Kamilia Kard

ARTICLE: NEITHER ARCHAIC, ARCANE, NOR ANACHRONISTIC: THE MULTIFACETED REMEDIATIONS OF HUI WAI-KEUNG’S RE-DÜRER

Hui Wai-Keung, Re-Dürer, three channel video installation, generated graphics from video game hacking, 2016, Hong Kong

VRAL is currently showcasing Parallel V by Hui Wai-Keung, a work that serves both as sequel and homage to Harun Farocki’s Parallel I-IV series (2012-2014). To provide a comprehensive context for this piece, we delve into the artist’s oeuvre, expanding our critical examination with the monumental project Re-Dürer (2016), which was originally presented in the context of the exhibition GAME VIDEO/ART. A SURVEY.

Albrecht Dürer’s iconic early 16th century engravings Knight, Death and the Devil, Melencolia I and Saint Jerome in His Study deftly capture the melancholy temperament then informing the Northern Renaissance zeitgeist. Each work brims with allegorical symbols and objects freighted with shifting meaning across spiritual, philosophical and creative domains. In Knight, Death and the Devil, a stoic rider perseveres past Death and the Devil, communicating fortitude and moral resolve. Melencolia I portrays a winged angel seated pensively amidst tools of science and art, surrounded by mystical geometries hinting at creative aporia. Saint Jerome in His Study shows the scholarly saint reading in a meticulously detailed monastic cell, worldly threats held at bay.

Half a millennium later, the Hong Kong-based interdisciplinary artist Hui Wai-Keung radically reinterpreted this trilogy through the digital medium of video games in his 2016 video installation Re-Dürer. Hui hacked Rockstar Games’s Grand Theft Auto V (2013), disrupting graphics, mechanics and physics to stage complex tableaux which reconfigure themes of morality, creativity, faith, and knowledge within Dürer’s works and adding new layers of meaning, courtesy of Joseph Beuys. Displayed across three channels, Hui’s “reworks” – as he terms them – add a patina of irony and existential absurdity by transposing early modern symbology into the chaotic contemporary milieu of Los Santos, GTA V’s deranged, hyper-realistic urban sandbox.

The jarring juxtaposition of Renaissance sensibility with nihilistic virtuality in Re-Dürer generates cognitive dissonance in the viewer, short-circuiting inherited cultural schema. Are utopian aspirations still viable in worlds increasingly coded and commodified? What becomes of contemplation in spaces defined by endless aggression and appropriation no longer even recognized as such? Hui implies that the 21st century experience offers little safety from the persistent existential threats embodied by Death and the Devil in Dürer’s era. Perhaps only…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Hui Wai-Keung, Re-Dürer, three channel video installation, featuring generated graphics from hacking/modding Grand Theft Auto V, 2016.

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ARTICLE: DANCING WITH MYSELF: HUI WAI-KEUNG WOULD RATHER NOT PLAY

Hui Wai-Keung, No Play Today, In-game performance in Anarchy Online, 2005 (still)

VRAL is currently showcasing Parallel V by Hui Wai-Keung, a work that serves both as a sequel and an homage to Harun Farocki’s Parallel I-IV series (2012-2014). To provide a comprehensive context for this piece, we delve into the artist's oeuvre, beginning our critical examination with No Play Today (2005).

In October 2005, artist Hui Wai-Keung staged a subversive intervention within the sprawling virtual world of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Anarchy Online (2001). For days, his avatar Alenila defiantly danced amidst the chaos of the Temple of the Three Winds, a notoriously fierce battlefield where players typically hack and slash to progress, not pirouette. This apparent non sequitur – out-of-place dancing rupturing a space reserved for programmed violence and brutal conquest – forms the basis of Hui’s provocation titled No Play Today. At once absurd, futile and profound, his choice to inject poetic play into pre scripted gameplay remains significant on multiple levels.

First and foremost, No Play Today complicates the relationship between play and modern video game environments. As Hui elucidates, the expected form of “play” in spaces like MMORPGs largely replicates hegemonic power structures, privileging might and domination. Players internalize capitalist mandates valorizing ceaseless competition, individualism, and instrumental exploitation. Those flouting these agendas face quizzical, even hostile resistance from game communities invested in established hierarchies. Why dance when one could (should) fight? Any such spontaneous expressions violating this ingrained social code threaten the status quo.

Yet Hui’s intervention also suggests emancipatory potential still dormant and underdeveloped in these virtual play spaces. His dancing avatar becomes a zany performance event, generating liminal spaces where the assumptions are actively sabotaged. Relying on sheer spectacle to disarm players and reject genre conventions, Hui replaces individualism with a communal, aesthetic experience. A fellow player even spontaneously joins in this triumphant deviance, discovering alternative relations founded on wonder rather than antagonism. However brief before reprisals resume the rupture hints that regimes of separation are not total. Unscripted connections remain possible. One is reminded of Joseph Delappe’s dead-in-iraq (2006-), in which the emergent gameplay (writing the names of the fallen American soldiers in a video game chat as an anti-violence statement) is quickly squashed by annoyed players.

Apropos DeLappe we can situate No Play Today in a trajectory of related performative interrogations of gaming space. Notably, the seminal 2002 project Velvet-Strike provides a resonant precedent of artistic intervention disrupting the dominant gameplay. The eponymous downloadable software package by Anne-Marie Schleiner, Joan Leandre and Brody Condon enabled participants to “spray” pacifist messages and images as graffiti amidst standard death match fury in Counter-Strike. This act of disseminating rainbows or daisies rather than employing firearms to annihilate other players, sardonically questioned the erasure of empathy encouraged by first-person shooters.

