glitch

MMF MMXXIV: ELIA STRAZZACAPPA

We are excited to share that Elia “marasma” Strazzacappa’s Uncanny’s Dream will be featured in the Made in Italy program at the upcoming Milan Machinima Festival.

Uncanny’s dream is a deliberately glitchy, unhinged reinterpretation of Fabrizio De Andrè’s song Il sogno di Maria. This innovative project breathes new life into the song through the haunting liminal spaces of Half-Life 2, utilizing Garry’s Mod for an immersive experience. This poetic work captures a deep sense of solitude and the existential boundaries familiar to those who have navigated the Source engine’s realms. De André’s lyrics and melody undergo a transformative process, infused with electronic elements and altered vocals, evoking a stark sense of desolation and dehumanization characteristic of synthetic environments. These spaces, simultaneously familiar and alien, embody the project’s exploration of nostalgia and the uncanny, the dominant mood of the 21c. Uncanny’s dream speaks to the early digital explorations of Millennials and Generation Z, invoking a powerful blend of virtual proximity and real alienation, a visceral and intimate experience that has indelibly shaped their cultural and aesthetics perceptions.

Elia “marasma” Strazzacappa is a multifaceted intermedial artist from Italy engaging with a variety of media, including painting, video production, photography, music composition, sculpture, graphic design, 3D modeling, literary work, and tattoo artistry. His work gracefully traverses the boundary between the analog and digital worlds, showcasing a fluid and critical approach to addressing the intricate challenges posed by late-capitalist culture. Strazzacappa is currently enrolled in the New Art Technologies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and plays a pivotal role in the dynamic project space @spazioxenia, located in the heart of the city. This collaborative platform acts as a fertile ground for his creative pursuits, with a keen emphasis on painting and the continuous evolution of his personal investigative journey. A distinctive hallmark of Strazzacappa’s artistic philosophy is his exploration of the “anti-product” approach, challenging traditional ideas surrounding the creation and consumption of art, underlining his deep-seated interest in examining and questioning the significance and influence of art within the fabric of modern society.


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

EVENT: ALEKSANDAR RADAN (NOVEMBER 24 - DECEMBER 7 2023, ONLINE)

This water gives back no Images

3-channel video installation, 6:12 min, loop, 2017, Germany; hereby presented as a single-channel digital video

Created by Aleksandar Radan

Originally conceived as a 3-channel video installation, This water gives back no Images features a lush, tropical digital landscape created using modified scenes from Grand Theft Auto. We see palm trees bending in the wind and hear soft rustling sounds and bird chirps. An avatar moves through this landscape, wading into the water. As it bathes, the figure seems to dissolve into the ripples and reflections in the water, its contours blurring into the surroundings. About halfway through the video, a grainy black and white recording of Nina Simone singing “Images” (1966) appears embedded within the video game aesthetic. This water gives back no Images questions notions of identity and reflection within an increasingly digital world. 

A German artist born in 1988, Aleksandar Radan studied at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach. His work explores digital media, focusing on themes of technological disconnection and virtual identities. Radan alters computer game environments through modding, filming live action footage within the modified spaces. His experimental short films juxtapose programmed avatars with improvised gestures, bringing the virtual and physical worlds into collision. Radan’s works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and Oberhausen International Short Film Festival.

ARTICLE: HUGO ARCIER’S LIMBUS

Hugo Arcier, Limbus (GTAV), 2015

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Currently on display at VRAL is Ghost City Hugo Arcier’s groundbreaking 2016 video installation, which, until now, has never been exhibited online. We are complementing the exhibiting with a deep dive into Arcier's game-inspired and game-based artwork, including his machinima.

Long before 11 Executions — a bold reinterpretation of Alan Clarke’s Elephant (1989) that we discussed a few days ago — Hugo Arcier delved into the realm of short-form game videos, and specifically machinima. Over a decade ago, he harnessed a modded version of Rage and Grand Theft Auto V to capture a unique scene from an unconventional perspective, i.e., from below, christening it Limbus. 

This evocative term, laden with manifold interpretations, can be found in diverse contexts. For instance, in Roman Catholic theology, “limbo” embodies a speculative notion concerning the fate of unbaptized infants who depart before receiving the sacrament. It was once conceived that these tender souls might dwell in a state of natural bliss but find themselves excluded from the full embrace of God’s presence in heaven. In short, here “limbo” evokes an idea of incompleteness, a lack. Turning to ancient beliefs rooted in mythology and folklore, “limbo” assumes a different meaning. Here, it is conceived as an intermediary space between the realms of celestial bliss and infernal torment — a transient afterlife realm where souls neither face punishment nor revel in rewards. Limbo assumes therefore a spatial connotation, albeit a supernatural, intangible one and the moral implications are less manifest. Beyond religious doctrines, the term’s metaphorical use permeates everyday language, portraying a state of ambiguity and uncertainty, where progress remains elusive and unclear. Last but not least, Limbo is the title of one of the best video games ever made, but that's a different story. 

