interview

MMF MMXXIV: BEFORE KNIT’S ISLAND, THERE WAS MARLOWE DRIVE

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Marlowe Drive, digital video, color, sound, 34”, 2017.

Before embarking in their ambitious project Knit’s Island, which will be screened on March 14 2024 at IULM University in the context of the Game Video Essay program, filmmakers Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h directed a machinima documentary set in Grand Theft Auto V titled Marlowe Drive, an experimental film that explores video games environments as a context for making a documentary. 

This is how Guilhem Causse describes the film:

A director, Adam Kesher, from David Lynch’s film Mulholland Drive, lands in another fictional Los Angeles. It is in this Hollywood film landscape recreated by Rockstar Games, that this director sets out to find someone to talk to. He is looking for a bridge between the banks of reality and the imaginary. The film takes place on the game's multiplayer platform to meet “real” characters. It collects information on the individuals who inhabit this space and reintegrates the process of documentary filming into a virtual world. In a back and forth between staging and raw capture, the protagonist then lets himself be carried away into the current of a chaotic world that fascinates him, but which gradually overtakes him. Through his character and his encounters, we ourselves discover a virtual world. An autonomous world strangely close to a form of reality.

In other words, the conceptual foundation of Marlowe Drive (2018) was to document the virtual lives of avatars controlled by real people, thereby examining the intersection of our reality with the virtual environments created by video games. This is so meta, it hurts.

At any rate, this initial exploration set the stage for their later work, Knit’s Island, although the two projects engage with virtual spaces in distinctly different ways. The choice of GTA V for Marlowe Drive was deliberate, leveraging the game’s thematic elements of consumerism and the American dream to contrast sharply with the survivalist, post-apocalyptic setting of DayZ, the game chosen for Knit’s Island. This thematic divergence highlights…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Marlowe Drive, digital video, color, sound, 34”, 2018.

Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier, and Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Knit's Island, digital video, color, sound, 95”, 2022.

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

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MMF MMXXIV: EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT KNIT’S ISLAND...

The Milan Machinima Festival is thrilled to present the full length documentary Knit’s Island as part of the Game Video Essay program. The film will be screened on March 14 2024 at IULM University. We are equally excited to present Angelo Careri’s insightful interview with the filmmakers, Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier and Quentin L’helgoualc’h. We are also sharing with our Patreon supporters the first of a series of exclusive excerpts of the film.

Thanks to Careri’s clever questions, we learn about the filmmakers’ deep engagement with the virtual world of DayZ, as they set out to examine the social and existential dimensions of online gaming communities. Their work blurs the boundaries between documentary filmmaking and virtual exploration, offering insights into how digital spaces can reflect and influence real human experiences and connections.

In this comprehensive and always compelling conversation that was shared with us by the film distributor, Square Eye Films, Causse, Barbier and L’helgoualc’h explain that the idea for the film began as an experiment during their studies at the Beaux-Arts. The young filmmakers were initially intrigued by the possibility of observing, rather than playing, within online games. This curiosity led to the discovery that games could serve as venues for documentary filmmaking, particularly after encountering players who used the game spaces for social interaction beyond the game’s intended mechanics.

The shift from Grand Theft Auto V, which was initially selected as a case study, to DayZ was influenced by the desire for a game that offered more realistic interactions and survival elements, contrasting with GTA V’s focus on consumerism. DayZ’s environment, which simulates a post-apocalyptic world requiring survival strategies and fostering player interactions, presented a compelling setting for exploring virtual community dynamics. The filming process involved significant preparation, both within and outside the game. The team had to manage survival elements like food and health for their avatars, navigate the game’s day/night cycle, and adjust to game updates that affected filming.

They described the experience as living a “double life,” balancing their real lives with their virtual existence in the game. The filmmakers experienced a gradual integration into the DayZ community, eventually being recognized and respected by other players. This acceptance allowed them to explore the communal and individual stories within the game, revealing layers of personal engagement and the blurring of lines between players’ virtual and real lives. The team was interested in how players and their avatars interact with the game’s boundaries and its virtual environment. They noted how the game became a space for contemplation and social interaction, contrasting with the fast-paced nature of contemporary internet culture. Knit’s Island is, first and foremost, an ethnography of online gaming spaces. 

