video art

EVENT: FROM EXPANDED CINEMA TO MACHINIMA (FEBRUARY 3 2024, MILAN)

MEMORIES OF THE SCREEN #3

FROM EXPANDED CINEMA TO MACHINIMA

Saturday February 3 2024, 09:30 - 13:30 FREE ENTRY

Accademia di Belle Arti, Brera

Sede di San Carpoforo, Via Formentini 12, Milan, Italy

Curated by Simonetta Fadda e Matteo Bittanti

Special Guest: GianFilippo Pedote: Artavazd Pelešjan and Godfrey Reggio’s special affinities

In the latest acclaimed lecture series organized by artist Dimitri Kozaris, Simonetta Fadda and Matteo Bittanti unravel the interwoven lineages from analog video art provocateurs to today’s game-based machinima practitioners. As digital media intensify our reliance on simulated realities, artists like the late Phil Solomon and Harun Farocki strategically repurposed gaming assets to unveil the affective and ideological functions of these persuasive worlds. Contemporary figures like Dutch filmmaker Bram Ruiter advance this tradition of appropriation-as-critique, harnessing the medium’s own tools to reveal otherwise hidden currents of awe and unease within emergent virtual topographies.

Yet as Bittanti’s historical contextualization underscores, contemporary artists build directly upon tactics predating the digital revolution — from the Situationists’ mischievous image hijacking to Peggy Ahwesh’s decontextualization of gaming imagery. While machinima constitutes a 21st century iteration, the deeper creative impulse persists: to remake perception by tearing open and radically recombining the fabric of the present.

This drive resonates with earlier aspirations like Gene Youngblood’s influential Expanded Cinema concept in the radical 1970s, which called for imploding and transcending the standard frame itself. From celluloid and analog signals to CGI, the desire endures to expose and transform the unseen dimensions, glitches, and bugs lurking within everyday media architectures. By spotlighting today’s vanguard remixers through their seminal precursors across eras, Fadda and Bittanti’s shared inquiry reveals the drive of the avant-garde tradition pulsating within creative digital disruptions past, present and future.

ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT STEFAN PANHANS AND ANDREA WINKLER’S FREEROAM À REBOURS, MOD#I.1. PART THREE

Japanese TikToker Natuecoco in her signature cat ears and wig.Courtesy of Natuecoco

Our 2024 VRAL program opened by spotlighting Stefan Panhans and Andrea Winkler’s Freeroam À Rebours, Mod#I.1. This 16-minute experimental video from 2016-2017, a “machinima sui generis”, warrants extended analysis in its own right and we highlighted key themes in our extended conversation with the artists. But since contextualizing unique works within broader cultural spheres often proves illuminating, we will situate Freeroam À Rebours within surrounding phenomena that inspire comparative examination and share (perceived) resonances.

Part one is available here

Part two is available here

As you may know, the phenomenon of NPC (Non-Player Character) streaming was pioneered by the Japanese performer Natuecoco, a content creator known for her distinctive cat ears and colorful wigs, who embarked on an experimental journey in October 2021. In many ways, she set a standard, introducing a template that others followed almost verbatim. Her livestreams, characterized by the obsessive repetition of catchphrases in Japanese and Korean — along with precise, almost robotic movements — captivated a global audience. Her daily performances, lasting up to an hour and a half, would see a surge of interaction as viewers sent tokens to elicit specific responses.

Her online performances, however, began earlier. Also known within the US context as the “Ohio Queen” or “Eringi”, Natuecoco initially established her online presence on Twitch in 2019. Over three years, she amassed over 12,600 followers, though she retired from Twitch streaming in February 2022. Her social media trajectory, marked by an Instagram debut in December 2019 and a TikTok presence from March 2020, has showcased her cosplay selfies and self-portraits, alongside promoting her Twitch activities. However it is herTikTok content that gained significant traction, with one video achieving over 1 million plays in December 2021. In February 2022, Natuecoco shifted her focus to TikTok Live. Collaborating with fellow TikToker Satoyu0704, also known as the “Ohio Final Boss”, she engaged audiences in NPC-like performances, gaining notable popularity. Their partnership became a hallmark in Japanese meme circles on TikTok, with their collaborative content often going viral. According to Know Your Meme, Satoyu0704’s nickname “Ohio Final Boss” emerged due to his catchphrase “Ohayo,” Ohio memes on TikTok, and the broader “Final Boss” trend. This led to Natuecoco being dubbed the “Ohio Queen” as part of their collaborative lore (1).

