MACHINIMA

ARTICLE: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF ALIX DESAUBLIAUX’S MARCHE VERS L'EST

Alix Desaubliaux, Marche vers l’Est, 2016

FINDING JOY AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Patreon-exclusive content

〰️

Patreon-exclusive content 〰️

Marche vers l'est (2016) is an improvised performance in search of the end of the world in Skyrim, in which the artist deliberately looks for ways to break the game in order to bring its sheer artificiality to the foreground. As Alix Desaubliaux explains,

I wanted to play with the very concept of role playing. The character discovers that he is trapped in an artificial setting, a constructed world, a very elaborate trap. I made March of the East by chance, because I got bored with the game’s quest — the assigned goal so to speak — and I wanted to explore further and discover the boundaries of the territory I was traversing. As I used a cheat code to cross the last frontier between the playable world and the Out of Bounds area, I kind of gave up on my character in my mind and I knew I was leading her to an inevitable end. I knew I wasn’t going to play anymore as I was supposed to. But the more I walked east, the more I was surprised about the indefiniteness of the world. I was expecting an abrupt end, a fall into the void or something. This experimental exploration ends after a day and a night of (in-game) walking. The game map becomes gradually distorted but outside, there is no difference at all, apart from the main island that is no longer viewable. It was largely sufficient for me: I didn't want to push until I maybe came across an invisible wall or something that could technically end the world.

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

This is a Patreon exclusive article. To read the full text and access the content consider joining our Patreon community.

ARTICLE: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF ALIX DESAUBLIAUX’S DOGMEAT

Alix Desaubliaux, L’Autre Monster (The Other Monster), 2021

MAN’S BEST VIRTUAL FRIEND

Patreon-exclusive content

〰️

Patreon-exclusive content 〰️

Dogmeat is the name of the loyal, faithful dog that accompanies the player in the post-apocalyptic scenarios of Fallout 4. This virtual animal was originally baded on River, the German shepherd of two of the developers at Bethesda. Also titled Dogmeat, this 2016 machinima focuses on the virtual animal and the emotional bond he shares with the player. Dogmeat is the solution to the breakdown of the simulation: it draws the character into an awareness of the fiction and the artificiality that surrounds him, the virtual setting in which they both find themselves. Dogmeat comprises a series of vignette at time uncanny, tender, tragic. It is a reminder that we are replacing IRL nature with its simulation. And yes, in case you were wondering we are, indeed, living in Philip K. Dick’s world...

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Alix Desaubliaux

Dogmeat

digital video/machinina, color, sound, 16' 31', 2016, France

This is a Patreon exclusive article. To read the full text and access the content consider joining our Patreon community.

NEWS: CRIS UBERMANN ON LE LOUP ET LE CHIEN

Cris Ubermann, a prolific French experimental filmmaker, appropriated and manipulated Grand Theft Auto V to adapt a classic fable by Jean De La Fontaine, “The wolf and the dog”, which is currently featured in our special back-to-back program, Bad Tales.

We asked Cris to provide some contextual information about his latest project.

Matteo Bittanti: You have been working with experimental cinema since the 1990s. What prompted you to adapt Jean de la Fontaine's short story in machinima form?

Cris Ubermann: Le loup et le chien is an allegory of voluntary servitude. The tale poses a simple, yet profound question: Are you a dog or a wolf? For contextual information, I’d recommend The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, a work attributed to Étienne de La Boétie by Montaigne which was published clandestinely in 1577. More information is available here. It’s hard for me to explain exactly why I decided to turn this tale into a machinima. All I can say is that there are many philosophical and political implications. Most importantly, I strongly believe that today it is essential for a filmmaker to engage with video games, because gaming is the language of the young: it’s their aesthetics. They speak through video games. In order to communicate, today, we cannot ignore video games. 

Matteo Bittanti: What prompted you to appropriate and repurpose Grand Theft Auto V to create such a work as Le loup et le chien? Where do video games fit into your broader practice as a filmmaker and artist?

