VRAL

EVENT: BABAK AHTESHAMIPOUR’S VIOLENT VIOLINS EXPOSED (APRIL 11-14 2024, ATHENS, GREECE)

We are very happy to announce that VRAL is officially sponsoring Babak Ahteshamipour's new pop-up show at Okay Initiative Space in Athens, Greece to accompany the launch of his new album Violent Violins Exposed.

Ahteshamipour is introducing three new machinima and presenting stills, characters and 3D models from different video games and media franchises such as Optimus Prime (Transformers) and Sweet Tooth (Twisted Metal) printed on fabric. The event will unfold between April 11-14 in the Greek capital. VRAL is a sponsor alongside und. athens.

Read the full press release below:

Violent Violins Exposed is a pop-up show & live performance curated by Okay Initiative Space as a presentation of Babak Ahteshamipour’s same titled album released on the cassette label Jollies (Brooklyn, NYC) on the 3rd of April of 2024. The show is a gamified exploration of blackened dreams, despair and violence woven by accelerating technocapitalism, parallelized with the accelerating tendencies of cars, screeching tires, roaring engines and militarized machines, as a haunting reminder of the collateral damage wrought by technological hubris. It seeks to unravel the interconnectedness between technological singularity, cybernetic warfare, environmental degradation, waste and pollution, from extractivist activities fueling geopolitical conflicts to the fetishized pursuit of capitalist immortality.

Tires have the potential of being representative candidates of accelerating technocapitalism: they are rapidly and massively produced, consisting mostly of synthetic rubber — which is synthesized from petroleum byproducts — and carbon black filler produced by burning fossil fuels. After their lifespan is over they are either dumped in landfills or recycled through grinding or burning — a practice that is highly pollutant. As Lesley Stern writes in A Garden or A Grave? (2017) Regarding landfills filled with tires in the San Diego – Tijuana region “Heidegger predicted: when the tool breaks, you notice its thingness — though the tire in Heideggerian terms is not a thing, lovingly handcrafted; it is a mass-produced and ugly object.”

The show unfolds in an immersive audiovisual installation based on the three video clips created via video games that focus on vehicles, racing, machines and combat: Twisted Metal: Black (2001), Need for Speed: Carbon (2006) and Transformers (2004) — in combination with 3D animation. The video clips were created for the album's three singles, and the installation includes four fabric prints featuring characters from the aforementioned video games as well as Xenoblade Chronicles.

The walls of the room are adorned with quotes that echo the undead dogmatism of Lady Deathwhisper and the scourge from World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King and the machinist desires of Magos Dominus Reditus from Warhammer 40,000. These quotes serve as reflections on the transhumanist tendencies of accelerationism that align with technological singularity: “Our combined decay-phobia and techno-heroic fantasies keep our imaginations trapped in the spinning haze of the monotechnological, accelerationist narrative. There is a persistent and maniacal desire for limitless production and production without decay.”, as Shuyi Cao and Remina Greenfield underline in Soft Rot, Sweet Rot, Bitter Rot: The Politics of Decay, published in Heichi Magazine (2021).

Violent Violins Exposed eventually serves as a catalyst for contemplation, urging towards a revaluation on the automated nihilism that mainstream discourses passively impose and the escapist memefied extremist online ideologies that emerge in response to the face of technological singularity and accelerationism. It beckons for a reconsideration of a symbiotic and integral relationship with technology that is empathy driven rather than having a divide-and-conquer strategist as a puppet master.

Watch a video clip based on the track “Machinist Auxiliaries, Needles of Needless Emphasises” featuring alternating footage of Ahteshamipour playing the video game Twisted Metal: Black and AI generated rock blasting with a text about violence/extractivism and its connections to warfare and nihilism.

Babak Ahteshamipour, Machinist Auxiliaries, Needles of Needless Emphasises, digital video, sound, color, 4’ 43”, 2024.

Watch a video clip based on the track “When Death Parties, Everyone Shows up Dressed as a Skeleton” which features a segment showing hyper-processed footage from the 2004 Transformers video game for the PlayStation 2and another unfolding within a 3D animated eerie alien landscape with a hovering spaceship and a grotesque necromantic portal installed in the middle.

Babak Ahteshamipour, When Death Parties, Everyone Shows up Dressed as a Skeleton, digital video, sound, color, 3’ 47”, 2024.

