The 2024 Milan Machinima Festival jury panel features an international cadre of critics, curators, and scholars: Marco de Mutiis, Jenna NG, Henry Lowood, and Martin Zeilinger
Marco De Mutiis is a Digital Curator at Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland where he leads the museum research on algorithmic and networked forms of vision and image-making. He leads and co-curates different projects and platforms expanding the role and the space of the museum. These include the collaborative live stream programme Screen Walks (developed and co-curated with Jon Uriarte, curator of digital programmes at The Photographers’ Gallery in London), as well as Fotomuseum’s current experimental platform [permanent beta] The Lure of the Image.
Marco is also the co-director of the groundbreaking Master in Algorithmic and Networked Photography at Elisava in Barcelona, Spain, which will make its debut in September 2024.
He is a researcher and doctoral candidate at the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at South Bank University where he focuses on the relationship between computer games and photography. He co-curated with Matteo Bittanti the group exhibition How to Win at Photography – Image-making as Play, exploring the photographic act through the act of play and the notion of games.
He has written, edited and contributed to several publications, including the recent book Screen Images – In-Game Photography, Screenshot, Screencast (co-edited with Winfried Gerling and Sebastian Möring). He is part of the artist duo 2girls1comp with Alexandra Pfammatter and his artworks have been shown internationally in galleries and festivals. He lectures and teaches regularly in different institutions and schools, including Master Photography at ECAL and Camera Arts at Lucerne University of Applied Arts and Design.
Henry Lowood is a distinguished curator and scholar at Stanford University, where he holds the positions of Harold C. Hohbach Curator for the History of Science & Technology Collections and Curator for Film & Media Collections in the Stanford University Libraries.
Since 2000, Lowood has been at the helm of the project How They Got Game: The History and Culture of Interactive Simulations and Videogames. Initially funded by the Stanford Humanities Laboratory and subsequently continued under the Libraries, this project delves into the history and preservation of digital games, virtual worlds, and interactive simulations. This initiative has birthed courses like the History of Computer Game Design and The Consumer as Creator in Contemporary Media, reflecting Lowood’s focus on these emerging new media forms.
Between 2008 and 2013, Lowood led the HTGG Stanford group in the Preserving Virtual Worlds project, sponsored initially by the U.S. Library of Congress. Collaborating with the University of Illinois, University of Maryland, Rochester Institute of Technology, Linden Lab, the Internet Archive, and others, this project represented a significant undertaking in the field.
As a scholar, Lowood has contributed significantly to the field of game studies and machinima studies, among others. Since the early 2000s, he has played a pivotal role in these areas, establishing himself as a leading figure in game studies. His latest book Replayed (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023) consolidates his major publications and research on the preservation and documentation of virtual worlds, digital games, and interactive simulations. The Machinima Reader, co-edited with Michael Nitsche in 2011 and published by MIT Press, is considered one of the foundational texts in machinima studies.
Henry Lowood has served as a distinguished juror for every edition of the Milan Machinima Festival, bringing his expertise and insights to the evaluation processor the submitted works.
Jenna Ng is an accomplished multi-award-winning researcher, highly regarded in the fields of digital media and culture. With an impressive educational background, including a PhD from University College London, she has transitioned from a finance lawyer to a trailblazer in academic research. Her work is primarily focused on theoretical, cultural, and critical analyses that intersect digital and visual culture. Her areas of expertise are diverse, encompassing digital media, digital culture, creative technologies, AI and algorithmic culture, interactive storytelling, and interactive media.
Ng’s commitment to digital media and culture is evident in her extensive publication record. She is known for her groundbreaking work in digital imaging, screen cultures, and interactive storytelling. Her innovative approach includes practice-based methodologies, leading to unique research outputs such as a second-screen installation for theatre performance, multimedia scholarship, video essays, and online open-access collaborative initiatives. Her latest project, a creative research website on the nature of virtuality, has earned accolades such as the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in the Field of Media Ecology, the Learning on Screen Special Jury Prize, and the MeCCSA Practice-Based Research of the Year award.
As an esteemed speaker, Ng has delivered over 25 invited talks worldwide, including keynotes and plenaries at major conferences like the Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) and the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS). She has also been a guest speaker at various public events and a juror for the Critics’ Choice Award at the Milan Machinima Festival.
Ng’s first book, Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds (Bloomsbury, 2013), is a multimedia academic collection exploring the remediation of machinima in various fields. It has been well-received for its insightful exploration of machinima and is considered a foundational text for the emerging field of machinima studies. Her second book, The Post-Screen Through Virtual Reality, Holograms and Light Projections: Where Screen Boundaries Lie (Amsterdam University Press, 2021), delves into new theories of image display and has been awarded Honourable Mention for Best First Monograph by BAFTSS. Ng’s third book, currently in progress, will explore the existential tensions of living in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
In addition to her books, Ng has contributed significantly to academic journals like Cinema Journal, Animation, Games and Culture, and Screening the Past. At the University of York, she serves as the Head of Creative Technologies and has held various significant roles, including founding the Interactive Media BSc programme and establishing the MA Digital Media and Culture programme. Jenna Ng’s multifaceted career and contributions to the academic world underscore her status as a leading figure in the study and exploration of digital media and culture.
Martin Zeilinger is an Austrian researcher and curator currently based in Dundee, Scotland, where he works as Senior Lecturer in Computational Arts and Technology at Abertay University. His work focuses on artistic and activist experiments with emerging technologies — primarily blockchain and AI —, intellectual property issues in contemporary art, and aspects of experimental videogame culture.
In 2021, Martin published the monograph Tactical Entanglements: AI Art, Creative Agency, and the Limits of Intellectual Property with meson press, which is freely available under an Open Access license. More recently, he released Structures of Belonging as part of Aksioma’s Postscriptum Series (2023), to begin re-imagining blockchain technologies beyond digital property enclosures. Martin co-curated the seminal Vector Festival in Toronto from 2014 to 2020, and was lead organiser of the 2018 MoneyLab symposium in London.
His writing about art and technology has been featured in books including Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain and the MoneyLab Reader 2, in journals such as Leonardo, Philosophy & Technology, Culture Machine, and Media Theory, and in art magazines including Spike Art Magazine and Outland.