Natuecoco’s approach to NPC streaming is both innovative and intriguing and remains baffling and hypnotic even today. She adopted the persona of a video game NPC, known for their predictable behavior and repetitive actions. However, Natuecoco added a unique twist, combining her routine with a more nuanced and puzzling performance. The eerie resemblance of her movements to a character in a video game led viewers to refer to her as the “original AI queen”, as Yooni Han wrote in a widely read profile piece for Business Insider in 2023.

The major inspiration of Natuecoco’s ongoing performance is cosplay, which scholars like Frenchy Lunning (2) describe as a multilayered, complex practice comprisin four main dimensions…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

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ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT STEFAN PANHANS AND ANDREA WINKLER’S FREEROAM À REBOURS, MOD#I.1. PART TWO

Cherry Crush ASMR

Our 2024 VRAL program opened by spotlighting Stefan Panhans and Andrea Winkler’s Freeroam À Rebours, Mod#I.1. This 16-minute experimental video from 2016-2017, a “machinima sui generis”, warrants extended analysis in its own right and we highlighted key themes in our extended conversation with the artists. But since contextualizing unique works within broader cultural spheres often proves illuminating, we will situate Freeroam À Rebours within surrounding phenomena that inspire comparative examination and share (perceived) resonances.

In our previous article, we compared PinkyDoll’s TikTok NPC streaming to Stefan Panhans and Andrea Winkler’s 2016-2017 video artwork Freeroam À Rebours – two cultural artifacts involving video game character behavior reenactment with vastly different aesthetics and framing, not to mention intent.

We characterized PinkyDoll as an ongoing sexualized doll performance on social media pursuing viral fame and profit. In contrast, Freeroam À Rebours operates as avant-garde art aiming to critically analyze media culture and deconstruct simulations. PinkyDoll loosely borrows from Grand Theft Auto iconic imagery while Freeroam À Rebours closely recontextualizes specific Grand Theft Auto V mechanics. Lastly, PinkyDoll represents viral internet trends capitalizing on sexual tropes for views and money whereas Freeroam À Rebours pushes experimental boundaries to interrogate human-machine interaction.

We applied Sigmund Freud’s theory of the uncanny to decode both cultural phenomena, noting shared qualities of repetition and distorted familiarity. Yet clear divergences emerged on critical perspectives. For instance, Freeroam À Rebours is explicitly framed as a meditation on experimentation, failure aesthetics, and broken simulations. We noticed how Freeroam À Rebours lacks any direct, explicit reference to the very notion of viral media, social platforms, and attention economics and it is extraneous to hypersexualization and objectification that connotes Pinkydoll’s performances.

Expanding our analysis, we now relate Freeroam À Rebours to adjacent TikTok NPC streaming phenomena and the wider ascent of sexualized ASMR/cosplay performances. These intimate online practices often present fantasized personas, leveraging scalable platforms, gamified interactions, and participatory culture…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

This content is exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To gain full access, consider joining our vibrant community.

ARTICLE: A CLOSER LOOK AT STEFAN PANHANS AND ANDREA WINKLER’S FREEROAM À REBOURS, MOD#I.1. PART ONE

Pinkydoll, source: The New York Times, 2023

Our 2024 VRAL program opened by spotlighting Stefan Panhans and Andrea Winkler’s Freeroam À Rebours, Mod#I.1. This 16-minute experimental video from 2016-2017, a “machinima sui generis”, warrants extended analysis in its own right and we highlighted key themes in our extended conversation with the artists. But since contextualizing unique works within broader cultural spheres often proves illuminating, we will situate Freeroam À Rebours within surrounding phenomena that inspire comparative examination and share (perceived) resonances. We begin our critical discussion by provocatively juxtaposing Freeroam À Rebours, Mod#I.1 with Pinkydoll’s performances on TikTok. This surprising collision between avant-garde video art and sexualized social media spectacle may first appear discordant. Yet, we believe that exploring affinities and divergences could uncover deeper truths. What crosstalk might emerge by contrasting these works’ differing aims, aesthetics and receptions as they meet in the wider landscape of contemporary media culture? A word of advice: keep an open mind.

One of 2023’s most discussed TikTok “phenomena” blurred the lines between the real and the simulated. The so-called NPC streaming genre features content creators endlessly repeating canned gestures, catchphrases, and stilted movements in response to viewers’ “gifts” that cue different reactions. They embody non-player video game characters, predictable and limited in their responses, as if not quite human or, perhaps, post-human. Viewers are drawn to the surreal, hypnotic spectacle.