No Play Today continues this tradition of employing jarring aesthetic dissonance to…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Hui Wai-Keung, No Play Today, in-game performance in Anarchy Online, 2005 hereby shown as a machinima documentation, color/sound, 5’ 37”, 2005.

Hui Wai-Keung, Parallel V, digital video, single-channel-projection, color, sound, 26’ 14”, 2023.

Pippin Barr, Let’s Play: Ancient Greek Punishment, video game, 2011.

Anne-Marie Schleiner, Joan Leandre and Brody Condon, Velvet Strike, modification of Counter-Strike, 2002. (recommended: Rhizome's critical text about this work)

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ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT KAMILIA KARD'S TOXIC GARDEN - DANCE DANCE DANCE

The making of Toxic Garden - DANCE DANCE DANCE, Courtesy of Kamilia Kard, via TikTok

THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?

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Kamilia Kard’s latest project is both a point of departure and arrival. It is consistent with the artist’s ongoing study of parasociality and online relationships but, at the same time, it marks a new chapter in her exploration of the convergence between IRL practices and simulations through game-based technologies. Behind a facade of playful activities, this work is really about the toxicity of social media. 

The project was inspired by Cao Fai’s performances within Second Life, a proto-metaverse that was introduced in the early Zeroes. While still active, Linden Lab’s virtual world has been superseded by other platforms, including video games such as Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox. Nonetheless, Fei’s pioneering work showed how people’s behavior online tend to become more aggressive and disinhibited due to the anonymity afforded by their avatars, a virtual mask. Fei noted that this anti-social behavior tends to increase when the avatar is not a realistic mimesis of the player. In other words, the more fictional the avatar, the most aggressive the user’s behavior becomes. Although anecdotal, Fei’s conclusions prompted Kard to examine Roblox, an online open-ended building game introduced in 2006. 

Kard began experimenting with Roblox during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, which forced many countries, including (especially) Italy, under a regime of strict lockdowns. Popular among the young - children and teenagers - Roblox is often used as a virtual playground for socialization purposes. In her research, Kard followed a group of teenagers who were struggling to fit in and play according to the established conventions and the required etiquette. They had trouble finding the “right” outfit and costume, the “right” maps, the “right” cliques, and the “right” slang. In other words, according to Kard, an artist/ethnographer in virtual worlds, rather than  introducing new, alternative ways of interacting compared to the “real world”, Roblox simply replicated the awkwardness and uncertainty of IRL relationships.

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Matteo Bittanti

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EVENT: KAMILIA KARD (DECEMBER 2 2022, 9 PM CET, LIVE)

The MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL is delighted to announce its first machinima live performance on its brand new Twitch channel. Curated by Gemma Fantacci, the inaugural show is Kamilia Kard’s Toxic Garden - DANCE DANCE DANCE. Join us tonight Friday December 2 at 9 pm Central European Time (CET)!

Toxic Garden - DANCE DANCE DANCE is an online participatory performance created within Toxic Garden, a unique map designed by the artist for Roblox (Roblox Corporation, 2006) in which participants can perform a common dance by donning custom skins that change randomly. A visual commentary on toxic human behaviors, DANCE DANCE DANCE is inspired by the defense mechanisms of poisonous plants. Its development took place during the residency at Lavanderia a Vapore and it involved dancers who contributed in the creation of the choreography. Designed and developed by Kamilia Kard, aka KKlovesU4E. Music of the Performance by Raffaella Bresciani. Sound design of Toxic Garden’s map by Cristina Katja Angeloro.

Kamilia Kard is an artist and scholar based in Milan. Her research explores how hyper-connectivity and new forms of online communication have modified and influenced the perception of the human body, as well as our gestures, feelings and emotions. Her practice spans from digital paintings to websites, from video installations to 3D printed sculptures, from interactive virtual environments and video games to AR facial filters. Her work has been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries, public spaces and online venues. Highlights include: A.dition Gallery, South Korea (2022), Careof, Milan (2021); Marséll, Milan (2021); Museo Pino Pascali, Polignano a Mare (2021); Milan Machinima Festival (2021); Galerie Odile Ouizeman, Paris (2020); Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris (2020); Dimora Artica, Milan (2020); Olomouc Museum of Art (2020); Metronom, Modena (2018, 2019 and 2020); EP7, Paris (2019); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2018); iMAL, Brussels (2018); Digitalive @ REF, Rome (2018); Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2017); Triennale di Milano (2017); Centro Cultural São Paulo (2017); La Quadriennale di Roma (2016); Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2015); Hypersalon, Miami (2015); The Wrong Biennial, online (2014); Museo del Novecento, Milan (2013). She is the author of Arte e Social Media. Generatori di sentimenti (Postmedia Books 2022) and the editor of Alpha Plus. An Anthology of Digital Art (Editorial Vortex 2017). She often lectures about her artistic practice and research. She has a Ph.D in Digital Humanities (University of Genova), and she teaches Multimedia Communication and Aesthetics of New Media at Accademia di Brera in Milan, Italy.

To watch the perform, please visit

MMF_VRAL on Twitch

Kamilia Kard

Toxic Garden - DANCE DANCE DANCE

December 2 2022 at 9 PM CET, free

The edited video recording will be available on December 3 2022.

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.