unreal engine

MMF MMXXIV: ALBERTO CALLEO

We are delighted to announce the inclusion of Alberto Calleo’s The Desert of the Real in the Made in Italy program at the forthcoming Milan Machinima Festival.

Created with the Unreal Engine, Alberto Calleo’s The Desert of the Real is an engaging machinima that explores the concept of simulacrum, inspired by French philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s influential book, Simulacra and Simulation (1981). Calleo insightfully navigates Baudrillard’s forward-looking criticism on how reality merges with media, probing the significant effects this fusion has on the very nature of reality. Through the prism of technology, with a specific focus on video game technology, Calleo examines the changing relationship between humans and machines, as well as between the tangible and the virtual realms. He positions video gaming as a crucial form of expression in the realm of contemporary technoculture, highlighting its role in shaping and reflecting our understanding of these complex interactions.

Alberto Calleo works at the intersection of digital media and architectural design, currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Bologna’s Department of Architecture. His research ambitiously spans the convergence of digital media practices and design cultures, with a keen focus on speculative design and forward-thinking through video games and interactive media. Calleo is deeply engaged in the creative applications of 3D modeling, photogrammetry, aero-photogrammetry, and laser scanning. His commitment to advancing the field is evident in his participation in applied research projects alongside various national companies, where he continues to push the boundaries of digital media and design.

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

MMF MMXXIII UPDATE: STANISLAW PETRUK'S THE REMNANTS WINS CRITICS' CHOICE AWARD

We are excited to announce that Stanislaw Petruk’s post-apocalyptic tale The Remnants won the Critics’ Choice Award at the Milan Machinima Festival MMXXIII

This year’s jurors, Simonetta Fadda, Stefano Locati, Jenna NG, Marco de Mutiis, and Henry Lowood, gave Stanislaw Petruk’s The Remnants the highest score of all the submitted works, just below Nicolas Gebbe’s The Sunset Special, which was not considered for the award as it exceeded the 10' limit.

Petruk’s work captured the zeitgeist as the world is quickly approaching environmental, social, and geopolitical collapse. In a sense, the jurors felt that this short story prefigures the most likely outcome of the planet’s fate considering the criminal negligence of our political leaders and the indifference of the masses to the challenges that we face today.

Petruk’s video, entirely created with the Unreal Engine, is set five years after a global disaster, where the remaining population is struggling to survive as the planet is dying. This intense machinima portrays the struggle for survival and the harsh reality of human nature in a post-apocalyptic world.

The Remnants was screened yesterday at the Museum of Interactive Cinema as part of the Utopia/Dystopia program and is now available on this very page.

Born in 1987, Stanisław Petruk is a filmmaker and Sr. VFX artist at Avalanche Studios in Sweden. He has directed several shorts and worked on video games such as WWE Immortals, Mortal Kombat, Agents of Mayhem, The Walking Dead, and Saints Row. He lives and works in Stockholm. Petruk is now working on his new project, The Goo.

Matteo Bittanti

Read an interview with Petruk here

NEWS: STANISLAW PETRUK'S UPCOMING MACHINIMA, THE GOO

Stanisław Petruk, the autor of The Remnants, is currently working on a new machinima based on the Unreal Engine entitled The Goo. The machinima stars Eric, a writer in the process of completing his latest play. For Eric, it has become customary to refine the script and make final adjustments while staying at his preferred hotel. Upon arrival, he is greeted by the friendly hotel owner, who takes him to his familiar room, number 23. After setting up his laptop and getting situated, Eric’s creativity takes over and he begins to rapidly type out the story. However, an unexpected occurrence takes place - the characters and objects in his mind become fused together.

Petruk’s Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of The Goo is now live.

Click the image below to donate:

Born in 1987, Stanisław Petruk is a filmmaker and Sr. VFX artist at Avalanche Studios in Sweden. He has directed several shorts and worked on video games such as WWE Immortals, Mortal Kombat, Agents of Mayhem, The Walking Dead, and Saints Row. He lives and works in Stockholm.

EVENT: MARTINA MENEGON (SEPTEMBER 30 - AUGUST 13 2022, ONLINE)

when you are close to me I shiver

video recording of live simulation

digital video/machinima (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 7’ 47”, 2020, Italy

Created by Martina Menegon

Sound design by Alexander Martinz

when you are close to me I shiver is an algorithmically controlled live simulation, hereby presented as a video recording, that is, a real-time generated virtual experience that takes place in a version of the future in which humans, out of desperation, gather in masses on the last remaining piece of land. Inspired by the walrus scene in the documentary Our Planet narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Silverback Films, the project proposes a scenario encompassing ongoing environmental and personal crises. The video depicts a desolated island populated by 3D-scanned clones of the artist herself. Through these perceivable avatars, the artist creates a new identity that arises out of plurality, proprioceptively renegotiating the fragility of both the physical and the virtual self and its realities.

Martina Menegon (Italy, 1988) is an artist working predominantly with Interactive and Extended Reality Art. In her works, Martina creates intimate and complex assemblages of physical and virtual elements that explore the contemporary self and its phygital corporeality. She experiments with the uncanny and the grotesque, the self and the body and the dialogue between physical and virtual realities, to create disorienting experiences that become perceivable despite their virtual nature.

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