THE MAKING OF A CYBERPUNK MASTERPIECE: CHAIN-LINK

A standout feature of the Slot Machinima program at MMF MMXXIV was the European debut of Steven Cottingham’s As Far as the Drone Can See. This remarkable 15-minute work delves into the intricate landscape of depicting warfare, offering a critical view on the surge of imagery from modern conflict zones. Cottingham introduces a female journalist within the military simulation software ArmA 3, challenging prevailing gender biases and probing the capacity of digital simulations to capture the nuanced realities of conflict. To fully appreciate his new work, it is useful to return toChain-Link, Cottingham’s remarkable full-length machinima, showcased on the VRAL platform in 2022.

The inception of Chain-Link can be traced back to the artist’s fascination with the creative possibilities inherent in the medium of machinima. As he explained in this interview, he views the genre as a blend of found footage and digital puppetry, where the constraints of the video game’s mechanics necessitate creative and often counterintuitive workarounds, imbuing the process with a unique form of ingenuity. This engagement with the medium allows for a reworking of game worlds into narratives that diverge significantly from their original contexts. Cottingham draws upon a wide array of influences, from the choreographic to the cinematic, to repurpose the virtual landscapes of video games into a canvas for storytelling.

At the heart of Chain-Link lies the tension between creativity and constraint, a theme that resonates both within the film’s narrative and its production process. The characters navigate a world where surveillance and control pervade every aspect of existence, mirroring the constraints Cottingham himself navigated in creating the film. This theme is not just a narrative device but also a reflection on the process of machinima, where the limitations imposed by the game engine and the available mods and add-ons prompt a constant negotiation with the material at hand…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Steven Cottingham

Chain-link, single-channel HD video, comprising machinima, 3D animation, and found footage with sound, 90’ 1”, 2022, Canada

Steven Cottingham

As Far As The Drone Can See, single channel HD Video, comprising machinima, 3D animation, and found footage with sound, 15’ 50”, 2023, Canada

Steven Cottingham, Liljana Mead Martin

MACHINE CINEMA, The making of Chain-Link, digital video, color, sound, 12’ 03”, 2023, Canada

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PATREON: JOIN OUR GROWING COMMUNITY

Our Patreon for VRAL stands as a cornerstone for enthusiasts and scholars interested in the cutting-edge realm of  avant-garde machinima, offering 320+ meticulously curated posts that dive deep into the avant-garde aspects of this dynamic art form. For a modest monthly contribution starting at just $3.5, patrons unlock access to a rich repository of exclusive content that spans insightful articles, thought-provoking essays, and captivating videos. This subscription not only enriches your understanding and appreciation of avant-garde machinima but also plays a pivotal role in sustaining our endeavours, particularly the VRAL online platform which is about to begin its fifth season.

At the heart of our project is a commitment to supporting the talented artists we collaborate with. Every contribution we receive is directly reinvested into the project, ensuring that these creators are fairly compensated for their work and that the initiative remains viable for the long haul. Your support is invaluable to us, and we extend our deepest thanks for your continued belief in our mission.

March has been an especially vibrant month for our Patreon community. We have shared a wealth of material, including articles, essays, and videos that were made freely available in conjunction with the Seventh Edition of the Milan Machinima Festival, held from March 11-17, 2024. Below is just a glimpse of the diverse and rich content our patrons have exclusive access to, highlighting the breadth and depth of avant-garde machinima and its evolving landscape.

Join us on this exciting journey to explore and support the forefront of digital art and storytelling.

EVENT: STEFAN PANHANS AND ANDREA WINKLER (JANUARY 5 - 18 2024, ONLINE)

Freeroam À Rebours, Mod#I.1

digital video, color, sound, 16’ 13”, 2016-2017, Germany

Created by Stefan Panhans and Andrea Winkler

Freeroam À Rebours, Mod#I.1 is a 16-minute video work combining experimental film, music video, performance, and contemporary dance which examines the stilted behaviors and motions of avatars controlled by humans in video games. The avatars demonstrate awkward gestures, repetitive motions, and failures to perform actions. Groups of live dancers and actors physically reenact these movements in a series of situations. Their bodies recreate the avatars’ gestures and repetitions. The performers interact with constructed sets and environments that resemble video game aesthetics. The scenes cut rapidly between the choreographed reenactments and footage excerpted from the games, literally juxtaposing the human and the post-human.

Stefan Panhans and Andrea Winkler explore contemporary media and its effects on the mind and body through video, photography, installation, and text. Panhans (born in Hattingen, Germany) undertakes a mental archaeology of hyper mediatization and digitalization, examining their influence on the mind and power relations in society. His work also engages with racism, celebrity worship, stereotypes, and diversity. He studied at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg. Winkler (born in Fällanden, Zurich, Switzerland) examines similar themes through sculpture, video, and installation. She studied at Slade School of Fine Art in London under John Hilliard and Bruce McLean, after completing a degree in Visual Communication at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg under Wolfgang Tillmans and Gisela Bullacher. Together, the duo create interdisciplinary works that critically investigate contemporary media culture and human-technology interactions through experimental aesthetics. Their collaborations take the form of video, performance, and installation.



