violence

MMF MMXXIV: TOTAL REFUSAL

The Milan Machinima Festival is thrilled to introduce Kinderfilm as part of our Auteur Theory program. Join us for a special screening on March 15 2024 at IULM University.

Kinderfilm, the latest creation of Austria collective Total Refusal (hereby represented by  Adrian Jonas Haim, Michael Stumpf, Robin Klengel), unfolds within the digital spaces of Grand Theft Auto V’s San Andreas. The story centers on a middle aged man named Edgar, who drifts aimlessly through Los Santos and beyond, confined to his car. He’s unsettled by the mechanical, artificial nature of the world around him, where genuine human presence and children are conspicuously absent. This narrative engages with deep questions about the state and direction of a society overwhelmed by vehicles and crime, suggesting a critique of modern societal norms and the loss of human connections. Edgar’s journey takes a significant turn when he follows a yellow school bus, leading him to abandon his vehicle for the first time. This act brings him to the beach, symbolizing a stark contrast to the urban emptiness he leaves behind, and suggesting a possibility for renewal and discovery. Echoing both the aesthetics and concerns of filmmakers like Charlie Kaufman and Kristoffer Borgli, Total Refusal uses the familiar setting of Grand Theft Auto V to explore themes of societal critique and hope. By contrasting the game’s violent and chaotic themes with the innocence of children and the natural beauty of the beach, the film conveys a nuanced view of potential future directions, emphasizing the importance of reconnecting with fundamental human values.

Adrian Jonas Haim, a dynamic presence in Vienna and beyond, engages deeply in the intertwining realms of film and politics. His academic journey led him to the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where he pursued studies in Political Science & Experimental Game Cultures. Haim’s diverse creative endeavors span writing, music, and art, all underscored by a keen focus on Marxist theory and the exploration of ideology within cross-media culture. His editorial insights previously enriched the pages of MALMOE Zeitung. As a programmer, he has curated film series that delve into the politics of remembrance, contributing to platforms such as Filmclub Tacheles, the Vienna Jewish Film Festival, and the This Human World Film Festival. In 2020, Haim brought his multifaceted expertise to the Total Refusal collective, furthering its mission to challenge and reinterpret media landscapes.

Robin Klengel operates at the nexus of art and cultural anthropology in Vienna and Graz, bringing a critical eye to the study of urban and digital environments. His academic background in cultural anthropology was honed in Graz and Berlin, equipping him with the tools to research, write, and teach within the sphere of artistic-scientific inquiry. Klengel’s work extends to filmmaking, textual analysis, and the delivery of lectures and courses that bridge the gap between theory and practice. Since 2021, he has served as co-chairman of Forum Stadtpark, an interdisciplinary art and culture space in Graz, demonstrating his commitment to fostering creative dialogue. His role in co-founding the Total Refusal collective in 2018 has been instrumental in shaping its direction and impact.

Michael Stumpf navigates the confluence of philosophy, media, and cultural semiotics with an analytical approach rooted in phenomenology. His studies in Philosophy in Vienna and Media Culture and Art Theories in Linz (unfinished) have provided a foundation for his exploration of popular cultural tropes and their significance. Stumpf’s work transcends disciplinary boundaries, manifesting in artistic endeavors, design projects, and coding, all aimed at interrogating the mechanics of media and culture. As a co-founder of the Total Refusal collective in 2018, Stumpf contributes to its mission with a unique blend of theoretical insight and practical expertise, challenging conventional interpretations of media narratives.

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

ARTICLE: GEORGIE ROXBY SMITH VS. THE MADONNA-WHORE COMPLEX

As VRAL current solo exhibition focuses on Georgie Roxby Smith’s new Blood Paintings series, we aim to illuminate her legacy of confrontational game-based art by examining a pivotal early work, Lara Croft, Domestic Goddess I & II, which re-cast the Tomb Raider heroine as a proto-tradwife in her most challenging mission.

The endlessly looping cries of gaming icon Lara Croft echo incongruously over household chores in Georgie Roxby Smith’s 2013 performance and Second Life intervention, Lara Croft, Domestic Goddess I & II. The female explorer’s torture screams punctuate mundane, uneventful acts like washing and ironing clothes. The superimposition of discordant feminine spheres spotlights the bias still dogging video games’ staunchest female characters today. Despite efforts celebrating Lara Croft’s emotional depth and resolve through various reboots and remakes, her graphic anguish feels all too familiarly pinned to outmoded visions of femininity from the franchises’ past.