To grasp the allure of NPC streaming, it is useful to spotlight TikTok’s both participatory affordinaces and business model enabling this phenomenon. The platform allows direct viewer engagement through digital “gifts”: that is, users pay performers to enact repetitive reactions that evoke programmable game characters. This transaction triggers an unconventional power dynamic: viewers request machine-like responses from creators roleplaying as robotic entities of narrow capability. The performers dutifully oblige, echoing simulated automatons, reducing their agency in a subtly objectifying, sexualized manner.

Yet, for all its resonances with command-control dynamics, this parasocial relationship remains grounded in consent and direct remuneration. In other words, the performers voluntarily adopt constrained, submissive personas because they provide lucrative opportunities. Audiences understand these limits as conditions of a (literally and metaphorically) limited exchange that produces puzzling visual pleasures.

Consider the case of Pinkydoll, the online persona of Canadian content creator Fedha Sinon, who gained viral popularity on TikTok in the summer 2023 for her NPC livestreams…

(continues)

Matteo Bittanti

This content is exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To gain full access, consider joining our vibrant community.

ARTICLE: ADRIFT IN THE UNCANNY VALLEY

VRAL is currently exhibiting Aleksandar Radan’s This water giver back no Images. To provide context to this remarkable work, we are discussing the Serbian-German artist’ oeuvre. Today we take a closer look at In Between identities.

With his groundbreaking machinima In between identities (2015) and the subsequent video installation This water gives back no Images (2017), Berlin-based filmmaker Aleksandar Radan established himself in the mid-2010s as a rising talent probing the porous boundaries between concrete and virtual spaces. Appropriating assets from blockbuster games like Grand Theft Auto V, Radan constructs eerie, liminal worlds where meaning frays, and questions of identity become as glitchy as the discordant landscapes he frames.

Originally presented in April 2020 as VRAL #2, In between identities sees Radan hijack GTA V, rewriting portions of code through modding to direct lonely avatars stripped of context, narrative, and purpose. Bereft of missions, these figures wander a murky, humid, deserted city, their awkward movements and apparent disorientation at odds with the usual bombastic pace of the “conventional” gameplay. Dressed incongruously in bathing suits or fur coats, slicing cucumbers over their eyes, the mute characters perform uncanny rituals before mirrors and displays. Repeated motifs like photographs and screens highlight themes of fragmented selfhood and surveillance. Radan’s fixed camera angles hold uncomfortably long on incidents of mundane absurdity as his non-player characters break scripted behaviors. Static shots are interrupted by the camera’s jerky movements as the artist is filming the computer monitor where the action is unfolding, zooming in and out abruptly, rather than recording the game footage via a dedicated card. The removal of soundtracks enhances the sensation of drifting outside reality.

This early experiment crystallized Radan’s impulse to short-circuit gaming conventions via artistic intervention…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Aleksandar Radan

In between identities, digital video, color, sound, 8’ 50”, 2015, Germany

This water gives back no Images, 3-channel video installation, 6’ 12”, loop, 2017, Germany; presented on VRAL as a single-channel digital video

All images courtesy of the Artist

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EVENT: VRAL IRL_ALEKSANDAR RADAN (NOVEMBER 24 2023, MILAN, ITALY)

Join us on Friday November 24 2023 at 6 PM at IULM University, in Milan, Italy for an exclusive artist talk by Alexandar Radan. This event marks the launch of VRAL IRL because time has come to touch grass.

VRAL IRL_ ALEKSANDAR RADAN

Room 613, floor -1, Building IULM 6

IULM University

Via Carlo Bo 2

20143 Milan

Italy

THE EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: PLEASE RSVP

Aleksandar Radan, born in Offenbach am Main in 1988, completed his studies in art at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach. His artistic focus lies in the realm of digital media, with particular emphasis on video games, which he appropriates, manipulates, and subverts. Central to Radan’s body of work are themes that explore the unpredictable ruptures within meticulously designed systems, the aesthetics of simulation, and the evolving role of the artist in the age of algorithms. His diverse artistic practice encompasses experimental film and video, installation art, and performance. Radan’s works have received recognition at prestigious venues, including the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen.

Questo evento è primo appuntamento della serie VRAL IRL, perché è arrivato il momento di toccare l’erba.

