BOOK: VRAL SEASON ONE IS NOW AVAILABLE

Concrete Press has just released VRAL Season One, a massive tome featuring 21 interviews PLUS extra content previously released online and some juicy additions.

Edited by: Matteo Bittanti and Gemma Fantacci
Release date: August 6 2021
Series: GAME VIDEO/ART STUDIES
Features: Softcover, 340 pages, 138 illustrations
Format: 6×9 inches, 15×23 cm
Language: English
ISBN: 9781006648557
Price: 17,99 euros

Introduced in April 2020 amidst a global pandemic, VRAL is a uniquely curated game video experience, offering screenings of machinima created by artists and filmmakers whose work lies at the intersection of video art, cinema, animation, and gaming. The program features outstanding video works selected on the basis of their cultural relevance, artistic achievement, and innovative style. An online space that provides access to a range of diverse voices supplementing and expanding the Milan Machinima Festival, VRAL celebrates a new generation of digital filmmakers and artists and offers a deeper, broader understanding of machinima as an art form.

Edited by Matteo Bittanti and Gemma Fantacci, this book collects all Season One’s interviews (exhibitions 01 to 21), including extra content previously released online. Featured artists: Victor Morales, Aleksandar Radan, Jordy Veenstra, Petra Széman, Thomas Hawranke, Brenton Alexander Smith, Jón Bjarki Magnússon, David Blandy, Brent Watanabe, Edwin Lo, Fantastic Little Splash, Mikhail Maximov, Luca Miranda, Mario Mu, Antoine Chapon, Bob-Bicknell Knight, Isabelle Arvers, Total Refusal, COLLEO, Carson Lynn, and Mateus Domingos.

Book page on Concrete Press

Purchase a copy on Blurb

COMING SOON: VRAL SEASON ONE

We are happy to announce that Concrete Press will soon release a new book in the ongoing series GAME VIDEO/ART STUDIES: VRAL SEASON ONE, a comprehensive look at the state of machinima today.

Introduced in April 2020 amidst a global pandemic, VRAL is a uniquely curated game video experience, offering screenings of machinima created by artists and filmmakers whose practice lies at the intersection of video art, cinema, animation, and gaming. The program features exceptional video works selected on the basis of their cultural relevance, artistic achievement, and innovative style. An online space that provides access to a range of diverse voices, VRAL celebrates a new generation of digital filmmakers and artists and providing a broader understanding of machinima as an artform. Edited by Matteo Bittanti and Gemma Fantacci, this book collects all Season One’s interviews (i.e., exhibitions 01 to 21), including extra content previously published online. Featured artists: Victor Morales, Aleksandar Radan, Jordy Veenstra, Petra Széman, Thomas Hawranke, Brenton Alexander Smith, Jón Bjarki Magnússon, David Blandy, Brent Watanabe, Edwin Lo, Fantastic Little Splash, Mikhail Maximov, Luca Miranda, Mario Mu, Antoine Chapon, Bob-Bicknell Knight, Isabelle Arvers, Total Refusal, COLL.EO, Carson Lynn, Mateus Domingos.

VRAL SEASON ONE will be released in English only. 

GAME VIDEO/ART.STUDIES

Both a critical and creative laboratory, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES promotes open dialogue, constructive debate, and sometimes idiosyncratic investigations of ideas, practices, and artefacts that – by their very nature – occupy different layers of today’s visual culture. Applying a comparative rather than specialized approach, GAME VIDEO/ART. STUDIES probes the most diverse visual experiences inspired by digital gaming and gives voice to a new generation of researchers as well as established scholars. The first published volume in the ongoing series is Riccardo Retez' Machinima Vernacolare.

Read more about Concrete Press

NEWS: SEE YOU IN 2022!

On behalf of the entire curatorial team, I would like to thank you for virtually attending the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2021. It’s been a tour de force. We will return next year both in IRL (we hope) as well as online. My sincere gratitude goes to all the artists that took part in this edition. This event could not exist without their passion and dedication. We have received an overwhelming amount of submissions and selecting the entries for the festival has been particularly difficult. Nonetheless, we that this year’s programs illustrate the variety and ingenuity of a medium that cannot legitimately called “new” any longer. Machinima is twenty five years old.

