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54th INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION COLLATERAL EVENT
NEOLUDICA. ART IS A GAME |2011 - 1966 Art and game: how many forms can you decline this connection? Duchamp used to say "Art is a Game and game is art". Videogames entry into Muses' dance has further enriched this connection: videogames are art, and have made a significant influence on other arts: from cinema to literature, from music to visual arts. They take place on crossroads between pretty different productive and cultural forms, and it's just the anomaly of this encounter which makes them so interesting. Neoludica is an event aimed to deeply explore these connections. Illuminations is also the title of Arthur Rimbaud' work: visionary poet, synaesthesia genius, worlds', languages' and cultures' explorer: Neoludica comes to life under his sign as well, in order to create a sound and light setting up and a new journey among languages. Photo: Scuola Dei Laneri Venezia | Centro Culturale Candiani Mestre
NEOLUDICA. ART IS A GAME |2011|2011-1966 th
The project was born form the reflection, in fact, the REFLEXions, that art photography of the 20 century has inspired the greatest artists and has positively influenced several creative fields, from the Reflex times to digital photography, from painting to technology, from 2D to 3D. Art photography has enormously increased the possibilities of artistic expression. The exhibition Neoludica. Art is a Game | 2011-1966 [in 1966 Ralph Baer worked on the intuition he had in 1951 to create a video game for television. 1967 was the year in which Baer and Associates released the first video game interactive for television] aims to promote, advertise and pursue the scientific work undertaken by the Italian institution Musea_Game Art Gallery. Since 2008 GAG has carried on a highly appreciated work of scientific research, production and networking between scholars and creators of Game Art in relation to visual arts, by organizing meetings and conferences within academic and artistic environments. The Italian cultural scene is almost entirely lacking of a qualified and official relationship between classic arts and the multimedia videogame platforms. The debate about how the videogame, in the Italian definition of “Opera Multimediale Interattiva�, is a form of noble art not yet understood and recognized by the cultural world is still open. A major scientific opportunity is the 54th International Art Exhibition Venice (ILLUMInations, curated by Bice Curiger, art historian and critic) during which Game Art Gallery of Aosta will present the above-mentioned project on GameArt to be included among the side events recognized by the Venice Biennale and bearing the logo of the artistic event itself. In addition to the innovative elements listed above, scientific importance will be given to the research works through the exhibition catalogue that -edited in various languages- will be proposed as an up-to-date tool enfolding essays and contributions from major scholars and critics in the industry.
The extraordinary scenery of projection and scientific collaboration between the Italian and American universities (from Lombardy to Veneto, from Piedmont to Lazio, until California's Stanford University) represents a strong element of innovation for the Italian academic environment towards the progression of scientific research on the topic of Neoludica. The active participation of other educational institutions but also of major production houses would lead to important results that -loyal to the mission of Game Art Gallery- open up the borders to innovative reading and contamination of the arts with the virtual and multimedia language (especially game art and retrogaming(4). This language is increasingly shaping the development and diffusion of the new "visual shell" of contemporary artistic practices.
Note Neoludica: neologism created by Debora Ferrari and Luca Traini aiming to propose a scientific definition of works of art in the world of Game Art. Neoludici were defined in 2009 by Ferrari-Traini artists belonging to different categories of Game Art and working with artistic consciousness. Neoludica was officially unveiled in October 21st, 2010 at the Chamber of Deputies in Rome during the summit Games Forum II organized by AESVI. The definition is as follows: "discipline that searches for artistic excellence in Game Art and artistic expressions that use the media of gaming and entertainment."
ITALIANS DO IT BETTER!! BETTER!! is an alternative Italian Pavilion, curated by Matteo Bittanti and Domenico Quaranta, an irreverent and slightly subversive retrospective that celebrates artists that both explain and exploit game-based technologies and formats. What connects different generations of Italian conceptual hackers is the medium of the videogame. The result is a playful art, both analog and digital, canvas-based as well as screenbased, visual and photographic, tactile and ethereal. Since the early Nineties, Italian artists have been experimenting with videogames: from game-based animation, also known as machinima (Manetas) to critical gaming (Riello, Molleindustria), the ludic art of the Belpaese is a powerful comment upon the rise of digital gaming as a cultural, social, and aesthetic force. Specifically designed for the first edition of Neoludica, ITALIANS DO IT BETTER! pays a homage to Italian videogame-based art interventions. It presents, for the first time in Italy, the past, present and possibly future of this young but vibrant art practice.