The Covid-19 pandemic which began in March 2020 mirrored some of the post-apocalyptic themes in DayZ, adding a layer of relevance to the film. The lockdowns and restrictions of the pandemic paralleled the isolation and survival themes within the game, influencing both the players and the filmmakers. Post-filming, the directors expressed ambivalence about returning to DayZ purely for leisure, highlighting how their experience has irrevocably changed their perspective on the game. They feel that their connection to the game and its community is now intertwined with their roles as filmmakers.

Finally, we learn that the title Knit’s Island reflects the filmmakers’ intention to name and define the virtual space they explored, drawing inspiration from the concept of “ghost islands” on maps, places that are marked but don’t actually exist, analogous to the virtual spaces in video games…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h, Knit’s Island, 2023.

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

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VIDEO: HUGO ARCIER’S SYNTHETIC INTERVIEW

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PATREON-EXCLUSIVE CONTENT 〰️

Currently on display at VRAL is Ghost City Hugo Arcier’s groundbreaking 2016 video installation, which, until now, has never been exhibited online. To celebrate this event, we embark on an exploration of three works by the French artist that explicitly reference, or even appropriate, video game aesthetics and mechanics. Our exploration began on July 20 with 11 Executions, a machinima released in 2016.

We are happy to share an interview with French Artist Hugo Arcier originally produced for Game Video/Art. A Survey at IULM University during the XXI International Exhibition of the Triennale di Milano between April the 2d to September the 12th 2016. In this candid conversation, Arcier discusses his influences, style, and concerns. 11 Executions was presented within the context of the exhibition.

Read more about 11 Executions

MMF MMXXIII UPDATE: A CHAT WITH RHETT TSAI/YUXIAO CAI

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The Milan Machinima Festival is proud to present Rhett Tsa/Yuxiao Cai’s, How Deep Is the Dark Water?, an immersive exploration of the complexities of war within the medium of experimental video games.

Born in Ningde, China in 1995, Rhett Tsai (Yuxiao Cai) is a new media artist and experimental game developer, hailing from Hangzhou, China. His work explores the intersection of art and technology, cyberculture based on China, smart cities, and hypertext, all within the unique context of China's Internet ecosystem and media society. Drawing on his multidisciplinary background in experimental game, virtual reality, computer animation, and sound, his work offers a critical reflection on the contemporary media landscape. The artist’s current focus is on video games as a means to evoke the diaspora, wandering, and nostalgia experienced by individuals living under multiple historical narratives.

Matteo Bittanti discussed How Deep Is the Dark Water?, with Rhett Tsai/Yuxiao Cai. Below is an excerpt:

Matteo Bittanti: By utilizing a first-person perspective in your work, you create a sense of immediacy that aligns with Bolter and Grusin’s theories of remediation. However, the repeated use of zooming disrupts any semblance of realism, resulting in a hypermediated effect. Can you speak more about your use of these different forms of mediation, and how they relate to the themes and ideas you are exploring?

Rhett Tsai (Yuxiao Cai): The first-person perspective means that the viewer or player is a character in the work: he is chasing a fleeing man. But who is the viewer, really? A soldier who is trying to kill everyone? The brother of the fleeing man? A war correspondent? The soul of the fleeing man himself? Or an outsider trying to do something in multidimensional time and space? It’s open-ended. I actually had an answer for myself, but I knew it wasn’t the only answer, so I chose to erase the identity of the viewer’s character and leave it up to everyone to guess.

Matteo Bittanti: Your work makes striking use of black and white imagery, which brings to mind not only the aesthetic traditions of art photography and experimental cinema, but also the idea of memory, as this visual convention is often used in film to evoke a temporal dimension that precedes the present moment. Can you elaborate on the reasons behind your choice to work in black and white, and how you incorporate subtle hints of color into this monochromatic palette? 

Rhett Tsai (Yuxiao Cai): I wanted to create a distorted sense of historical perspective. Many of the imagery in the work (such as bomb shelters) are no longer visually impressive to the inhabitants of some areas of the world today, however, if they are black and white then this will evoke a sense of resonance. As for those subtle hints of color that appear in the monochromatic palette, for one thing, it is an aesthetic consideration: to make the visual avoid monotony, and for another, it can be interpreted in multiple dimensions in terms of meaning: things from a different time and space, key clues in the scene, and objects to be viewed in anticipation of becoming close-ups, which is an attempt to get the players to actively perform the act of cinematic close-ups.