A VERY VRAL THANK YOU

Dear Friends and Supporters,

As 2023 draws to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on a year that has been particularly vibrant and eventful for VRAL. Your enthusiastic participation and unwavering support have been pivotal in making this year a remarkable one, and for that, we are immensely grateful. It is through your continued engagement thatVRAL has been able to maintain its status as a fully independent platform, championing the confluence of art, technology, and culture. Your patronage also ensures a modest compensation for all the artists involved in the project. With as little as $3.5 per month, you can fund a year’s worth of exhibitions.

Looking forward to 2024, we’re thrilled to unveil an exciting lineup of new ventures that promise to enhance our exploration of game-based video art. Starting in January 2024, we will introduce a selection of groundbreaking artists whose works inhabit the dynamic intersection of cinema, gaming, and video art. These innovative creations are poised to challenge and expand our understanding of these mediums, continuing our tradition of pushing the boundaries of digital expression.

A highlight of the upcoming year will be the 7th edition of the Milan Machinima Festival, which we are thrilled to host once again at IULM University. This festival has consistently been a beacon for avant-garde expression and a platform for artists who reimagine the potential of machinima. As we build towards this event, we anticipate a year filled with inspiring conversations and eye-opening experiences. We hope to see you there: the event will be completely free.

We also extend an invitation to you, our valued community, to contribute to the future of VRAL. We encourage you to suggest artists you’d like to see featured in the upcoming season. Your insights and recommendations are invaluable to us, helping to shape the direction and enrich the diversity of our programming. Moreover, we would love to feature more VRAL IRL events in 2024, after hosting Aleksandar Radan on November 24 2023. Keep your suggestions coming!

Today we are happy to share five exceptional radio mixes produced by Babak Ahteshamipour for Milan-based Radio Raheed in 2023. An interdisciplinary artist, writer, and musician based in Athens, Greece, Ahteshamipour is acclaimed for his unique approach that blurs the lines between the virtual and the actual. His work — deeply rooted in the realms of MMORPGs, video games, internet, and pop culture — delves into themes of coexistence and simultaneity. Through his eclectic multimedia efforts, Babak invites us to explore how cyberspace intersects with ecology, politics, and identity, offering a rich context of ideas and experiences that resonate with the core values, obsessions, and preoccupations of VRAL. We will definitely see more of Babak’s art in 2024.

The image featured in this page is part of Stimulated Simulations, a series of posters originally produced by Ahteshamipour during the Concrete Plans collective residency at the Okay initiative Space in Athens, Greece, from September 11 to 27, 2023. These posters feature loading screens from various video games and explore themes of transition, liminality, and cognitive immobility, reflecting on how individual identity intertwines with capitalist labor. As the artist suggests, these loading screens represent the transient phases in gaming, metaphorically paralleling life’s intermediate stages and the experience of being in constant transition without reaching a definitive destination. This notion — “being in constant transition without reaching a definitive destination” — perfectly captures the essence of VRAL.

Thank you once again for being part of our journey.

We look forward to another year of shared discovery and innovation.

Onward and upward!

Matteo Bittanti on behalf of the Milan Machinima Festival and VRAL curatorial team


Babak Ahteshamipour Radio Raheem Mixes (2023)

Fathomless Glances by Unspeakable Entities Volume 1

Fathomless Glances by Unspeakable Entities Volume 2

Fathomless Glances by Unspeakable Entities Volume 3

Babak Ahteshamipour Radio Raheem Mixes (2022)

Casting the Acanthoid into the Tablet Void

I’m Tired of Living in Haunted Apartments Rent Free

Image: Babak Ahteshamipour, Stimulated Simulations, digital poster, 2023.


ARTICLE: COVER YOUR EYES BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

Babak Ahteshamipour

I Sometimes Cover my eyes (since I can’t control them in order to shut them) and dream the Occasions where We drop our Smiles (since I haven’t been getting that lately, it’s as if we’ve accepted believing fate, UFOs, time-travel and stuff)

digital video, color, sound, 5’ 12”, 2021, Iran/Greece

VRAL is currently exhibiting Babak Ahteshamipour’s Hey Plastic God, please don’t save the Robotic King, Let him drown in Acidic Anesthetic. To contextualize his practice, we are discussing key related artworks. Today, we focus on the hysterically titled I Sometimes Cover my Eyes and think of the Occasions where We Drop our Smiles...