MOLLEINDUSTRIA
CADIOLI (foto Della Corte)
LES LIENS INVISIBLES
ARCHETYPES AND LANDSCAPES: POSTPOST-GEOGRAPHIC ART Light on the past, bright to the future The videogames of today are Multimedia Interactive Works. They are a contemporary as well as anachronistic artistic expression since they contain both quotations from the past and innovative elements in their aesthetics and in their interactive relationship with their players. Myths, heroes, sceneries and references to famous works of art mingle with various types of soldiers and characters from contemporary society. In these videogames we can find inspiration from and revisions of Primitive, Renaissance and Pop art. This section will introduce the visitor to the Game Art of gameplays, with an in-depth examination of the relationship between cinema and videogames. There will be an artistic presentation flanked by a critical analysis of the concept of the post-industrial landscape, a landscape typology that has become an established part of the contemporary consciousness thanks to cinematographic and videogame art. It will include a detailed thematic examination of the character and creators for each videogame producer. Games designer’s and concept artist’s works and personal works live above all in the memory of their hard-disk, they face the world of blogs and of individual sites. Thousands of ‘tables’, sketchs, sceneries, visions and characters bring with them the imagination and the vitality of their own creator and they don’t arrive forcedly to the one who enjoys this art, but being part of the gameplay of a game. Another aspect becomes crucial in this context: the solid interpretation of the virtual work and its material transposition, so that from its world it can converse with a current world not yet ready to receive its fluctuating presence. The concept artist’s category is particular in comparison with the immediate one of the contemporary artists. Their own art can be defined a post-geographic one, both for internal contents and for relational contents weaved in order to realize the product videogame. In the individual case the author’s imagination – better analysed in the following essays – doesn’t report precise signals of his historical-cultural-social real context, at least in the most part of the artists here, but it projects and produces autonomous visions often auto-referenced, effective in creating new maps, new architectures, new life forms, as near to the late romantic inspiration as to the fantasy one and sometimes to the photograph and the contemporary painting themes. In this case the work is produced entirely by the author and it has the overall characteristics of his personal print.
INDIE > The Indie scene features many inspired artists and developers, who are aware of their cultural role and include in their work references to countless cultural fields, from art to philosophy and literature. Advergames have often a high artistic quality which includes a reflection on crucial themes such as the environment and contemporary society. …‘Art is all that men call art’ Benedetto Croce affirmed. ‘A game is a game only when the player affirms it’ Gregory Bateson specified. The border between game pleasure and ethno-mathematics is thinner and thinner, while the titles of the videogames available and today shareable on line grow up. Not just the creators’ global shop, but also the players’ collective post-geographical enjoyment, everywhere in the world. Are they entering our world or are we entering theirs?
Activision
Nintendo
Sony
Warner
Microsoft
Blizzard
Disney
Videogames in the exhibition: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Transformers3, Art Academy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, The legend of Zelda:ocarina of time 3D, Ico, Uncharted 2, Wipeout, Batman Arkham City, Gears of War II, Forza Motorsport, Kinect, World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, Epic Mickey.
SERENATA Serenata is a crossmedia ensemble who entertains ideas and trick them upwith design and music. Was founded by Federico Castronuovo (Piano Master bachelor in High Level Art and Music, Vincenzo Bellini Musical Insitute of Catania) and Alessandra Rigano (Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design, Academy of Fine Arts of Catania); both are programmers, graphics, musicians and designers, spending lot of time researching new forms of communication with deep artistic roots. Serenata team believes that there are no walls across media platforms and artistic expression; this belief converges in a constant work that flows into the creation of original videogames in all their parts, from game design to graphics and sounds. Serenata’s crossmedia belief embraces all kind of digital arts and keep flowing into multimedial design, producing functional internet sites, digital publishing, soundtracks, electronic instruments, devices and much more. As analogic human beings Serenata’s founders are also deeply linked to paper and acoustic instruments: that’s why there is a special place in their hearts (and in their hands) for editorial design, advertising, toys, games and music composition.