Having already probed systemic dangers subtly encoded for female avatars through works like The Fall Girl in 2012, here Smith spotlights the lingering identity tensions constraining Lara Croft. The Tomb Raider icon embodies a discombobulating identity bifurcation: aspiring towards fierce, capable heroism on one hand while still confined as an ornament for the traditionally masculine demographic’s visual greed alone on the other. As Croft’s strained persona splits unevenly between feminist icon and fetishized pin-up, she exemplifies unreconciled contradictions of projecting strength while submitting to the objectifying male gaze. By confronting this demeaning binary — akin to the  dichotomy informing the Madonna-whore complex mapping women into mutually exclusive camps of saintly virtue or debased promiscuity — Smith indicts the media forces that tokenize liberatory gestures yet withhold full multidimensional womanhood under paternalistic pretense…


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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

George Roxby Smith, Fair Game [Run like a girl], in-game performance, machinima (color, sound, 13’ 56”), 2015.

Georgie Roxby Smith, Lara Croft, Domestic Goddess I & II, Lara Croft death noises from Tomb Raider (2013), 3D model, Second Life intervention, looped continuously for duration.

Georgie Roxby Smith, The Fall Girl, in-game performance and machinima (color, sound, 8’ 07”), 2012.

Peggy Ahwesh, She Puppet, digital video, color, sound, 15’, 2001.

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ARTICLE: GEORGIE ROXBY SMITH AND THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE NPC RUNNER

As VRAL current solo exhibition focuses on Georgie Roxby Smith’s new Blood Paintings series, we aim to illuminate her legacy of confrontational game-based art by examining a pivotal early work, Fair Game [Run Like A Girl]. Our analysis centers on overlapping themes in Smith’s practice of visual confrontation around gaming’s ingrained normalization of violence towards feminine identity and representation...

In her 2015 performance Fair Game [Run Like A Girl], Georgie Roxby Smith hijacks the marginalized female non-playable characters in Grand Theft Auto V, stretching their flight animations into disturbing prey. As her sadistic avatar stalks and toys with these sexualized bots in the streets (and hills!) of Los Santos, their loops of cowering and screaming indict the misogyny hard-coded into this digital Californication. 

Before examining the work, the ominous title warrants exploration. As Emma Griffin explains in her monumental work, “fair game” historically traces back to the hunting fields of 19th century Britain, where it was used to denote legal and ethical parameters around which animals could be hunted during a given season. Anything deemed within the boundaries of “fair game” – open for sporting, capture, or killing – was considered unprotected prey. Already by the late 1800s however, the idiomatic implications had extended more broadly to refer to anything – or for that matter, anyone– that dominant powers or social forces considered appropriate targets for criticism, ridicule, sexualization or attack without fear of consequences or concern over consent. Victim blaming was implicit; in the cultural view, targets labeled “fair game” were themselves presumed to invite trouble or violence due to defiant or nonconforming attitudes, appearances, or behavior.

In choosing Fair Game as the title of her intervention, Smith knowingly evokes the historical associations of marking feminine bodies as vulnerable game ripe for one-sided, unethical hunting by more powerful and forceful antagonists. Her interrogation lays bare gaming ecosystems and cultures enabling the chasing and tormenting of women without consequences under the veneer of play and the pretext of fun. Let’s now concentrate on the second part of the title. The bracketed “run like a girl” also carries insidious coding limitations into culture. The phrase has history mocking supposedly inherent feminine weakness and first surfaced as a comment denouncing “inadequate masculinity”. Specifically, it critiqued women’s alleged lack of power, speed or coordination.. 

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Georgie Roxby Smith, Fair Game [Run like a girl], in-game performance, machinima (color, sound, 13’ 56”), 2015

Georgie Roxby Smith, 99 Problems [WASTED], in-game performance, machinima (color, sound, 4’ 45”), 2014

Georgie Roxby Smith, Blood Paintings, digital video, color, sound, 11’ 06”, 2024

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ARTICLE: GEORGIE ROXBY SMITH, AVATAR MARTYR

VRAL is currently presenting Georgie Roxby Smith’s Blood Paintings as a single channel video. To fully appreciate the significance of this series, we are exploring various artworks in her oeuvre. Our discussion continues with the 2014 in-game performance and machinima 99 Problems [WASTED], in which she lays bare the destructive ideological apparatus turning a woman from playable protagonist to disposable puppet. An apparatus revealed in all its banality through this avatar’s hopelessness before the blasé machinery of suicide.