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Work cited

Rhett Tsai (Yuxiao Cai)

How Deep is the Dark Water?

machinima/digital video, color, sound, 16’ 26”, China

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MMF MMXXIII UPDATE: A CHAT WITH BABAK AHTESHAMIPOUR

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The Milan Machinima Festival is proud to present Babak Ahteshamipour’s In Search of the Banned Dictionaries that contain the Words for the Things You Wish you could Express but You are Unable to With Common Words (2022) which appropriates and repurposes one of the most popular massively multiplayer role playing games of all time, World of Warcraft.

Babak Ahteshamipour’s practice is based on the collision of the virtual vs actual, aimed at correlating various topics that are not directly connected at first glance from cyberspace to ecology and politics to identity exploring them via MMORPGs/video games, social media and online integrating themes of co-existence and simultaneity in response to the futuristic anthropocentric urge of technocracy to focus on posthumanism. He has exhibited and performed at Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), New Art City (online), The Wrong (online), Sub Rosa space (Athens, Greece), ERGO Collective (Athens, Greece), arebyte (online), Biquini Wax ESP (Mexico City, Mexico), Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago, Illinois) and elsewhere. He has released music on the independent cassette label Industrial Coast and his music has been played on radio stations such as Noods Radio (Bristol, U.K.), Radio Raheem (Milan, Italy), Fade Radio (Athens, Greece) and Radio alHara. Originally from Iran, Ahteshamipour lives and works in Athens, Greece.

Matteo Bittanti discussed In Search of the Banned Dictionaries that contain the Words for the Things You Wish you could Express but You are Unable to With Common Words with Babak Ahteshamipour. Below is an excerpt:

Matteo Bittanti: What inspired you to use World of Warcraft as the primary medium to create this specific artwork, and how did you navigate the complexities of appropriating and repurposing such a well-known, sprawling online video game?

Babak Ahteshamipour: World of Warcraft is one of my favorite video games and the one I’ve spent most of my time playing so I couldn’t not incorporate it in my artistic practice, since it has shaped my identity and life in many ways. I used to play it as a kid, as a consumer , without stepping back to study its narratives, gameplay, experience and demographics. So in my broader artistic practice that includes research on ecology, politics and cyberspace I dived in to experience it as an adult and artist with a focus on those perspectives. The first thing that hit me in the face was the forced binary a player is succumbed to, that of choosing whether to play Horde or Alliance and the dual propaganda that involves this when the different stories unfold during the gameplay. Each faction has their own truth and biases towards the other and tries to brainwash their members with politics into believing the other is an enemy — a common excuse to start a war. The second thing that struck me down was despite this very dense and imposing narrative there were plenty of neutral characters that would show up during the storyline from time to time and point out that their conflict is futile and that there is no such thing as good or bad, rather that both factions have positive and dark sides. This characteristic of the WoW presenting micro-narratives to battle the main narrative reminded a lot of RL (real life), and I was amazed how many different branches unfold from the main storyline. Another thing that impressed me was how female characters were presented in the context of the game, for instance there were plenty of independent strong female figures, such as Aegwynn, Jaina, Tyrande and Sylvanas that were also reactive towards patriarchal oppression, but nevertheless there was also a lot hypersexualized portrayal of female bodies, or the heteronormative presentation of binary genders was from time to time has been very present in the game. Such an example would be the city of Shattrath with a population of 80% male bodies, which they are training for war and it gestures towards how war is male thing. The community that played the game also has a variety of opinions regarding people who identify themselves as females, some of course are very problematic, but nevertheless gaming has always been dominated by white male heterosexuals with traits of toxic masculinity just as Tanja Välisalo and Maria Ruotsalainen point out in their publication “Sexuality does not belong to the game” : Discourses in Overwatch Community and the Privilege of Belonging. Angela Washko’s The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft also points to this dimension of the community of WoW through virtual performances where they would discuss the in-game oppression of women. In Search of the Banned Dictionaries that contain the Words for the Things You Wish you could Express but You are Unable to With Common Words was created in the context of larger exhibition entitled LFM for TCOBAC: Looking for more for The Citadel of Blossom and Calamity which incorporated spell icon paintings, sculptures of the titles of some of the spells, a modified Gargoyle painting and various objects, and was presented at Sub Rosa space, from 14th of May until 28th of May of 2022, Athens, Greece. All these topics were addressed through the exhibition in more in-direct ways. The main theme of this machinima and the exhibition that came to be eventually was regarding escapism, climate crisis and the carbon footprint of cyberspace, things that were hard to appropriate WoW to talk about. Of course in the game there were plenty of references to ecology such as the Tauren and Night Elves’ respect to the “mother Earth” (Azeroth) and druid class, but I appropriated WoW in terms of that it is deserted — their subscriptions have been decreasing rapidly —, it’s a cultural product that that presents a virtual exotic world to escape from reality to and be an avatar, and it does have a carbon footprint as being a massively consumed product in terms of servers, water cooling systems, computers and so on.