In his 2021 video art piece I Sometimes Cover My Eyes (since I can’t control them in order to shut them) and dream the Occasions where We drop our Smiles (since I haven’t been getting that lately, it’s as if we’ve accepted believing fate, UFOs, time-travel and stuff) [sic], Babak Ahteshamipour creates a mesmerizing anti-materialist and anti-consumerist dreamscape. 

He collects digital detritus — ceramic pots, houseplants, sneakers, Lidl bags, furniture, electronics, Pepsi cans, FedEx boxes, ice cream cones — as if sorting through the leftovers of modern material culture. He then resurrects these forgotten items in surreal scenes resisting commodification. The video toggles between this constructed digital realm and close-ups of the source materials themselves, the actual objects behind the rediscovered digital ephemera.  The camera zooms in and out. A sense of dizziness pervades the screen. Whimsical yet solemn captions provide commentary.

The elaborate title nods to branding strategies emotionally elevating basic items into manufactured icons. We live in an era of overwhelming information denying critical thought outside consumerism’s framework…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Babak Ahteshamipour

I Sometimes Cover my eyes (since I can’t control them in order to shut them) and dream the Occasions where We drop our Smiles (since I haven’t been getting that lately, it’s as if we’ve accepted believing fate, UFOs, time-travel and stuff)

digital video, color, sound, 5’ 27”, 2021, Iran/Greece

All images courtesy of the Artist

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ARTICLE: ...OK, BUT JUST HOW POWERFUL IS YOUR LOVE?

Following our recent exploration of Merlin Dutertre’s Lullaby (2019) – which is now accessible here after its VRAL show – we turn our focus to the works that have shaped his artistic vision. After examining Jon Rafman’s groundbreaking A Man Digging (2013), we now shift our lens to Jonathan Vinel’s avant-garde machinima, Notre amour est assez puissant (Our Love is Powerful Enough, 2014).

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“In video games, you get to look at the environment in a way that you don’t in real life, because it’s beautiful and magical. But this leap into the game also allows you to live and experience things differently. In the end, it’s about reconnecting better through disconnecting.” (Caroline Poggi)

In an insightful interview, Dutertre attributes his formative years in the 2010s to YouTube, which he considers pivotal in shaping his identity as a filmmaker. Back then, Dutertre engaged enthusiastically with gaming-related content on the video sharing platform, although the concept of machinima initially eluded him. His high school years marked a turning point, ignited by the early works of Jon Rafman and Jonathan Vinel.

In this short essay, I will discuss Vinel’s machinima and then broaden the context to provide a clearer picture (no pun intended).

Born in 1988 in Toulouse, Jonathan Vinel studied editing at the esteemed film school La Fémis in Paris where he cultivated his passion for games, cinema, and pop culture. He later met Caroline Poggi, a Corsican native born in 1990. Poggi studied at Paris IV University and at the University in Corsica. The two crossed paths in college and directed several short films separately – including Poggi’s Chiens, and Vinel’s Notre amour est assez puissant. Their subsequent collaborative filmmaking practice comprises award-winning shorts, including the Golden Bear-winning Tant qu’il nous reste des fusils à pompe (As Long As Shotguns Remain) and Martin Pleure (Martin Cries, 2017), and full feature films, including Jessica Forever (2018), a paradigmatic example of what has been labeled the GAMECORE genre, which we will address in a separate post.

Vinel’s nine-minute machinima offers a complex interplay of disparate elements: militaristic imagery from first-person shooter games, romantic idealism, and metaphysical purity symbolized by a computer-generated tiger evocative of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s surreal narratives.

Let’s unpack these three themes.

Firstly, Notre amour est assez puissant draws heavily from the visual and thematic elements found in first-person shooter games such as DOOM (id Software, 1993). These games are characterized by their aggressive, fast-paced action, and often hyper-violent scenarios. They usually involve a single protagonist navigating a hostile environment, armed with various weapons, and fighting off enemies in a dog-eat-dog world. The imagery is often dark, gritty, and designed to evoke a sense of urgency and danger. Vinel’s machinima comprises unsettling sequences set initially in a high school and later in a zoo, which evoke the disturbing prevalence of mass shootings in the United States. As for the latter, a group of virtual soldiers spend their evening slaughtering the trapped animals – elephants, monkeys, crocodiles – for “fun” and out of boredom. Both sequences are shocking: the calmness and slow pace which accompanies the narrator’s monotone speech heighten this sense of uneasiness…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Brody Condon, Adam Killer, in-game performance, color, sound, video game mod, various lenghth, 1999, United States

Jon Rafman, A Man Digging, digital video, color, sound, 8’ 20’’, 2013, Canada

Jonathan Vinel, Notre amour est assez puissant, digital video, color, sound, 9’ 16”, 2014, France

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ARTICLE: STILL DIGGING, A DECADE LATER

VRAL is currently featuring Merlin Dutertre’s Lullaby (2019). To provide a richer context, we delve into some of the influential works that have shaped his artistic journey. In this segment, we examine Jon Rafman’s seminal A Man Digging (2013), which a decade ago dared to challenge conventional gaming paradigms, elevating the act of gameplay into an artful meditation on the very essence of existence itself.