For Arcier, “limbo” unravels a compelling secret within the confines of a video game — a clandestine, normally inaccessible domain waiting to be unearthed through the quasi-mystical process of glitching or modding. “Limbus,” he notes, unlocks unforeseen possibilities, offering an alternative lens through which one can fully grasp the meaning of (virtual) reality. In his view, a mere bug or glitch brings magic into the simulation, granting access to uncharted territories, situated within the very “limbo of the game.”

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Matteo Bittanti

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ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT NATALIE MAXIMOVA’S THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

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Natalie Maximova’s mesmerizing machinima The Edge of the World unfolds as an exploration of boundaries within the landscapes of Cyberpunk 2077 that is both a virtual dérive and epistemological inquiry. In this video essay, Matteo Bittanti explores its unexpected connections to a seminal movie of the 1990s. 

In Peter Weir’s seminal The Truman Show (1998), Jim Carrey masterfully embodies the eponymous character, Truman Burbank, orchestrating his escape from the confines of Seahaven Island—a virtual prison existing in a state of dual unreality. Not only does this idyllic town fail to manifest in the tangible realm of the United States — its supposed setting within the film’s intra and extra-diegetic reality — but it also lacks a proper existence within its own filmic world. In fact, Seahaven Island emerges as an elaborate fabrication, an expansive film set where its inhabitants willingly assume the roles of actors. Truman alone, akin to many protagonists of Philip K. Dick’s stories, remains oblivious to this deceitful charade.

As the reluctant victim of this perverse concoction gradually awakens to his spectacular “golden cage” imprisonment, he plots his liberation through a makeshift tunnel concealed within a basement. Astonishingly, in the globally broadcast reality show that commands an audience of millions, we witness Truman defying his captors by embarking on a daring escape aboard a humble sailboat, departing from Seahaven Island’s shores. Yet, the puppeteering TV producers — modern day demiurges — unleash a tempestuous storm in a desperate bid to sabotage Truman’s voyage. Although the protagonist teeters on the precipice of drowning, his unyielding spirit propels him forward, sailing until his vessel collides with the imposing barrier of the dome. 

His boat hit the wall. 

In the past two decades, “The boat has hit the wall” has transcended mere linguistic expression and evolved into a shared vernacular, encapsulating a particular scenario wherein the confines of systemic or structural obstacles render their eventual overcoming seemingly insurmountable. An intriguing example can be encountered  in a “peculiar” 2013 interview of Kanye West by Zane Lowe on BBC Radio One. 

With its distinct resonance, this phrase has indelibly imprinted itself upon the collective psyche, assuming a nuanced significance that sets it apart from the more prevalent idiomatic trope of “hitting a brick wall.” This mantra permeates the vernacular, albeit perhaps not as persistently as the notable slogans of another influential late 1990s Hollywood production, The Matrix, such as “a glitch in the matrix” (which inspired a captivating 2021 documentary by Rodney Ascher), the tantalizing “red pill vs blue pill” quandary, the paradoxical “there is no spoon”, not to mention the evocative “going down the rabbit hole” which can be traced back to Lewis Carroll’s timeless opus, Alice in Wonderland.

In the opening scene of Maximova’s The Edge of the World, an accelerated vehicle careens through the desert, mercilessly trampling cacti in its path—a stark departure from Truman’s maritime escapades. And yet, the end result is the same. The wall has been hit. In this case, “the car has hit the wall”. This powerful image reverberates with symbolic resonance, evoking, among other things, the failure of the Trumpian fantasy of an impregnable, fortified, six-feet tall wall.

Truth be told, we’re not on Seahaven Island anymore, Maximova’s alter ego emerges unscathed from the wreckage, poised to confront the seemingly impenetrable barrier. Climbing the rocky terrain, she discovers an opening — a portal to the unknown. As she gazes back at the sprawling metropolis of Night City, a sense of trepidation mingled with anticipation fills the air. And then, with a leap of faith, she plunges into the depths of the metaphorical “rabbit hole,” an allegorical passage to the realm where the conventional rules governing reality disintegrate. 

What unfolds next is a dizzying descent — or rather, ascent — into an otherworldly space, where fragments of structures appear and vanish, creating an erratic, unpredictable choreography. The landscape, bereft of textures and logic, defies comprehension. In a disorienting shift of perspective, we become voyeurs in this strange realm beyond the visible, witnessing its broken beauty from multiple angles. Around the two-minute mark, the enigmatic protagonist finally materializes as the perspective switches from the first to…

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Matteo Bittanti

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EVENT: NATALIE MAXIMOVA (JUNE 16 - 29 2023, ONLINE)

The Edge of the World

machinima/digital video, color, sound, 8’ 50”, Russia, 2021

Created by Natalie Maximova

A video work that delves into the expansive and boundary-pushing landscapes of the sci-fi video game Cyberpunk 2077, The Edge of the World challenges the conventional perception of endless landscapes, prompting the viewer to question the existence – and perhaps the very meaning – of limits. By exploring the concealed boundaries, documenting the “raw edges” of the game world, and revealing the underlying representational principles, the artist suggests that digital reality is a culturally constructed product. The edges of these virtual realms, with their idiosyncrasies and unexpected functionalities, are not mere endpoints. Instead, they evoke the edges of our familiar world, inviting contemplation and reflection.