As Iono Allen predicted in 2012,

All this is going to be mixed, and there will be, in one or two years or maybe later, something with a name, which would be cinema, video and machinima. There would be something; maybe it will be called machinima or not. And for me this period is very important. For me, it is like the period when cinema was born.

Like Allen, we don’t know if the current nomenclature will persist. “Machinima” may disappear. Frankly, it does not matter. In fact, we are not even sure if that this thing called “cinema” — a medium in transition if ever there was one — will exist twenty five years from now. Nonetheless, we know that the set of practices related to making video art with digital games has never been so vital.

Enjoy the show.

Matteo Bittanti

Artistic director, MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL

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A nome dell'intero team curatoriale, vorrei ringraziarvi per aver partecipato virtualmente al MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL 2021. È stato un vero e proprio tour de force. Torneremo l'anno prossimo in IRL (speriamo) e online. La mia gratitudine va a tutti gli artisti che hanno preso parte a questa edizione. Questa rassegna non potrebbe esistere senza la loro passione e dedizione. Abbiamo ricevuto una quantità enorme di proposte e la selezione finale è stata particolarmente difficile. Siamo tuttavia certi che i programmi dell’edizione 2021 riflettono la varietà e l'ingegnosità di un medium che non si può più considerare “nuovo”. Il machinima, infatti, ha venticinque anni.

Come aveva previsto Iono Allen nel 2012

Tutto finirà per convergere e tra uno o due anni, o forse più tardi, ci sarà qualcosa di nuovo, un nuovo genere, nato dal connubio tra cinema, video e machinima. Forse si chiamerà machinima o forse no. Per me questa fase di sperimentazione è molto importante. È paragonabile all’avvento del cinema.

Al pari di Allen, non sappiamo se la nomenclatura persisterà. “Machinima” potrebbe scomparire. Non importa. D’altra parte, non siamo nemmeno sicuri che quella cosa chiamata “cinema” — la cui natura “mediale” è sempre meno chiara — esisterà tra venticinque anni. Quello che sappiamo per certo è che l’insieme di pratiche relative alla produzione di video arte per mezzo di videogiochi non è mai stato così vitale.

Buone visioni,

Matteo Bittanti

Direttore artistico, MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL

NEWS: THREE CURATORS SHARE THEIR VIEWS ON THE MMF MMXXI

Gemma Fantacci, Luca Miranda, and Riccardo Retez — part of the Festival’s curatorial team — discuss the key themes and trends of the MMXXI edition and the rationale behind their programming. (Interview in Italian without subtitles)

IN ITALIAN

Gemma Fantacci is the curator of HACKTHECUBE, an exhibition platform that uses both the format and the problem-solving nature of the Rubik’s Cube. She received an M.A. in Arts, Markets and Cultural Heritage from IULM University and later enrolled in the Master of Arts in Game Design, combining her interest for art with new media, especially video games, machinima, and in-game photography. She is a regular contributor to ATP DIARY, an online magazine focusing on contemporary art. She is also the Communication Manager of the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL and co-curator of VRAL, an online platform exclusively dedicated to avantgarde machinima. A Ph.D candidate in Visual and Media Studies at IULM University, Gemma Fantacci lives and works in Milan.

Luca Miranda’s practice focuses on the relationship between reality and simulation. He is especially interested in the notion of the avatar as an aesthetic entity and its representational features. In his work, Miranda critically scrutinizes game mechanics and notions such as immersion, identification, and interpassivity. His work deals with the image of the avatar in contemporary culture. Miranda received a Master of Arts in TV, Cinema and New Media at IULM University, Milan, and previously a B.A. in Media and Art from the University of Bologna.

Riccardo Retez is a Doctorate candidate in the Visual and Media Studies program at IULM University, Milan, Italy. He is also a digital content creator specializing in contemporary visual culture including cultural studies and game studies. He is the author of Machinima Vernacolare (Concrete Press, 2020), the first academic study of the Rockstar Editor, a video editing software embedded in Grand Theft Auto V. He is currently studying live streaming culture.

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Gemma Fantacci, Luca Miranda e Riccardo Retez — parte integrante del team curatorial del Festival — discutono i temi e i trend dell’edizione MMXXI e condividono alcuni criteri di selezione (intervista in italiano).