LORNE LANNING and Sherry McKenna: Trip Tryptich Flash the contemporary arts and societies of the 3rd Millennium For nearly two decades Lorne has been focused on the integration of character and environmental design, 3D animation, visual effects, game design, and interactive storytelling. His experience in Aerospace Visualization and as a Technical Director, Art Director and VFX Supervisor at Rhythm & Hues Studios in LA – was instrumental in shaping the vision and production approach that would later become the cornerstone of Oddworld Inhabitants which he co-founded with visual effects veteran, Sherry McKenna, in 1994. Lorne brings a unique “in the trenches” as well as “above the line” perspective to the future convergence of multi-media and storytelling possibilities. Lorne also serves on the Advisory Boards to the San Francisco Academy of Art University, the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, and the CGSociety. He has also served as the Vice Chairman for the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) and the longest standing juror on the panel for the Expose Annual : Worlds Best in Digital Art. His Oddworld games have sold over 5 million copies and garnered dozens of awards not only from the game industry, but also from the music, television, and film industries - as well as illustration & design annuals. Originally trained in photorealistic illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Lorne holds a BFA in Motion Graphics & Visual Effects from the California Institute of the Arts and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the San Francisco Academy of Art University. This section will host a personal exhibition of Lorne Lanning. The devotees of his most celebrated videogame, Oddworld, will be able to follow the creative phases of the game; contemporary art and photography aficionados will enjoy discovering elements inspired by Jack Goldstein (Lorne’s teacher) and his reportage photography. The exhibition aspires to highlight all of Lorne Lanning’s sources of inspiration and his relationship with the great Italian art of the Renaissance, with the Avant-gardes (Futurism) and with Contemporary Art. We find, for instance, the influence of his teacher Jack Goldstein in the night landscapes of the game. Photographs from various parts of the world and of various populations will flank some of the works of the gameplay of Oddworld, as well as other
landscapes, dams and environments. Lanning puts at our disposal his original artworks and his inspirational photographic archive.
Architecture in Oddworld
Architecture of Sant’Elia
TALE OF TALES Art comes into Play Auriea Harvey (US, 1971) and Michaﾄ様 Samyn (BE, 1968) started collaborating in 1999. As Entropy8Zuper! they created many websites and internet artworks. In 2003 they founded independent game development studio Tale of Tales in Gent, Belgium, where they still live and work. Harvey and Samyn have devoted their lives to the creation of elegant and emotionally rich interactive entertainment. Their web-based work was awarded with the San Francisco MOMA Prize for Excellence in Online Art. Their videogames have been finalists the Independent Games Festival, Indiecade and winners in hﾃｳPLAY and the European Innovative Games Award. Their work has been featured in numerous media art exhibitions. Yet their main focus is on digital distribution.
Despite of their explicit non-ironic and anti-conceptual stance, their seemingly out-dated loyalty to figuration and their inspiration from traditional narratives, Tale of Tales' games never cease to provoke passionate reactions in the audience. Infuriating some while delighting others, their experimental titles have left an undeniable mark on the "art games" movement. Harvey and Samyn consider their work at Tale of Tales as research. Every piece is an exploration of the artistic potential of computer software as an expressive medium.
They believe the potential of this medium to be vast, and the technology to be equal in importance to pigment on cave walls, oil on canvas and the printing press. The Path
WRITINGS OF LIGHT FROM photoSHOOTING photoSHOOTING TECHNIQUES TO THE CREATIVE APPLICATIONS OF PHOTOSHOP This section will host photographs by Marianna Santoni with Paolo Della Corte and by the most celebrated contemporary creators of videogames of worldwide fame. All portraits will create a monumental wall at the entrance of the expo and will introduce the visitor to the various levels of game art. The portrait elaborations created by Marianna Santoni with Photoshop will plunge the spectator into the artist’s landscape, world and creativity. The special light portraits of Paolo Della Corte give it a unique and personal dimension. After graduating in History of Art, Paolo Della Corte begins to look professional photography, specializing in portraits and reportage on culture.
Paolo Della Corte, Massimo Giuntoli
MASSIMO GIUNTOLI
You cant’ stop Used to reinvent “irregular ways” to make use of technological stuff, Massimo Giuntoli takes part in Neoludica with two half-interactive animations, realized exclusively by PowerPoint, one of the most popular consumer software. You can’t stop wonders about guilty feelings which adult people can feel as they let themselves be involved with videogames, more specifically concerning “time wasting” due to it. Stealing hours from quite more legitimate man’s activities, like work as well as study. Gun faith shows an ultimate duel between weapons without any human presence, underlining such instruments’ only “vocation”: wiping out one’s own antagonist, even when it happens with ironical as well as frustrating slowmotion rhythm of the fight.
AUGMENTED REALITY
Venezia + by GCode MIKAYEL OHANJANYAN In every project of Mikayel Ohanjanyan's plastic elaboration, we always find the attempt to embody ineffability. His sculpture involves and activates opposites: strict exactness vs. shadowy forms, in a very transparent spaciousness, where substance shades off in a light without boundary lines, where invisible shows itself in real things, which reveal invisible changing again just in the moment of its becoming perceptible. Turned and doubled perspectives, intertwined dynamism of an elusive energy, create a lot of virtual dimensions, each of them being the mirror of its "autre", within bounds and out of bounds, in an endless play between unity and multiplicity. (T.T.)
