A late, but nice, review of Gamescenes. Art in the Age of Videogames, the book I edited in 2006 together with Matteo Bittanti. On Nextgame.it, by Lorenzo Antonelli (via Gamescenes.org).

Nullsleep, New York Romscapes

GameScenes / Videoludic Scenaries

curated by Domenico Quaranta
as a section of Piemonte Share Festival 2005, Turin (Italy), Palazzo Cavour, February 24 febbraio – March 1, 2005.

Featured artists: Mauro Ceolin (ITA), Jeremiah Johnson aka nullsleep (USA), John Klima (USA), Martin Le Chevallier (FRA), Gonzalo Frasca – Newsgaming (URY), Selectparks (AU), Antonio Riello (ITA), Josh On (USA), Carlo Zanni (ITA), Brody Condon (USA), JODI (NLD), Kinematic Collective (USA), RETROYOU (ESP), Eddo Stern (USA), Josephine Starrs & Leon Cmielewski (AUS), TWCDC (USA), 8bitpeople (nullsleep’s selection); Micropupazzo (ITA – DE); Role Model (Johan Kotlinski, SWE); Tonylight (ITA); Oliver Wittchow (DE); Gameboyzz Orchestra (POL).

Piemonte Share Festival

Exhibition images (Picasa)

Gamescenes (2005)

Press Release:

During the last twenty years, videogame imposed itself as a new cultural form, becoming object of papers and academic research; and as the product of a true cultural industry, which has overcome the cinema industry. It was almost inevitable, therefore, that others artistic and cultural forms would try to start an affair with videogame, in a way that still remains to be studied. Videogames showed literature new narrative techniques, electronic music a new sound; they filled our imagination with new spaces, new landscapes and new icons. But, most of all, the videoludic industry invented and experimented,beforehand on scientists and artists, the forms and languages of the interactive media. It is spreading its own ideology, an ideology that not all gamers are accepting undiscerningly. It is creating new life spaces, new communities, new identities, even a new economy that has nothing to do with virtuality. GameScenes wants to offer to the PIEMONTE_SHARE_2005 public a selection of works capable of showing the different forms of artistic experimentation that are in someway connected to the videoludic horizon, gathering artists, musicians and writers that look at videogames as an important reference for their activity. The event will feature a conference and an exhibition. The conference will gather Alessandra C (writer), Jamie D’Alessandro (journalist), Matteo Bittanti (expert in game studies), Alessandro Ludovico (writer and founder of Neural magazine) and Molleindustria, independent game designer.

The exhibition will open with a performance by Tonylight, Italian artist and gameboy performer, who wants to bring game boy to public spaces using his SolarAudioBag, a portable loudspeaker which functions thanks to a solar panel. The Gameboy, converted into a music synthesizer and used to play music by a keen experimental scene called “gameboy music” or “8 bit music”, will be the first character of the exhibition’s soundtrack, featuring tracks by nullsleep (USA), other members of the 8bitpeople community and major artists on the international scene.

The exhibition will feature the different ways artists relate to the world of videogames, representing a broad spectrum of almost historical works and recent experiments: paintings and prints that adopt a videoludic aesthetic, such as the Solid_Landscapes by the Milan artist Mauro Ceolin and the New York Romscapes by J eremiah Johnson a.k.a nullsleep; artist’s videogames, as Jon Klima’s The Great Game, on the Afghan War, or Fur’s Painstation consolle and Vigilance 1.0, a game on videosurveillance by the French artist Martin Le Chevallier; modified games, from Jodi’s Wolfenstein version of Lialina’s My Boyfriend Came back from the War to the works by the spanish artist retroyou, to the great 9/11 survivor, on the Twin Towers’ disaster, by Kinematic Collective; politically engaged videogames, from Newsgaming’s September 12th to TWCDC (Together We Can Defeat Capitalism) collective STOP BUSH! All works that show, time and time again, that videogame is changing our way of looking at the real world, and introducing to our collective imagination new narratives and new landscapes; but also that it could become, from an instrument of the cultural standardization and idelogical conditioning, a device for information, report and fight.

GameScenes.Conf
Alessandra C – Jamie D’Alessandro – Matteo Bittanti – Alessandro Ludovico – Molleindustria – Oliver Wittchow.

GameScenes.Performance
Tonylight (ITA); Oliver Wittchow (DE)

GameScenes.Soundtrack
8bitpeople (nullsleep’s selection); Tonylight (ITA); Oliver Wittchow (DE); Gameboyzz Orchestra (POL).

GameScenes.Scapes
Mauro Ceolin (ITA), Solid_Landscapes, 2004; Jeremiah Johnson aka nullsleep (USA), New York Romscapes, 2004.

GameScenes.Games
John Klima (USA), The Great Game, 2002; Martin Le Chevallier (FRA), Vigilance 1.0, 2001; Gonzalo Frasca – Newsgaming (URY), September 12th, 2004; Selectparks (AU), Acmipark, 2004; Antonio Riello (ITA), Italiani brava gente, 1997; Josh On (USA), Antiwargame, 2001; Carlo Zanni (ITA), Average Shoveler, 2004.

GameScenes.Mods
Brody Condon (USA), Suicide Solution, 2004; JODI (NLD), My Boyfriend Came Back From the War, 2000; Kinematic Collective (USA), 9/11 survivor, 2003; RETROYOU (ESP), retroyou_nostalG, 2002; Eddo Stern (USA), Deathstar, 2004; Vietnam Romance, 2003; Sheik Attack, 1999/2000; Josephine Starrs & Leon Cmielewski (AUS), Bio-tek Kitchen, 1999; TWCDC (USA), STOP BUSH!, 2004.

GameScapes. Videogame Landscapes and Cities in the Works of Five International Artists

Curated by Rosanna Pavoni

Scientific committee: Matteo Bittanti & Domenico Quaranta

Featured artists: Cory Arcangel, Mauro Ceolin, Jonathan Haddock, Eddo Stern e Carlo Zanni.

Monza Civic Gallery
Monza, Italy, via Camperio 1
October 13 – 29, 2006. Free Entrance

Catalogue published by Johan & Levi

The release of GameScenes. Art in the Age of Videogames coincides with the launch of GameScapes. Videogame Landscapes and Cities in the Works of Five International Artists, a group show featuring works by some of the most celebrated artists working with digital games: Cory Arcangel, Mauro Ceolin, Jon Haddock, Eddo Stern, and Carlo Zanni.

Catalogue texts

- Introduction, by Rosanna Pavoni (eng, pdf)

- City of Bits, by Domenico Quaranta (ita, pdf / eng)

- Art Gamers, by Domenico Quaranta (ita, pdf / eng)

- Videogames as a Mean of Transport, by Matteo Bittanti (ita, pdf / eng, pdf)

Pictures of the exhibition (on Picasa)

Gamescapes (2006)

Video documentation (by Paolo Branca)

Press (selected):

Teknemedia 03.10.2006

Alice Spadacini, Teknemedia 19.10.2006

Ivan Fulco, La Stampa, 16/20/2006

Paolo Branca, Digicult, March 2007

MyTech, Panorama, 16/10/2006

Rosa Roccardo, Corriere della Sera, 12/10/2006