Cris Ubermann: The truth is that most of the video games available on the market use violence as a guideline, as a leitmotif. One of the main goals by working machinima for me was to completely erase any kind of physical violence, to completely eliminate it for the benefit of more beautiful and worthy aspects of mankind. With such a powerful graphic engine, one must reconsider the fields of the possible, to introduce a broader creative horizon, look beyond shooting and killing. As a filmmaker, the world of Grand Theft Auto V provides an incredibly compelling tool, the Rockstar Editor, to create films and using a variety of environments, settings, and characters, which is only expanded by the possibility of modding the original game. Other video games are linked to a specific environment (western, sci-fi, fantasy...), but in Grand Theft Auto V you can create almost any environment you want. It’s an unparalleled narrative matrix. 

EVENT: VRAL #17_ISABELLE ARVERS (JANUARY 15 - JANUARY 28 2021)

MER ROSE CLAIRE

Digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 17’ 39”, 2020 (France)

Created by Isabelle Arvers, 2020

Introduced by Gemma Fantacci

Mer Rose Claire is part of Arvers’ ongoing abstract machinima series La Mer (2016-) which depicts shapes and abstract landscapes created by the Moviestorm game engine. Evocative of peaceful marine scenes, these videos produce an hypnotic effect on the viewer as abstract patterns, their folding and unfolding, become a generative matrix of what Georges Perec called species of spaces. This mesmerizing, rhythmic movement alters the viewer’s perceptions.

Isabelle Arvers is a French artist and curator whose research focuses on the interaction between art and video games. For the past twenty years, she has been investigating the artistic, ethical, and critical implications of digital gaming. Her work explores the creative potential of hacking video games through the practice of machinima. As a curator, she focuses on video games as a new language and as an expressive medium for artists. She curated several shows and festivals around the world, including Machinima in Mash Up (Vancouver Art Gallery, 2016), UCLA Gamelab Festival (Hammer Museum, Los Angeles 2015, 2017), Evolution of Gaming (Vancouver, 2014), Game Heroes (Alcazar, Marseille, 2011), Playing Real (Gamerz, 2007), Mind Control (Banana RAM Ancona, Italy, 2004), and Node Runner (Paris, 2004). In 2019, she embarked on an art and games world tour in non western countries to promote the notion of diversity of gender, sexuality and geographic origin, focusing on queer, feminist, and decolonial practices. 

WATCH NOW

EVENT: VRAL #12_MIKHAIL MAKSIMOV (OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 12 2020)

INFINITE GRAVEYARD

digital video, color, sound, 666’, 2020 (Russia)

Created by Mikhail Maksimov

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti

Mikhail Maksimov first encountered videogames at the age of twelve. His first time was with Clive Townsend’s Saboteur! (1985) on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Subsequently, he fell in love with first-person shooters – Doom II in particular – which he played on a personal computer installed in a dentist’s office (true story). Later in life, Maksimov turned his fascination for gaming into an area of artistic experimentation because he felt that unlike cinema and contemporary art, video games are less reliant on curatorial arbitrariness and can reach a broader public via alternative channels, e.g. the internet, rather than a traditional museum or gallery. Infinite Graveyard is part of Maksimov’s ongoing exploration of gaming mechanics and aesthetics. Presented on VRAL as a 666 minutes gameplay video recorded by the artist, Infinite Graveyard is a commentary of the endless cycle of death in an age marked by toxic positive thinking, stultifying gamification, and neoliberal imperatives.

Mikhail Maksimov is an artist and filmmaker whose practice revolves around game engines, 3D graphics, algorithms, and neural networks. Among his most recent (and radical) projects is SAR, Sanatorium Anthropocene Retreat! (formerly known as MOMAM, Museum of Modern Art Massacre), a dystopian first-person shooter set in the artworld and inspired by the writing of Bruno Latour and Donna Haraway. After graduating in Architecture from the Moscow State Construction University and receiving an MFA from the Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia, Maksimov took part in several exhibitions and festivals, including the Moscow Modern Art Biennale, Venice Biennale of Architecture, New Horizons International Film Festival, the Moscow International Film Festival, Manifesta, Kansk Video Festival, the International Festival of Cinematographic Debuts “Spirit of Fire”, Locarno Festival, Hamburg KurzFilmFestival, Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, and many more. Maksimov lives and works in Moscow.

WATCH NOW

Media coverage: Matteo Lupetti, ArtTribune (in Italian)