L'EVENTO È GRATUITO E APERTO AL PUBBLICO PREVIA REGISTRAZIONE

VRAL IRL_ ALEKSANDAR RADAN

Aula 613, piano -1, IULM 6

Università IULM

Via Carlo Bo, 2

20143 Milano

Aleksandar Radan nato a Offenbach am Main nel 1988, ha completato gli studi artistici presso la Hochschule für Gestaltung di Offenbach. La sua pratica artistica si concentra sul regno dei media digitali, con particolare attenzione ai videogiochi, di cui si appropria, per manipolarli e sovvertirli. Radan esplora le imprevedibili rotture all’interno di sistemi meticolosamente progettati, glitch e crash, l’estetica della simulazione e il ruolo dell’artista nell'era degli algoritmi. Le sue opere comprendono film e video sperimentali, installazioni e performance. Le opere di Radan hanno ricevuto riconoscimenti in sedi prestigiose, tra cui il Festival internazionale del cortometraggio di Clermont-Ferrand e il Festival internazionale del cortometraggio di Oberhausen.

EVENT: HILLEVI CECILIA HÖGSTRÖM (JANUARY 7 - 20 2022, ONLINE)

A HAND IN THE GAME

Digital video, color, sound, 35’ 08”, 2017, Sweden

Created by Hillevi Cecilia Högström

A hand in the game is a video essay documenting the artist’s experience with SimPark (1996), a simulation published by Californian game company Maxis in which players cultivate and manage a successful park. Developed by Roxana Wolosenko and Claire Curtin, SimPark was explicitly targeted toward children: its objective was to educate the young about ecology and biodiversity. SimPark was accompanied by a 77-page manual which included tips on how to incorporate the game in the curriculum. Twenty years later, the artist intentionally tried to “mismanage the park enough to terminate all living things” in order to bring forth the simulation’s underlying ideology, which is grounded in capitalistic values and neoliberal imperatives. Specifically, Högström played four iterations — titled Termination 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 respectively — by altering the main variables, from the ratio between tropical, desert, and cold regions to the degree of animal agency, not to mention the effects of climate change upon the flora and fauna. The more she played, the more she realized that SimPark is deeply flawed: a supposedly pedagogical aid becomes a tool of disinformation.

Hillevi Cecilia Högström was born in 1994 in Jönköping, Sweden. She is currently completing her M.A. in Fine Arts at Malmö Art Academy. Previously, she received a B.A. in Fine Arts at the Iceland University of the Arts. Her work is concerned with the Anthropocene, which she defines as “the point in time where humans became an actual geological force capable of reforming the surface of the planet”, and its effects on the world. Her recent exhibitions include A Hand in the Game (solo, 2017), Bachelor Exhibition, Kubburin, Reykjavík, Iceland, and Full Vision (2020), Jönköpings länssmuseum, Jönköping, Sweden, Af stað!, Norræna Húsið, Reykjavík, Sweden (2019), and the 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2018), Main Project, Moscow, Russia. Her video works were featured at several international festivals, including EXiS (2021), Seoul, South Korea, and Impakt Algorithmic Superstructures (2018), Utrecht, Netherlands. Högström works and lives in Malmö, Sweden. 

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EVENT: VRAL #14_MARIO MU (NOVEMBER 27 - DECEMBER 10 2020)

ARCHITECTURE WITH GAMES IN THE TITLE

Digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 18” (3x6’), 2020 (Croatia)

Created by Mario Mu, 2020

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti

Architecture with Games in the Title focuses on the convergence between spatial memory and the architecture of games through the narrative framework of a dialogue. Mu compares the casualties of financial crises to video game players, forced to navigate a rigidly controlled “gamified” setting where trial-and-error is glorified as the only way to reach symbolic “achievements”. Created with Unity 3D, the scene depicts an office space replete with desks, computers, chairs, and other amenities of the modern working environment. Walls appear and disappear depending on the location of unseen characters, the “flexible workers” of the neoliberal world. This is a space without shadows, at once bright, warm, and phantasmatic. As the unseen characters engage in a conversation about architecture and memory, bots and ghosts, the environment slowly burns. 

The artistic practice of Croatian artist Mario Mu revolves around projects which are often constructed as extended gaming platforms. In addition to sound and drawing, his preferred media often include elements of game design, 3D animation, and performance. A student of Hito Steyerl, Mu received an MFA in Berlin from the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin in 2017, a BFA with a major in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, in 2015, and an MA from the Faculty of Graphic Arts in 2012 from the same institution. Between 2016 and 2017, Mu was an active member of the Research Center for the Proxy Politics in Berlin. He has been working on several LARP events as an author, collaborator and/or performer at Play Co London and Zagreb, Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, Galerie gr_und, Acud, and UdK in Berlin. Mu is currently working on a new game project initiated by the Portuguese artist Odete and supported by Maat Museum and Boca Bienal.

