview in Italian)

IN ITALIAN

Nel suo video saggio ludico, Decostruire l’algoritmo, Alessandra Porcu come i presunti algoritmi “neutrali” introducono nuovi pregiudizi basati sul gender, il sesso e la cultura. Attraverso il machinima, al regista mette a tema la nozione stessa di rappresentazione e riconfigura la propria identità in un contesto dominato dalla supremazia bianca, dagli imperativi patriarcali e dalla misoginia diffusa. La tesi di Porcu è che la passività incoraggiata dai videogiochi nonché dal cinema è promossa anche dai social media e dal live streaming, nei quali lo sguardo maschile è pervasivo. La filmmaker e studiosa rifiuta la prospettiva malestream tanto nei videogiochi quanto nei giochi video. In questa intervista, Porcu si confronta con i curatori Gemma Fantacci, Luca Miranda e Riccardo Retez.

IN ITALIANO

NEWS: KAMILIA KARD ON CROSSING INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES

The MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL is proud to present Kamilia Kard’s 30 minute performance Walking Against, Walking Through in machinima form. Part of THE CLASSICAL ELEMENTS special screening series, Kard’ performance was made with/in indie game Journey (Thatgamecompany, 2012). In the original game, the player takes the role of a robed figure in a desert, traveling towards a mountain looming in the distance but it often encounters invisible borders that cannot be crossed. Any attempts to cross the invisible line are doomed to fail. The border is intangible, like air or, rather, simulated wind: when players try to cross the last dune, they are pushed back automatically.

As the artist writes,

No matter how vast it may seem, the desert is still a prison. I climb a dune and walk along its edge, repeatedly trying to climb over it, to find a hole along this impalpable fence. This endurance performance, prompted by hope yet inevitably voted to failure, give the viewer and I the chance to think about the current state of confinement and, more broadly, about the growing number of invisible borders limiting our personal freedom in a globalized, hyper-connected, and apparently borderless society: the soft control of the media, the biopolitical invasion of our private space, the terms and conditions overseeing online public space, the gender and racial bias still regulating our society and preventing women access to a given space or status.

For Kard, playing Journey acquired new meanings in the times of quarantine and confinement.

Watch the artist discuss her project:

Kamilia Kard is an artist and a researcher born in Milan. After earning a degree in Political Economy at the Bocconi University of Milan, she turned to art and received a BA in Painting and an MA in Net Art both from the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Digital Humanities at the University of Genova. She teaches Multimedia Communication at the Brera's Academy and the Academy of Carrara. Her research explores how hyper-connectivity and new forms of online communication modified and influenced the perception of the human body, gestures, feelings, and emotions. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including Galerie Odile Ouizeman, Paris, Dimora Artica, Milan, Metronom, Modena, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, EP7, Paris, IMAL, Brussels, Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland, La Triennale di Milano, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sao Paulo, Brazil, La Quadriennale of Roma at Palazzo Delle Esposizioni, Hypersalon, Miami and Museum del Novecento, Milan. She edited Alpha Plus. An Anthology of Digital Art (Editorial Vortex 2017). She was a speaker at the Machine Feeling conference (Transmediale and Cambridge University), a series of panels focused on AI, machine learning, and the new forms of social and cultural language they spawned. She was Visiting Fellow at Paris Sciences et Lettres EnsadLab in the research group of François Garnier Spatial Media, focusing on the themes of cognition and agency within VR environments.

Il MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL è orgoglioso di presentare la performance in-game di Kamilia Kard Walking Against, Walking Through documentata sotto forma di machinima nell’ambito delle proiezioni speciali THE CLASSICAL ELEMENTS . Kard ha utilizzato il videogioco indie Journey (Thatgamecompany, 2012), nel quale l’utente assume il ruolo di una figura avvolta da una tunica nel deserto in cammino verso una montagna che si staglia all’orizzonte. Dopo aver raggiunto la montagna, l’artista ha fatto ritorno al deserto per testarne l'illusoria infinità, concludendo che i progettisti non hanno creato un confine visibile, riconoscibile, “solido” per marcare i bordi del territorio, come l’abisso invalicabile dei videogiochi del passato o come il fondale dipinto nel set di The Truman Show: qui, il confine è invisibile, poroso eppure insuperabile.

Come ha dichiarato Kard:

Per quanto vasto possa sembrare, il deserto resta comunque una prigione. Salgo una duna e cammino lungo il bordo, tentando ripetutamente di scavalcarla, di trovare una fessura lungo questo recinto impalpabile. Questa performance di resistenza, motivata da un senso di speranza, ma inevitabilmente votata al fallimento, sollecita una riflessione sulla condizione di reclusione e, più in generale, sul numero crescente di confini invisibili che limitano la nostra libertà personale in un società globalizzata, iperconnessa, apparentemente senza confini: il soft control dei media, l’invasione biopolitica del nostro spazio privato, i termini e le condizioni che sovrintendono allo spazio pubblico online, il genere e i pregiudizi razziali dominanti che impediscono alle donne l’accesso a determinati spazi e status.

Per l’artista, giocare a Journey ha acquisito un nuovo significato nell’era dell’isolamento e della reclusione pandemica.

In questa intervista Kard discute la sua opera:

Kamilia Kard è un’artista e docente nata a Milano. Dopo aver conseguito una laurea in Economia Politica, passa a studi artistici ottenendo un diploma triennale in Pittura e una laurea specialistica in Cinema e Video, Net Art all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera di Milano. Attualmente è dottoranda in Digital Humanities all’Università degli Studi di Genova. Insegna Comunicazione Multimediale all’Accademia di Brera e Modellazione Digitale 3D all’Accademia di Carrara. La sua ricerca esplora come l’iperconnettività e le nuove forme di comunicazione online abbiano modificato e influenzato la percezione del corpo umano, della gestualità, dei sentimenti e delle emozioni. Le sue opere sono state presentate a livello internazionale, tra cui Galerie Odile Ouizeman a Parigi, Dimora Artica a Milano, Metronom a Modena, Victoria & Albert Museum a Londra, P7 a Parigi, IMAL a Brussels, Fotomuseum a Winterthur, Svizzera, La Triennale di Milano, il Museo di Contemporary Art, São Paulo, Brasile, La Quadriennale di Roma al Palazzo Delle Esposizioni, Hypersalon, a Miami and il Museo del Novecento, Milano. Ha curato Alpha Plus. An Anthology of Digital Art (Editorial Vortex 2017). Ha partecipato come relatrice alla conferenza Machine Feeling (Transmediale e Cambridge University), una serie di panel focalizzati sul tema dell’intelligenza artificiale, del machine learning e delle nuove forme di linguaggio sociale e culturale da loro derivanti. È stata Visiting Fellow a Paris Sciences et Lettres EnsadLab nel gruppo di ricerca di François Garnier Spatial Media, focalizzandosi sui temi della cognitività e agentività all’interno degli ambienti VR.