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In a revealing interview, Dutertre traces his introduction to machinima back to his formative years in the 2010s, a time when YouTube played a central role in the making of his identity as a filmmaker. Back then, Dutertre engaged enthusiastically with French YouTube gaming content, even though the concept of machinima first eluded his full understanding and, therefore, appreciation. However, it was during his high school years that Dutertre’s curiosity was ignited, courtesy of Jon Rafman’s work, particularly A Man Digging (2013). Rafman’s unconventional approach, based on appropriating and recontextualizing Max Payne 3 (Rockstar Games, 2012), stood apart from the typical bombastic and often juvenile vernacular machinima fare. For Dutertre, that encounter was a true epiphany.

In A Man Digging, Rafman embarks on a fascinating exploration of eerie virtual landscapes marred by abject violence. The artist skillfully interweaves game footage from the ultra-violent crime story with introspective voice-over narration that plunges into the puzzling transcendental categories of time and memory. Rafman’s narrative strategy – reminiscent of the style of the video essay – marks a radical departure from the expected role of a player. While countless online videos typically document in-game achievements, suggest ways of “gaining advantage” or provide detailed walkthroughs, Rafman’s approach is refreshingly unique. He deliberately eradicates every in-game computer-controlled character before recording footage, thereby setting the stage for an unparalleled viewing experience. We are left to contemplate the aftermath of a massacre. The calm after the storm. A Man Digging is an artistic walkthrough inspired by the avant garde practice of Chris Marker, whose works often take on an essayistic form, blending elements of documentary, fiction, and personal reflection...

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti


Works cited

Chris Marker, Ouvroir the Movie, digital video, color, sound, 29’ 49”, 2008, France

Jon Rafman, A Man Digging, digital video, color, sound, 8’ 20, 2013, Canada

Jon Rafman with Rosa Aiello, Remember Carthage, digital video color, sound, 13’ 43”, Canada

Rockstar Studios, Max Payne 3, Rockstar Games, 2012

All installation shots of A Man Digging © Moderna Museet

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EVENT: JUAN OBANDO (JUNE 30 - JULY 13 2023, ONLINE)

Pro Revolution Soccer

Custom PC, modified game, two controllers, two custom-made gaming seats, sound system, projector, and vinyl screen structure, 2019 hereby presented as a gameplay video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 21’ 23”, Colombia, 2019

Created by Juan Obando

Pro Revolution Soccer is an interactive installation that deftly reimagines the popular football simulation Pro Evolution Soccer (PES). Drawing inspiration from the profound bond between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the Italian soccer club Inter Milan, this artwork ingeniously introduces the EZLN as an enthralling new feature within the simulation. Evoking the enigmatic essence of a mythical football match, the work unfurls an intriguing narrative where EZLN daringly challenges the Italian team, forever suspended in the realm of imagination. Originally presented as an interactive installation based on a modified version of Konami’s soccer simulation, the artwork is presented on VRAL as a one channel gameplay video.

Juan Obando is an artist from Bogotá, Colombia, specializing in interventions within social systems. Through video performances, post-digital objects, and screen-based installations, Obando explores the collision of ideology and aesthetics, sparking the emergence of speculative new worlds. Obando’s work has garnered international recognition, with exhibitions held in Mexico, France, Colombia, Germany, and the United States. Notable solo shows include “Fake New” at General Expenses (Mexico City, México), “Summer Sets” in Faneuil Hall (Boston, MA, 2022),  “DEMO” at Museo Espacio (Aguascalientes, MX, 2022), and  “La Bodeguita de La Concordia” at Galería Santa Fé for the Luis Caballero National Art Prize (Bogotá, Colombia, 2021). Selected group exhibitions include First Place In The Table? (Trafo, Szczecin, Poland, 2022), Game Changers (MAAM, Boston, 2020), Video Sur (Palais de Tokyo, France, 2018), La Vuelta (Rencontres de la Photographie,  Arles, France, 2017), and MDE15 (Medellín, Colombia, 2015). Obando was also awarded a Rhizome commission from The New Museum in 2012, a MassArt Foundation grant in 2017, and an Art Matters fellowship in 2019.