Gemma Fantacci è la curatrice di HACKTHECUBE, piattaforma espositiva che adotta la struttura e la logica del rompicapo del cubo di Rubik. Dopo aver conseguito una Laurea Magistrale in Arti, Patrimoni e Mercati presso l’Università IULM, nel 2018 ha ricevuto un Master of Arts in Game nel medesimo ateneo, coniugando l’interesse per l’arte con quello per i nuovi media, e in particolare per video games, machinima e game photography. Collabora regolarmente con ATP DIARY, magazine online di arte contemporanea, è la Communication Manager del Machinima Film Festival e co-curatore del progetto VRAL. Dottoranda nel Programma di Visual e Media Studies dell’Università IULM di Milano, Gemma vive e lavora a Milano.

Luca Miranda studia la relazione tra realtà e simulazione, l’avatar come entità estetica e le correlate dimensioni testuali e visive. Centrale, nella sua pratica artistica, è l’analisi delle meccaniche videoludiche, insieme alla riflessione critica sui concetti di immersione, identificazione ed interpassività. Investiga la figura dell’avatar nella cultura contemporanea. Ha conseguito una Laurea Magistrale in Televisione, Cinema e New Media presso l’Università IULM di Milano e una Laurea Triennale al D.A.M.S. dell’Università di Bologna.

Riccardo Retez è un dottorando in Visual e Media Studies presso l’Università IULM di Milano. Creatore di contenuti digitali che investigano la cultura visiva contemporanea, Retez si interessa di cultural studies e di game studies. È l’autore di Machinima vernacolare (Concrete Press, 2020), il primo studio accademico del Rockstar Editor, un software di montaggio presente in Grand Theft Auto V. Studia le culture del live streaming online.

NEWS: VRAL #19_COLL.EO (FEBRUARY 12 - FEBRUARY 25 2021)

REASONABLE_3

digital video (1920 x 1080), sound, color, 3’ 33”, 2020 (United States/Italy)

Created by COLL.EO

Fiery. Flaming. Heated. In flames. Sizzling. Gleaming. Alight. Ignited. Automobile. Car. Wagon. Truck. Van. Law Enforcement. Siren. Horn. Warning. Brawl. Storm. Disturbance. Turbulence. Turmoil. Uproar. Commotion. Emergency. Scene. Shots. Scream. Screech. Howl. Wail.

COLL.EO is a collaboration between Colleen Flaherty and Matteo Bittanti established in 2012 which operates in San Francisco and Milan. COLL.EO creates boldly unoriginal media artworks, uncreative mobile sculptures, and uniquely derivative conceptual pieces. With the use of appropriated materials borrowed from a day-to-day context, COLL.EO has developed a filthy rich visual vocabulary addressing artistic, social, and political issues. COLL.EO generates situations in which everyday objects - often toys and games - are altered or detached from their original contexts. Sometimes they appear idiosyncratic and quirky, at other times sinister and morbid, like most by-products of American superabundance and pervasive marketing.

WATCH NOW

NEWS: MMF 2020: CLOSING REMARKS

WE WILL BE BACK, POSSIBLY OFFSCREEN, HOPEFULLY IRL

As the 2020 edition of the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL comes to an end, we would like to express our gratitude to everybody that made this event possible. The list is very long, so please head to this page for more information.

We truly hope to see you again soon in a physical space as well as online: we are already working on the 2021 edition, so keep an eye on this website - plus our Twitter and Instagram accounts - for an open call.

We would love to hear your comments and feedback about the 2020 edition, so don’t be shy and share your thoughts and suggestions with us.

In his closing video remarks, Matteo “MBF” Bittanti, the artistic director of the MILAN MACHINIMA FESTIVAL, talks about the imminent return of VRAL, the festival’s recently introduced online platform for showcasing cutting edge machinima from all over the world.

NEWS: MATTEO BITTANTI INTRODUCES THE FINAL PROGRAM: THE WEIRD, THE EERIE, AND THE UNREAL

BECAUSE THE END IS ONLY THE BEGINNING

As the festival reaches its final day of online screenings, Matteo Bittanti, the artistic director of the MMF, introduces the main program - The Weird, The Eerie, and the Unreal - via his avatar, MBF. Expect the unexpected: cinematic cities, unreal maps, apocalyptic fragments, great escapes, political dystopias, glitches and bugs, God modes and giants balls. You’ve been warned.

Click here to watch the program