MMF MMXXII is proud to present a special program titled MACHINEMA at the Museum of Interactive Cinema in Milan on March 26 2022, showcasing the most innovative and groundbreaking examples of this fascinating artform
Machinima is, first and foremost, the result of a mistake, much like “massage” (in Marshall McLuhan’s The Medium and the Massage) and “donkey” (instead on monkey, in Shigeru Miyamoto’s Donkey Kong). Specifically, it is the misspelled contraction of machine cinema (machinema), as Paul Marino wrote in one of the earliest books on the topic. The misspelling stuck because in addition to the reference to the machine, i.e., the computer, and cinema, it also alluded to anime, itself referencing animation. Far from being problematic, this confusion in terminology, is speaks volumes about the medium’s incredible versatility. In many ways, machinima has been able to repurpose previous audiovisual forms of expression and to introduce something original. This is certainly true for the works featured in this special program — David Blandy’s Androids Dream, Nicolas Bailleul’s Les Survivants, Marie Foulston’s The Grannies, and Sara Sadik’s Khtobtogone — four superb machinema.