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EVENT: VRAL #3_JORDY VEENSTRA (JUNE 5 - 18 2020)

REGRESSION (TRILOGY)

Digital video, color, sound, 16’ 32”, 2020 (The Netherlands)

Created by Jordy Veenstra

JIntroduced by Matteo Bittanti

Several cinematic productions of the 1920s and 1930s became known as city symphonies. Some, like The Man with a Movie Camera (1929) by Dziga Vertov or Berlin, Symphony of a Great City (1927) by Walter Ruttmann were explicitly avant-garde in style. Their aesthetics were influenced by modern art, with an emphasis on fast cutting and pulsating scores. Others were more contemplative and ruminative, the equivalent of a cinematic dérive. All of them portrayed and celebrated the life, rhythms, and activities of urban environments. Today, several filmmakers are creating visual poems extolling the virtues of Los Santos and Liberty City. Like their predecessors, these machinima are situated halfway between the documentary and the avant-garde film insofar as they showcase virtual vistas with a style reminiscent of a longstanding cinematic tradition. With Regression, Jordy Veenstra portrays different facets of Grand Theft Auto V’s state of San Andreas, highlighting both the idiosyncrasies of simulations as well as the act of travelling without moving.

Jordy Veenstra is a video editor, motion graphics designer, 2D animator, and experimental filmmaker based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His works connect art and narratives with technology or software through the medium of experimental film. His work often examines overlooked social, artistic or personal issues.

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NEWS: VRAL #2_ALEKSANDAR RADAN (MAY 8 - MAY 21 2020)

IN BETWEEN IDENTITIES

digital video, color, sound, 8’ 50”, 2015 (Germany)

Created by Aleksandar Radan

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti

In an ersatz Los Angeles permeated by a pervasive sense of dread, mysterious figures confront their own meaninglessness. Scantily dressed, completely naked or donning fur coats, men and women seem disoriented as they try to see more, see better or see nothing at all. Some even temporarily blind themselves by placing slices of cucumber over their eyes. At once recognizable and abstract, these cartoon-like characters are not pathetic, but rather apathetic. The viewer indulges in scopophilic pleasures as they perform mundane acts, like watching themselves in the mirror or taking a photo. It seems harmless, even comical, and yet one feels it could suddenly turn into a nightmare. 

Aleksandar Radan was born in Offenbach am Main in 1988 and studied art at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach. His work is concerned with the digital medium, especially video games, which he appropriates, manipulates, and subverts. Recurrent themes include the unpredictable ruptures in otherwise predesigned behaviors and environments, the aesthetics of simulation, and the artist’s role in the age of algorithms. Radan’s practice includes experimental film/video, installation and performance. His works have been featured at multiple venues, including the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen

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NEWS: VRAL #1_VICTOR MORALES (APRIL 25 - MAY 7 2020)

RAPID TRANSIT: PREFACE

digital video, color, sound, 13’, 2020 (Venezuela/United States)

Created by Victor Morales. Music: Daniel Dobson. Voices: Modesto Jimenez and Christine Schisano. Written by William Burns.

WORLD PREMIERE

Introduced by Matteo Bittanti

What is it like to ride the New York City subway thirty years from now? Victor Morales predicts that most travellers will wear VR/AR displays combined with electric stimulants or lectrics. But the subway itself has not changed much nor its rituals: passengers ignore each other while dancers perform to rhythmless soundtracks interrupted by beeps and synthetic shouts popping out of devices like rings and bracelets featuring holograms with hovering capabilities. On a late weekday night, a rider under the influence boards the train, unbeknownst to what is about to happen.

Born in Venezuela and based in New York City since 1991, Victor Morales is a director, performer, and designer. His practice includes theater direction, video design, animation, text, sound design, and digital puppetry. He collaborated on a variety of projects with Chris Kondek (Berlin), Joseph Silovsky (NYC), Jim Findlay (NYC), Findlay/Sandsmark (Norway), and Wolfgang Mitterer (Austria). Since the early aughts, Victor has been using video game engines to create interactive and non-interactive artworks. His multidisciplinary project Esperpento was selected for the Sundance 2019 New Frontier program and received the “Best Immersive and Time Based Art” award at the B3 Biennial at the Buchmesse in Frankfurt, Germany. 

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