Natalie Maximova is an interdisciplinary artist and photographer based in Lausanne, Switzerland. She holds a degree from the ECAL/Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne and has also studied at the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia. Maximova’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions worldwide, including the 6th and 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Balagan!!! Contemporary Art from Russia and Other Mythical Places in Kühlhaus Berlin and the Tbilisi Night of Photography. Her artworks are included in the permanent collections of the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow and the CitizenM Hotel in Geneva. Maximova’s work has been featured in several publications including Il Giornale dell’Arte, Camera Austria, Bird in Flight, Calvert Journal, and Vice among others. She has also contributed to Screen Images In-Game Photography, Screenshot, Screencast, edited by Winfried Gerling, Sebastian Möring and Marco De Mutiis and published by Kulturverlag Kadmos in 2023.

MMF MMXXIII UPDATE: A CHAT WITH KENT SHEELY

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The Milan Machinima Festival is thrilled to announce the on-site screening of Kent Sheeely’s machinima Welcome Back. Sheely’s work offers a timely reflection on the highly anticipated return to “normalcy” following the global pandemic. Using Transport Fever (Urban Games, 2016) as his primary source material, Sheely masterfully appropriates and manipulates the game’s realistic infrastructure-building mechanics to create a thought-provoking exploration of the world that awaits us post-Covid.

At first glance, Transport Fever’s immersive gameplay mechanics appear to offer a straightforward and engaging experience, allowing players to construct and manage their own transportation networks across different eras. However, as Sheely suggests through his artful manipulation of the game’s content in order to trigger glitches and visual anomalies, the journey towards a state of “normalcy” may prove to be far more disconcerting and unsettling than we ever imagined.

Kent Sheely (b. 1984, United States) is a new media artist based in Los Angeles. His work draws both inspiration and foundation from the aesthetics and culture of video games, examining the relationships between real and imagined worlds. Much of his work centers around the translation and transmediation of symbols, concepts, and expectations from game space to the real world and vice versa, forming new bridges between simulation and lived reality.

Matteo Bittanti: As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to linger in our collective memory, it remains a paradoxical experience, insofar as it feels both fresh and remote. As an artist, how did you navigate this unprecedented moment in history? What were your personal encounters with this global crisis? Did it function as a harbinger of more catastrophic events to come, or was it “simply” a significant historical outlier? Moreover, how did you reconcile yourself with the concept of the “new normal,” and what coping mechanisms did you deploy to manage the tumultuous and ever-changing landscape of the pandemic? In essence, how did you perceive, process, and ultimately respond to this momentous period of crisis and upheaval that you represent with/in Welcome Back?

Kent Sheely: In March of 2020, I was working a full-time job in downtown Los Angeles, taking a bus to and from the office each day. When central management called to inform everyone we’d be working from home for a while (they thought it would only last a week!), it was just a fun change of pace for me and my coworkers at first; nobody knew how bad the spread of Covid already was, or that it would only get worse and impact our daily lives for years to come.

I quickly adjusted to doing the job from my home office, but after a few weeks of quarantine and constantly reading news about the escalating impact of the virus, cabin fever took hold and I actually got pretty depressed. Nobody knew when it would be over, or what the lasting effects would be, especially as weeks turned to months with no end in sight and no indication of how bad it would truly get. I tried to keep myself busy to curb the catastrophic thoughts and “what-ifs” that were constantly popping up. I spent a lot of time online with friends and found small projects for myself around the apartment, but I didn’t feel like making art for a really long time.

I eventually did find the motivation to start managing my feelings through my art practice, and the floodgates just opened up; there was a period where everything I made was in service of processing the tragedy and surreality of the new cursed world. Honestly I think that means of self-expression is what ended up helping me adjust the most.

Matteo Bittanti: As evidenced by Welcome Back, you have appropriated and manipulated Transport Fever to create a thought-provoking, visually stunning work of art. Could you share with us your personal connection to this particular simulation game and how it became a creative outlet for you? How did you negotiate the interplay between the mechanics of the game and your artistic vision, and ultimately leverage the affordances of the medium to give shape to your expression? Can you share your intent, methodology, and thought processes behind the production of this captivating machinima?

Kent Sheely: I was really into management simulators when I was younger, with games like SimCity 2000, Shortline Railroad and Rollercoaster Tycoon being a few early favorites. On a nostalgic lark a few years ago I picked up Transport Fever and spent quite a few evenings setting up and maintaining infrastructure between cities via road, rail, air and sea. I didn’t make my first artwork with the game until I moved to…

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Matteo Bittanti

Work cited

Kent Sheely

Welcome back

digital video, sound, 4’ 35”, 2022, United States of America

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