A scantily clad, blood splattered female avatar takes position underneath a grimy Los Santos overpass, nonchalantly pressing a pistol barrel to her temple. Face impassive, she pulls the trigger without hesitation or emotion. As the crack of the gunshot fades, her body collapses limply to the ground. But the scene soon repeats in a different setting; the nameless woman reappears in different locations of an ersatz Los Angeles, apparently unscathed. She promptly turns the gun on herself once more. And then again. And again. Welcome to Georgie Roxby Smith’s 99 Problems [WASTED].

Rather than embrace the free-roaming escapades and rags-to-riches schemes promised by Rockstar Games, Smith pursues vicarious self-destruction via her avatar in order to critique the game’s normalization of disproportionate feminine victimization and sidelining. Each gunshot shrieks for recognition by game publishers and players alike of women’s ritualized vulnerability, marginalization, misrepresentation, and fleeting relevance in adventures coded around masculine power fantasies and patriarchal prerogatives.

The settings chosen by Smith for her suicide(s) add another layer of meaning through provocative juxtapositions. Her avatar enacts public immolation before storefronts boasting suggestive names such as “Heroin Chic” to “Hole”. Likewise, the protagonist’s ritualized demise unfolds around caricatures of consumerism and vanity, as selfie-snapping tourists remain oblivious next to the bloodshed. A rather explicit ad for “hamburger meat” near a bus stop functions as a background for another death. Boys toys, i.e., signifiers of masculinity, also frame some vignettes, as sports cars and firearms signifying power and control. Through these judiciously chosen environmental factors, Smith further implicates the saturating messages that enable the devaluing of women’s lives and identities across societies both real and virtual. 

The ceaseless repetition produces surprising effects: the initial shock of Smith’s female avatar brutally committing suicide soon gives way among viewers to contrasting feelings ranging from desensitized ennui to warped anticipation…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

George Roxby Smith, 99 Problems [WASTED], in-game performance, machinima (color, sound, 4’ 45”), 2014

Georgie Roxby Smith, Blood Paintings, digital video, color, sound, 11’ 06”, 2024

Brody Condon, Suicide Solution, DVD documentation of in-game performance, 19’, 2004

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ARTICLE: FOLDERS FULL OF BODIES

VRAL is currently showcasing Chris Kerich’s latest project Three Impossible Worlds. To accompany the exhibition, we’ll be discussing several artworks that comprise his oeuvre. Today, we examine his monumental project Piles (2018).

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Piles is a video art project that explores the symbolic and political dimensions of piling up dead or unconscious bodies in video games. Between 2020-2021, the artist, Chris Kerich, livestreamed over 22 hours of gameplay footage on Twitch of him creating piles of bodies across seven different video games. His goal was to turn an uncritical and common practice in gaming communities into a critical interrogation of how games incorporate concepts of life, death, and bodies into their design.

The games selected represent a mix of big-budget productions titles like Hitman, independent games like Viscera Cleanup Detail (which we presented within the context of the 2021 Milan Machinima Festival in a 80 minute cut), and a game creation platform, Tabletop Simulator. This range allows for different perspectives on the theme. The piles created are meant to evoke real-life piles of bodies from sites of atrocity, like Abu Ghraib, where Kerich sees resonances with the unconstrained power to violate bodies often granted to players in games. As a straight white American man, Kerich implicates himself and his own position of power in creating these spectacles…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Chris Kerich

Piles (excerpt)

digital video/machinima (1152 x 720), color, sound, 14”, 2018-2020, United States.

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ARTICLE: ...OK, BUT JUST HOW POWERFUL IS YOUR LOVE?

Following our recent exploration of Merlin Dutertre’s Lullaby (2019) – which is now accessible here after its VRAL show – we turn our focus to the works that have shaped his artistic vision. After examining Jon Rafman’s groundbreaking A Man Digging (2013), we now shift our lens to Jonathan Vinel’s avant-garde machinima, Notre amour est assez puissant (Our Love is Powerful Enough, 2014).