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

Work cited

Babak Ahteshamipour

In Search of the Banned Dictionaries that contain the Words for the Things You Wish you could Express but You are Unable to With Common Words

digital video/machinima, color, sound, 9’ 16”, Iran/Greece, 2022

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NEWS: JENNA NG ON THE UNIQUE NATURE OF MACHINIMA

MMF MXXI-high.gif

In this video interview, Gemma Fantacci talks to Jenna NG — a member of the Festival’s jury panel — about the peculiar nature of machinima and the key themes of the MMF MMXXI.

Jenna NG is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Film and Interactive Media in the Department of Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media (TFTI) at the University of York. She designed and taught a wide range of cinema and digital media courses, including convening and teaching the module "Coding the Frame: Space and Time with Digital Media", for the Screen Media and Cultures MPhil at Cambridge, and supervised several MPhil essays and theses. She was previously a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Jenna NG works primarily on theoretical, cultural and critical analyses intersecting digital and visual culture, with particular interests in the imaging technologies of CGI, mobile media, haptic devices, motion and virtual capture systems. Her research interests also include the philosophy of technology, the posthuman, computational culture, interactive narrative, and the digital humanities. She has published widely on digital and visual culture. Among her many publications is Understanding Machinima, Essays on filmmaking in virtual worlds (Bloomsbury, 2013).

Gemma Fantacci ha discusso con la studiosa Jenna NG, uno dei membri della giuria del Festival, della natura peculiare dei machinima e dei temi chiave dell'MMF MMXXI.

Jenna NG è Senior Lecturer (Professore) Associato di Film e Media Interattivi presso il Dipartimento di Teatro, Film, Televisione e Media Interattivi (TFTI) presso l'Università di York. Ha progettato e insegnato una vasta gamma di corsi di cinema e media digitali, tra cui Coding the Frame: Space and Time with Digital Media, per Screen Media and Cultures MPhil a Cambridge, e ha supervisionato diversi saggi e tesi di dottorato. In precedenza è stata Leverhulme Early Career Fellow presso l'Università di Cambridge. Jenna NG si occupa principalmente di analisi teoriche, culturali e critiche che intersecano la cultura digitale e visiva, con particolare interesse per le tecnologie digitali, media mobili, dispositivi tattili, movimento e sistemi di acquisizione virtuale. I suoi interessi di ricerca includono anche la filosofia della tecnologia, il postumano, la cultura computazionale, la narrativa interattiva e le discipline umanistiche digitali. Ha pubblicato ampiamente sulla cultura digitale e visiva Ha curato l’importante raccolta di saggi Understanding Machinima, Essays on filmmaking in virtual worlds (Bloomsbury, 2013).

NEWS: NICK CROCKETT ON THE AESTHETICS AND POLITICS OF THE ANTHROPOCENE

Nick Crockett

Nick Crockett

In this interview with Matteo Bittanti, artist and designer Nick Crockett discusses his ambitious multimedia work Fire Underground, which is featured in The Classical Elements program at the 2021 MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL. In this wide-ranging conversation, Crockett talks about the main inspiration behind the project, the challenges he encountered during the production, and what comes next. Fire Underground is a speculative fantasy on the most destructive and criminal industry in human history, the fossil fuel complex. In Crockett’s work, the history of coal mining in the eastern United States is narrated as an animated film developed with a video game engine. Set in a fictional version of Appalachia, Fire Underground was inspired in part by the West Virginia Mine Wars, the Homestead Steel Strike, the Whiskey Rebellion, the early history of paleontology, and Appalachian folk music and culture.