VIDEO: GLITCHED RITUALS, UNCANNY REPLICAS. DECODING NATALIE MAXIMOVA’S EPISODES

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As part of our ongoing coverage of Natalie Maximova’sThe Edge of the World, currently exhibited on VRAL, we are delighted to present an essay about Maximova's video piece Episodes (2021).

In recent years, within the context of contemporary art, the appropriation and recontextualization of video game assets has emerged as a powerful practice for artists to explore themes of identity, technology, and digital aesthetics. Through the repurposing of these virtual elements, artists navigate the complex terrain between video art and gaming, forging new pathways of artistic expression and broadening the very definition of machinima. This convergence offers a fertile ground for critical reflection, inviting viewers to ponder both the potential and the limitations of increasingly popular simulated horizons.

One notable exemplar of this artistic investigation is Elaine Hoey’s 2019 mesmerizing video work, Animated Positions. The piece prompts viewers to reconsider the underlying frames and symbolism ingrained within traditional art by juxtaposing it with the domain of video games. Specifically, Hoey delves into the tradition of 19th-century European nationalist paintings, unraveling the intricate role of art in the representation of jingoistic patriotic ideals that have acquired cultural symbolism in nation-state formation. Breathed anew, the bellicose postures and poses of male figures depicted in these historical paintings come to life through character animation sourced from the popular first-person shooter Call of Duty by Activision Blizzard. By comparing digital reenactments of war-like stances with the traditional aesthetics of nationalist art, Animated Positions defies romanticized notions of nostalgia associated with the nation-state, offering a critique of the pervasive violence underpinning modern nationalistic ideologies and the glorification of aggression found in mainstream video games.

When I say that Animated Positions exemplifies the practice of artistic decontextualization, I mean that Hoey skillfully appropriated characters’ animations from their original context, i.e., video games, thereby altering their meaning and relevance as she inserted it somewhere else, i.e, a specific Western tradition of sculpture and painting. The artist employs the strategy of decontextualization to illuminate and offer alternative interpretations by removing an element from its usual context, associations, and intended uses. For example, this approach suggests a connection between the artworld and the gaming milieu, particularly regarding representation. Furthermore, it implies that both art and games can function as forms of propaganda, even if they are not commonly recognized as such. Additionally, the artist proposes that the conventional distinction between high art and the vernacular lacks foundation, as they share similar themes, values, and objectives. Ultimately, Hoey’s use of decontextualization serves as a creative strategy to disrupt prevailing narratives, question societal norms, and foster critical engagement. Animated Positions reframes and reinterprets familiar ideas, inviting viewers to contemplate different perspectives and rethink the underlying assumptions or principles attached to the decontextualized items.

Natalie Maximova’s equally thought-provoking work, Episodes, is another compelling example of critical decontextualization through the repurposing of video game assets…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

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VIDEO: BENDING SPOONS, FORKING PATHS

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Bending spoons, forking paths: On Natalie Maximova’s There is no spoon


As part of our ongoing coverage of Natalie Maximova’s The Edge of the World, currently exhibited on VRAL, we are delighted to present a video essay about her more recent work There is no spoon (2021).

The phrase “There is no spoon”, echoing through the corridors of cinematic history and bookmarked in the annals of culture virality, is a staple ingredient of simulation theory. This enigmatic utterance alludes at the inexplicability of reality and the illusory constructs that envelop our perception. The alleged, counter intuitive absence of the spoon, therefore, is a puzzle that has ontological and epistemological implications. 

Let’s take a step back and try to unpack the concept.

In the dystopian universe of The Matrix (1999), this mantra emerges as a beacon of truth, challenging the accepted norms of existence. A young boy tells Neo about the paradoxical absence of the mundane utensil to suggest that within a simulation, anything is possible. The boy’s verdict “you’ll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself” can be read as an invitation to abandon biases, reject prejudices, and recognize the limitations of existing frameworks. On a more philosophical level, the maxim serves as a reminder that the physical manifestations we perceive as tangible objects are but constructs of our mind’s incessant activity, mere facades within the vast labyrinth of simulation. The spoon, a seemingly ordinary tool, becomes a potent metaphor for the illusions that veil our understanding, urging us to question the authenticity and veracity of our perceptions. Recognizing our constraints is the first step toward an epistemological liberation. 

As the narrative threads of simulation theory and video games intertwine, the parallel between the illusory world of The Matrix and the immersive interactive digital experiences becomes apparent. Video games, much like the simulated reality portrayed in the film, transport participants into meticulously crafted worlds, replete with intricately designed environments, characters, and narratives. In this boundless and often groundless domain, players embark on a number of quests, facing challenges and overcoming obstacles, all within a construct devoid of material substance and, perhaps, meaning.