Prospettive, studio
GAME ART IN THE HISTORY Digital art is a fundamental ingredient of the creation of videogames. The aesthetic component has been, right from the origin of videogame art, a vital ingredient for the relationship between the videogame and the videogame player. This section will host the GamesCollection.it and its “Retroludica” (ie “retro videogame art”): obsolete hardware, consoles, retro games. At first, the artistic component was confined to the digital space created by the pixels, a space where both definition and chromatic depth were difficult to achieve. But with the passing of time, videogame aesthetics have rivalled technology in the speed of their evolution, and have pursued the imitation of reality until they have reached it, first with the conquest of the third dimension, and then with the cinematographic emulation. A path from 2011 to 1966, when it was created the first videogame to TV.
GamesColection.it, our scientific partner, carries out its role of emphasizing the historical, artistic and cultural values of videogames by analysing and broadcasting the digital art of videogames.
Games consoles: 1- Odyssey 4- Nintendo Nes 7- Neo Geo 10- N64
2- Atari 2600 6 switch prima serie 5- Gameboy 8- 3DO 11- Dreamcast
3- Vectrex MB 6- Megadrive 9- Playstation 12- Xbox
Promoting Board: ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE E RICREATIVA E-LUDO LAB, Siracusa Co - promoter: MUSEA, Aosta Office of cultural studies, art, publishing and communication, organization exhibitions /events contemporary art since 1991. Project partners ASSOCIATIONS AESVI, Milano AIOMI, Roma EN SPACE, Milano FABBRICA ARTE beni culturali no profit, Varese PDG ARTE COMMUNICATIONS, Venezia PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANISATIONS GAMESCOLLECTION, Bergamo TIBE production, Travedona Monate (VA) Wizarp Urban Visions, Lainate (MI) The project is being curated by: Debora Ferrari, art critic and creator of GameARTGallery; Luca Traini, writer and historian; Andrea Ferrari, marketing and logistics; Ambra Bonaiuto, Salvatore Fallica and Salvatore Mica, E-Ludo Interactive e E-Ludo LAB; Sections curators: Elena Di Raddo, Alessandra Coppa, Andrea Ferrari, Salvo Mica, Salvo Fallica, Matteo Bittanti, Domenico Quaranta, Mauro Nicolini, Eleonora Charans, Chiara Di Stefano, Cristina Casero, Federico Salerno Artists: Alessandra Rigano e Federico Castronuovo ‘Serenata’, Auriea Harvey e Michael Samyn ‘Tale of Tales’, Lorne Lanning e Sharry McKenna ‘Oddworld’, Paolo Della Corte, Marianna Santoni, Mikayel Ohanjanyan, Samuele Arcangioli, Massimo Giuntoli, Gabriella Parisi, Matteo Bittanti + IOCOSE, Tonylight, Marco Cadioli, Mauro Ceolin, Damiano Colacito , Eva & Franco Mattes , Les Liens Invisibles, Molleindustria, Antonio Riello, Federico Solmi, Santa Ragione, Stefano Spera, Carlo Zanni, Miltos Manetas, Vjvisualoop, Tibe, Jan Vormann
Opening period: Venues: Sala Dei Laneri, Santa Croce 131, 30135 Venice, 1st June – 27th November Opening Hours 10.00 – 18.00 | Closed on Monday | Free entrance Centro Culturale Candiani, Venice-Mestre, 3st June – 31st October Opening Hours 12.00 – 18.00 | Closed on Saturday-Sunday-Monday | Free entrance Partner AESVI, Centro Culturale Candiani Mestre, Paolo De Grandis Arte Communications, Games Collection.it, Wizarp Urban Visions, EN SPACE, Scuola Internazionale di Comics, Ochacaffé Italia-Giappone, SFEI, Gabriella Parisi, Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment Italia, Disney Interactive Studios, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony Computer Entertainment, WB Games, Progaming Supporter Gobbetto Resine, Nikon, Distretto Commerciale dell’Eporediese, Sorgenti Monte Bianco, GCode, Tielle Viaggi, Federico Salza Catering, Gabriella Parisi, Evoluzione, La Repubblica XL, Gameplayer, Multiplayer.it, Eurogamer Patrocinatori Accademia Italiana Videogiochi, Archivio Videoludico Cineteca di Bologna, Lucca Comics&Games, Università di Catania, Comune di Catania, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore-ALMED, Università Ca’ Foscari, California College of the Arts, Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, Università Tor Vergata, Arsgames España, Atopic Festival e OMNSH.ORG Parigi, Cinemaster - master in sceneggiatura cinematografica e videogame direction Translation: Chiara Nicolini, Massimo Giuntoli, Salvatore Fallica Font: Titillium, open source created by Academia di Urbino Logo created by Serenata © NEOLUDICA. ART IS A GAME 2011-1966 | maggio 2011