As Crockett explains, 

I began thinking about coal after visiting Centralia, Pennsylvania n the summer of 2017, roughly four hours east from where I live in Pittsburgh. Centralia was a coal town which was slowly destroyed after a seam of coal caught fire below the town. This fire is still burning today, nearly 50 years later. During the presidential election of 2016, coal miners from some of the poorest places in the country entered public consciousness as avatars of an imagined white working class. They appeared on television news channels to confront candidates, pose for photo ops, and talk about the future of their industry, their homes, and their families. They were regarded by pundits variously as hardworking, heroic, backwards, lost, or even dangerous. As I wandered around Centralia, it was hard to reconcile the ruins with all these stories. I found myself wondering how anyone could identify so powerfully with a job that so obviously endangers their home, their families, their own bodies, not to mention the earth’s ecosystems and climate. I also wondered at the ease with which some could vilify people who live in places like Centralia. Mostly, I wondered where all these stories had come from.

Fire Underground has been exhibited as real time software, as a multichannel video installation, and as a feature-length film. It is screened as a fifteen minute cut at the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL.

Nick Crockett is an artist from a former gold mining town in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains who makes experimental games and animation. Nick holds a BA in Design/Media Art from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MFA from the Carnegie Mellon School of Art in Pittsburgh.

The full interview is available here:

In questa intervista con Matteo Bittanti, l’artista e designer americano Nick Crockett discute del suo ambizioso progetto Fire Underground, incluso nel programma The Classical Elements al MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2021. In questa conversazione ad ampio raggio, Crockett illustra l’ispirazione principale alla base del progetto, le sfide che ha incontrato durante la produzione e ciò a cui sta lavorando. Fire Underground è una fantasia speculativa sull’industria più distruttiva e criminale di tutti i tempi: il complesso dei combustibili fossili. Nel lavoro di Crockett, la storia dell’estrazione del carbone negli Stati Uniti è narrata attraverso un racconto animato sviluppato con un motore di videogiochi. Ambientato in una versione immaginaria dell’Appalachia, Fire Underground è stato ispirato in parte dalle guerre minerarie del West Virginia, dall'Homestead Steel Strike, dalla Whiskey Rebellion, dalla storia antica della paleontologia e dalla musica e cultura popolare degli Appalachi.

Come ha spiegato Crockett,

Ho iniziato a riflettere sul carbone dopo aver visitato Centralia, Pennsylvania, nell’estate del 2017, a circa quattro ore a est da dove vivo a Pittsburgh. Centralia era una città carbonifera che fu lentamente distrutta dopo che un giacimento di carbone prese fuoco sotto la città. Questo fuoco brucia ancora oggi, quasi mezzo secolo dopo. Durante le elezioni presidenziali del 2016, i minatori di carbone provenienti da alcuni dei luoghi più poveri del paese sono entrati nella coscienza pubblica come avatar dell’immaginaria classe operaia bianca. Sono apparsi sui network di informazione televisiva per confrontarsi con i candidati, posare per i servizi fotografici e parlare del futuro del loro settore, delle loro case e delle loro famiglie. Erano considerati dagli esperti in vario modo come laboriosi, eroici, arretrati, persi o addirittura pericolosi. Mentre giravo per Centralia, era difficile conciliare le rovine con tutte queste storie. Mi sono ritrovato a chiedermi come qualcuno potesse identificarsi in modo così potente con un lavoro che mette in così evidente pericolo la loro casa, le loro famiglie, i loro stessi corpi, per non parlare degli ecosistemi e del clima della terra. Mi sono anche chiesto con quale facilità alcuni potrebbero denigrare le persone che vivono in posti come Centralia. Per lo più, mi chiedevo da dove provenissero tutte queste storie…

Fire Underground è stato presentato come software in tempo reale, come installazione video multicanale e come lungometraggio. È esibito come un cortometraggio di quindici minuti al MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL.

Nick Crockett è un artista originario di una cittadina situata ai piedi dell’arco montuoso della Sierra Nevada in California, specializzato nella produzione di videogiochi sperimentali e animazioni digitali. Crockett ha conseguito una laurea in Design/Media Art presso l’Università della California, Los Angeles e un MFA presso la Carnegie Mellon School of Art di Pittsburgh.

L’intervista è disponibile qui (in inglese):