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“In video games, you get to look at the environment in a way that you don’t in real life, because it’s beautiful and magical. But this leap into the game also allows you to live and experience things differently. In the end, it’s about reconnecting better through disconnecting.” (Caroline Poggi)

In an insightful interview, Dutertre attributes his formative years in the 2010s to YouTube, which he considers pivotal in shaping his identity as a filmmaker. Back then, Dutertre engaged enthusiastically with gaming-related content on the video sharing platform, although the concept of machinima initially eluded him. His high school years marked a turning point, ignited by the early works of Jon Rafman and Jonathan Vinel.

In this short essay, I will discuss Vinel’s machinima and then broaden the context to provide a clearer picture (no pun intended).

Born in 1988 in Toulouse, Jonathan Vinel studied editing at the esteemed film school La Fémis in Paris where he cultivated his passion for games, cinema, and pop culture. He later met Caroline Poggi, a Corsican native born in 1990. Poggi studied at Paris IV University and at the University in Corsica. The two crossed paths in college and directed several short films separately – including Poggi’s Chiens, and Vinel’s Notre amour est assez puissant. Their subsequent collaborative filmmaking practice comprises award-winning shorts, including the Golden Bear-winning Tant qu’il nous reste des fusils à pompe (As Long As Shotguns Remain) and Martin Pleure (Martin Cries, 2017), and full feature films, including Jessica Forever (2018), a paradigmatic example of what has been labeled the GAMECORE genre, which we will address in a separate post.

Vinel’s nine-minute machinima offers a complex interplay of disparate elements: militaristic imagery from first-person shooter games, romantic idealism, and metaphysical purity symbolized by a computer-generated tiger evocative of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s surreal narratives.

Let’s unpack these three themes.

Firstly, Notre amour est assez puissant draws heavily from the visual and thematic elements found in first-person shooter games such as DOOM (id Software, 1993). These games are characterized by their aggressive, fast-paced action, and often hyper-violent scenarios. They usually involve a single protagonist navigating a hostile environment, armed with various weapons, and fighting off enemies in a dog-eat-dog world. The imagery is often dark, gritty, and designed to evoke a sense of urgency and danger. Vinel’s machinima comprises unsettling sequences set initially in a high school and later in a zoo, which evoke the disturbing prevalence of mass shootings in the United States. As for the latter, a group of virtual soldiers spend their evening slaughtering the trapped animals – elephants, monkeys, crocodiles – for “fun” and out of boredom. Both sequences are shocking: the calmness and slow pace which accompanies the narrator’s monotone speech heighten this sense of uneasiness…

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Matteo Bittanti

Works cited

Brody Condon, Adam Killer, in-game performance, color, sound, video game mod, various lenghth, 1999, United States

Jon Rafman, A Man Digging, digital video, color, sound, 8’ 20’’, 2013, Canada

Jonathan Vinel, Notre amour est assez puissant, digital video, color, sound, 9’ 16”, 2014, France

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ESSAY: ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM

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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 begins with 11 Executions, a machinima released in 2016. This article is an abridged version of a longer essay which will be featured in an upcoming book.

Paying homage to Alan Clarke’s controversial Elephant (1989), 11 Executions (2015) was released shortly after a series of devastating terrorist attacks struck Paris in November 2015, resulting in significant loss of life and widespread fear and panic in the city. 

Before delving into the machinima, it is essential to contextualize the source material, or more precisely, its main inspiration. Clarke’s televised experiment Elephant, which runs for approximately 39 minutes and was initially broadcast on BBC 2, presents a minimalist and unflinching portrayal of sectarian violence during the “Troubles”, a term used to indicate an extended and violent period of conflict in Northern Ireland spanning from the late 1960s to the late 1990s, characterized by the involvement of diverse ethno-nationalist and political factions within the region, as well as the British government and security forces.

