[Robby Rackleff, from Guild, 2012] Big Reality, curated by Brian Droitcour :: March 15-29, 2012 :: Opening: March 15; 7:00 – 10:00 pm :: 319 Scholes, 319 Scholes Street, Brooklyn, NY. Continue reading

[Apple/apple (Beta) by Dan Silverstein and Dave Tolchinsky. Picture credit: Tom Van Eynde] Crossing Wires: Technology and Play :: until April 15, 2012 :: Evanston Art Center, 2603 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL.

Technology has traditionally been used to make what functions function faster, easier and more efficiently. We expect computers, robots and machines to continue to take over the performance of chores and ramp up the production of goods. But what happens when technology is used for the non-functional, to make what is functional less functional? What happens when technology, especially complex technology, is used simply for … art or for play? Continue reading

Everything Must Go! Ephraim & Sadie Hatfield — An exploration of art and commerce through gift and barter economies — Give One, Get One Free :: until August 31, 2011 :: 24 Eagle Street, North Adams, Massachusetts.

As part of DownStreet Art, Ephraim & Sadie Hatfield will manufacture large quantities of small electronic art works that they will give away free of charge through their pop-up “store” at 24 Eagle Street in North Adams, MA. Each work of art will feature an object that has been gifted by the public to the Hatfields.

Give One, Get One Free: The Hatfields seek interesting items, curiosities, toys, trinkets, memorabilia, and other objects that can serve as a focal point for these works. Continue reading

December Discussion on -empyre-: Gaming Subcultures :: Gabriel Menotti wrote: Dear all,

Welcome to an early December and another debate! This month, empyre is dedicated to the general universe of Gaming Subcultures – the different forms of “playing outside the console,” titles that explore such dynamics and, especially, the social practices built around them.

In spite of the many stories they might tell, videogames are first and foremost narratives of mastery over the system. Their particular drama is not situated on whatever turning points are shown on the screen, but between the player and the controls. This is easier to perceive in highly technical genres such as platformers and rhythm games. To play a game is to learn how to perform within it – how to take things into effect. Continue reading

On the web, a new “Friend” may be just a click away, but true connection is harder to find and express. Ze Frank presents a medley of zany Internet toys that require deep participation — and reward it with something more nourishing. You’re invited, if you promise you’ll share.

Learn to Play :: October 4 – November 24, 2010 :: Reception: November 9, 5:30-8:00 pm :: Euphrat Museum of Art, De Anza College, 21250 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Cupertino, CA.

Artists include Andrew Y Ames, Jim Babb of Socks Inc., April Banks, Brenda Brathwaite, Yunan Cao, Terry Cavanagh, Joe DeLappe, David Elliott, Jake Elliott, Mark Essen, Catherine Herdlick, Rod Humble, Molleindustria, Jason Rohrer, Susana Ruiz of Take Action Games, Adam Saltsman, Kelly Santiago and Jenova Chen of thatgamecompany, Jonatan Söderström, Superbrothers, La Mar Williams II, Robert Yang, the City of Cupertino, and more.

Curated by James Morgan and John Bruneau, with Jan Rindfleisch :: Partners: ZER01, CADRE Laboratory for New Media. Continue reading

The Institute of Network Cultures proudly presents the 6th issue in the Theory on Demand series from Tom Apperley, Gaming Rhythms: Play and Counterplay from the Situated to the Global :: Download PDF or go to LULU.

Global gaming networks are heterogenous collectives of localized practices, not unified commercial products. Shifting the analysis of digital games to local specificities that build and perform the global and general, Gaming Rhythms employs ethnographic work conducted in Venezuela and Australia to account for the material experiences of actual game players. This book explores the materiality of digital play across diverse locations and argues that the dynamic relation between the everyday life of the player and the experience of digital game play can only be understood by examining play-practices in their specific situations. Continue reading

[Nam June Paik standing up to greet President Clinton at a White House State Dinner for South Korean President Dae Jung Kim on June 9, 1998] Trickster Makes This World :: August 31 – November 21, 2010 :: Nam June Paik Art Center, 85 Sanggal-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, 446-905 Korea.

A Trickster is the agent provocateur between different worlds. He, who is hardly ever a she, is a slick mediator that utilizes their considerable powers of persuasion to conjure great fortune and courage.

The most influential “Tricksters” are the ones in the highest echelons of power who influence political and technological machinations to make their world. Using the subtle methodologies of different media formats, from the news to advertisements to entertainment, they execute their soft powers to achieve their personal goals. Continue reading

[Image: Top – Julius von Bismarck’s “Image Fugurator.” Bottom – “Grafik Dynamo” by Kate Armstrong and Michael Tippett, on Turbulence.org] Between Play and Politics: Dysfunctionality in Digital Art by Marie-Laure Ryan, Electronic Book Review, March 2010:

“Let me jump right into the heart of my topic, by presenting two examples. The first, Image Fugurator, a project by Julius von Bismarck which won the Prize Ars Electronica 2008 in the category Interactive Art at the Cyberarts Festival in Linz, Austria, inverts the functioning of a regular camera…”

My second example is Grafik Dynamo, a mock graphic novel by the Canadian Web artists Kate Armstrong and Michael Tippett. True to its title, Grafik Dynamo is a constantly Continue reading

The International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media (IJPADM) is seeking contributions to a special issue specifically relating to Mixed Reality and Performance :: Issue Editor: Alan Chamberlain (Mixed Reality Lab – University of Nottingham).

Mixed Reality performances have highlighted our ability to: exist, understand and concurrently engage with both virtual and real worlds in a performative way. The development of the technologies under-pinning such Mixed Reality systems have afforded performers, directors and developers the chance to create experiences that can both spatially and temporally explore the boundaries of performance and understand where and why performance occurs in everyday life. Continue reading