The convergence of simulation theory and video games poses a captivating inquiry into the nature of agency and perception. Within the gaming realm, players navigate these digital landscapes, fully aware of the artifice that underpins their experiences. They become active participants, willingly immersing themselves in simulated realities, where the boundaries of what is real and what is fiction begin to blur. As we previously discussed, this confounding but enthralling situation is at the center of Maximova’s work The Edge of the World which seems to suggest that there’s no such thing as reality, just layers upon layers of simulation, connected by glitched areas, broken portals and literal or metaphorical rabbit holes.

Like its literary predecessor, the phrase “There is no spoon" serves as a poignant reminder of the ultimate conundrum, prompting players and observers alike to question the essence of their digital engagements. Are the avatars we control mere digital extensions of our own consciousness, or are they independent entities with their own sense of existence? Are the trials and triumphs we experience within the digital a reflection of our own realities — thus the underlying logic is memetic — or are they mere constructs of coded algorithms, and therefore purely compensative?

When examined through the lens of simulation theory and game design, this enigmatic observation — “There is no spoon” — confronts us with the profound paradox of existence within constructed realities. It beckons us to peel back the layers of illusion and seek a deeper understanding of the simulacra that shape our perception, understanding, and desires.

This paradox lies at the center of Natalie Maximova’s eponymous video work, which invites the viewer to embark on a profound expedition, akin to traversing a boundless video game devoid of prescribed objectives or known destinations. There is no spoon explicitly references the aforementioned line from The Matrix that explores the intersection of reality as a distinct entity and our perception of it. 

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

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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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ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT STEVEN COTTINGHAM'S CHAIN-LINK

The Warden, still from Steven Cottingham’s Chain-link, 2022.

THE MOST PRESSING QUESTION ON EVERYBODY’S MIND IS: WHAT IS CHAIN-LINK, EXACTLY? ALSO: HOW IS THIS THING EVEN POSSIBLE?

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Here are seven possible answers (warning: spoilers ahead).

First, Steven Cottingham’s monumental machinima is a penetrating commentary on carceral capitalism, after the title of a seminal collection of essays by Jackie Wang for Semiotext(e)'s Intervention series about the ideology and practice of incarceration in America, including - but not limited to - predatory policing, the political economy of fees and fines, cybernetic governance, and algorithmic policing. On a narrative level, these themes are introduced through the converging stories of Genysys 3 Copy 2 aka "Copy" - a cloned human with the ability to hack & hijack corporate drones - and Matisse, a black hacker who (allegedly) forges cryptoart tokens.

The two meet in prison and, after some initial distrust, become (more than) friends and partners-in-crime. They share more than their cell. We also meet the mysterious The Warden - a White woman in suit-and-heels whose priorities seem to go beyond the simple management of the prison - and her subordinate, The Counselor, a black officer who somehow naively believes in the “correctional” purpose of the facility she supervises. Most of the action takes place within the walls of New Jericho’s maximum security prison. However, we soon understand that, in Cottingham's world, there is no real difference between the inside and the outside: Matisse argues that everyone is being surveilled. At all time. Thus, being imprisoned and being free is just a matter of semantics: the "algos" make sure that everything runs “smooth” and don't cause any trouble. In other words, control is omnipresent, predictive, and repressive: the police actively suppress any social gatherings by showing up en masse in what remains public spaces even before people start to gather. And when the protesters do eventually show up as predicted by the machinic pre-cogs, their game is over.

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Matteo Bittanti

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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

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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.

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Matteo Bittanti

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ARTICLE: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF ALIX DESAUBLIAUX’S DOGMEAT

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

MAN’S BEST VIRTUAL FRIEND

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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...

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Alix Desaubliaux

Dogmeat

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

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ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT ALIX DESAUBLIAUX’S L’AUTRE MONSTRE

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

WHY LOOK AT VIRTUAL ANIMALS?

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A hybrid of video essay, conceptual walkthrough, visual poem, and documentary, L’Autre Monster (The Other Monster) exemplifies the most experimental side of machinima. The French artist - who’s been working with video games for several years - uses Capcom’s Monster Hunter World (2018) to bring to the foreground the affective nature of playing, that it, the emotional, emphatic connections created by interaction design, and specifically, by the relationship between the player and her/his avatars, that is, alter egos and sidekicks. At the same time, Desaubliaux highlights the inner workings of the virtual world simulated in the game, flora and fauna. Specifically, she brings to the viewer’s attention the sheer contradictions between the pro-environmental message of the game and the reality of video game playing, as game-related technologies - including streaming - are extremely power hungry and thus their carbon footprint is far from negligible. It’s remarkable that the more we destroy the environment on a daily basis, the more we strive to reconstruct an idealized version of “nature” in video games and virtual worlds where there is no trash, litter, and microplastics. In a sense, we are replacing IRL nature with its simulation. We live in Philip K. Dick’s world.