Elephant adopts a distinctive and peculiar style characterized by a series of continuous, static, and observational takes. Devoid of conventional dialogue or narrative plot, the short provides a chilling and evocative visual representation of the pervasive but often overlooked violence that afflicted Northern Ireland for decades. The title draws from the well-known idiom “the elephant in the room,” denoting an obvious yet significant problem that individuals prefer to avoid discussing or even recognizing. In this particular context, the symbolic elephant underscores the omnipresence of violence in the region, arising from the longstanding tensions between the predominantly Protestant unionist community, advocating for Northern Ireland continued union with the United Kingdom, and the predominantly Catholic nationalist community, aspiring to achieve a united and independent Ireland, free from British rule.

In Arcier’s 11 Executions, the emulation of Elephant’s style, approach, and duration is explicit. Arcier’s portrayal involves presenting a sequence of senseless crimes without providing any context or background, thus leaving the viewers to construct their own interpretations. The artist’s underlying intention was to compel the audience to confront the sheer brutality and meaninglessness depicted in a series of vignettes, which were crafted by appropriating elements from the popular video game Grand Theft Auto V (2013). With a conscious decision to eliminate any narrative frame, Arcier deliberately refrained from identifying or contextualizing the perpetrators and victims alike. Moreover, the sound design, encompassing ambient sounds, fragments of conversation, and more, intensifies the viewer's unease. The sudden, jarring gunshots, accompanied by chilling screams, further contribute to a profound and pervasive sense of discomfort experienced throughout the viewing experience.

The machinima’s observational and detached style not only heightens the atmosphere of tension and fear but also renders it a discomforting experience for the audience. However, the graphic portrayal of violence paradoxically induces a numbing effect, where the random killings eventually become a routine, an expected part of the viewing experience after the initial ten minutes, manifesting a relatively quick progression from shock to desensitization. 11 Executions assumes multiple roles simultaneously, functioning as a commentary on the representation of violence within video games, an exercise in remediation, and a sui generis remake of Clarke’s Elephant among other things. Although it diverges significantly in terms of locale, characters, and situations depicted, 11 Executions remains perfectly aligned with the source material in terms of mood, style, and pacing...

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Matteo Bittanti

Worlds cited

Hugo Arcier, 11 Executions, digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 36”, 2015, France

Rémy Belvaux, Andé Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde, Man Bites Dog, feature film, color, sound, 95”, 1992, Belgium

Alan Clarke, Elephant, color, sound, 16 mm, teleplay, 39”, 1989, United Kingdom

Gus van Sant, Elephant, United States, feature film, color, sound, 81”, 2003, United States

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EVENT: BRENT WATANABE (MAY 19 - JUNE 1 2023, ONLINE)

Brent Watanabe

MINE

machinima/digital video (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 37’ 06”, United States, 2023

The latest work by Brent Watanabe is a thought-provoking exploration of the intersection between virtual reality and contemporary culture. Originally conceived as a semi-narrative interactive experience, MINE spans eight mesmerizing episodes, each presenting a different facet of our complex relationship with consumption, waste, the environment, and the digital world. Originally presented on Meta/Facebook VR platform Horizon Worlds, visitors are invited to journey through a kaleidoscopic array of immersive and fully-realized virtual environments, each revealing a new layer of insight and critique. From the grotesque realities of animal exploitation to the dark allure of gaming, guns, and surveillance, MINE is a bold and unflinching statement on the pressing issues of our time. The original work has been reimagined as a single-channel walkthrough video edited by the artist for VRAL. 

Brent Watanabe’s art practice defies categorization, fusing traditional techniques with cutting-edge technology to create installations that are at once visually arresting and intellectually engaging. Drawing on his extensive background in drawing and sculpture, Watanabe uses computer programming and electronics to create kinetic sculptures that are at the forefront of a new wave of digital art. Watanabe’s work has been recognized both nationally and internationally, with his groundbreaking 2016 project, San Andreas Deer Cam, receiving over 800,000 visitors in its first three months alone and being featured in publications such as New York Magazine, the BBC, and WIRED. In addition to his solo work, Watanabe has participated in group shows and screenings around the world, including Through Machine Eyes at the NeMe Arts Center in Limassol, Cyprus, Game Changers at MassArt Art Museum in Boston, and Playmode at the MATT Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. With recent solo exhibitions at prestigious venues such as SOIL Art Gallery, McLeod Residency, Jack Straw New Media Gallery, Gallery 4Culture, Anchor Art Space, and the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival, Watanabe continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of digital art.