The rationale is simple: economics. Virtual worlds are just products to be sold to the masses and there’s nothing that works better than a cute, smiling creature from across the screen to close the deal. Desaubliaux stresses that the appeal of these kinds of games is the liveness of the worlds they depict, their dynamics and their responsiveness. But she also emphasizes the artificially of such constructs with an insistent use of glitches throughout the video: a beetle breaks apart and a cascade of pixels take over the screen. A close up of branches and leaves show the highly geometric, polygonal-nature of this world. Still, the sunsets and sunrises are always perfect. Rivers and oceans are clean. Animals roam free instead of becoming either roadkill or fodder for industrial farming. Desaubliaux engages in critical play, to borrow Mary Flanagan’s expression. She is also an explorer (in Richard Bartle’s terms) and a documentary filmmaker.

She is also a geologist and an ethnographer. She uses the virtual camera to zoom in and out. Several sequences of her monumental documentary are reminiscent of the screensavers of AppleTV and of virtual aquariums: spectacular scenes shot by drones, up high in the sky so that the mess below is not visible, or simulations of microworlds, such as a fish tank in which entropic forces are kept at bay. She mentions the inherent tension between being a “tourist” in virtual worlds and a true resident, a “local”, which is how the game community perceives itself. It’s not just about aesthetics: to fully belong, one must be fluent in the language of the game and its creatures. One must be familiar with the lore, that is virtual folklore. She describes how players create this world by projecting their emotions onto the creatures that populate it, algorithms dressed up in fancy textures… 

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Alix Desaubliaux

L’Autre Monster (The Other Monster)

digital video/machinima (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 48’ 26”, 2021, France (in French with English subtitles)

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ARTICLE: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF CHRISTIAN WRIGHT'S WEEABOO WARRIOR

Christian Wright, Hugging Embrace, 2014

PURE BATHOS

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According to Urban Dictionary, the term Weeaboo “indicates a person who retains an unhealthy obsession with Japan and Japanese culture, typically ignoring or even shunning their own racial and cultural identity. Many weeaboos talk in butchered Japanese with the 8 or so words they know (i.e. kawaii, desu, ni chan). While weeaboos claim to love and support Japanese culture, counter intuitively, they tend to stereotype Japanese culture by how it appears in their favorite anime, which can be safely assumed to be offensive to the Japanese.”

Christian Wright's playful early machinima Weeaboo Warrior plays homage to the extreme Japanophilia of many Western gamers, or any gamer who is not of Asian descent. A tragicomic tale of a knight who desperately needs a new sword to fulfill his goals as an avatar, this machinima explores the bathos that permeates Dark Souls, thanks to an epic soundtrack that mixes Max Richter’s On The Nature Of Daylight and Motoi Sakuraba’s The Ancient Dragon. Another Wright's trademark — the use of intertitles or captions — is also at play. Once again, the juxtaposition of text and image create hilarious outcomes.

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Christian Wright

Weeaboo Warrior

digital video/machinima (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 09’ 59”, 2015, United Kingdom

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ARTICLE: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF CHRISTIAN WRIGHT'S HUGGING EMBRACE

Christian Wright, Hugging Embrace, 2014

“SOMETHING BULGING IN THE DEPTHS OF HIS LEATHER PANTS”

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A bizarre slo-mo conversation between two robotic characters about a “luring bulge” and “golden eyes” that sound sounds like it was lifted from a cheap erotic novel, Hugging Embrace, one of Christian Wright’s earliest machinima, takes glitching to the next level. Characters literally break apart as they discuss the need to find a more private place to indulge in post-human intimacies. The penetration test seems successful, as polygons converge and then explode in a myriad of pieces. A single caress produces unfathomable damage as hands disappear into bodies without organs and limbs vanish in a mountain of hay. Characters’ legs and arms twist unnaturally. A bodily union becomes a literal merging of dark souls. The video illustrates the cheesy dialogue in a comic way and obscenity turns into hilarity. Hugging Embrace redefines kinky for the avatar age. There’s flesh. And there’s skin. There are lubricated shafts. But not the kind you imagine.

“This was juicy”, we are told.

Oh yeah, that was juicy.

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Christian Wright

Hugging Embrace

digital video/machinima (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 14’ 30”, 2014, United Kingdom

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