Over the past two decades, the number of artists using the video game medium as a medium of expression and artistic vision has grown significantly. During this panel, artists and curators from different parts of the world will present unusual games as an experimental, artistic and expressive medium. The invited guests will take us into the world tour of the experimental, hacked and poetic game projects. Will we see some of the rare art games from all over the world, narrative and funny experiences, and maybe even escape rooms!
Host: Zuraida Buter | NL
Natalia Alfutova, Yaroslav Kravtsov | RU
Isabelle Arvers | FR
Laura Palavecino | AR
Claudia Molinari | IT
Natalia Alfutova, Yaroslav Kravtsov | RU
Masterskaya 15 is a new generation studio based in Moscow, created by Natalia Alfutova and Yaroslav Kravtsov as a think-tank for Russian media artists who explore the metaverse and the interference of digital life forms in the physical world and whose interest lies in the existence and self-identification of a person in the world of developing digital technologies, big data, virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
Yaroslav Kravtsov is an independent game developer, media artist and popularizer of video games. Since 2007 he has been dealing with professional game development. He graduated from the faculty of physics at the Moscow State University and currently is the creative director of the Expload platform, which designs and distributes Open Eyes Games. He curates a game development course for Unity users at the Scream School in Moskiwe and coordinates the DevGAMM conference held in Moscow, Kiev and Minsk.
Natalia Alfutova graduated in Mathematics at the Moscow State University, Film Directing at Higher Director’s Courses Moscow and Multimedia Art at The Rodchenko Art School in Moscow). In 2014 she founded Mediamead art studio. Artworks from this studio are a mix of math, cinema and multimedia art. The main areas of her work are scientific art, digital art and application art (art created and dispersed using a mobile application, the genre herself initiated). Her works were presented in museums and art centers, including in Moscow, Montreal, Berlin and Vienna. Currently, Natalia is working on digital avatars and is studying their impact on the life of modern man. She lives and works in Moscow.
Claudia Molinari | IT
Claudia is a visual artist and illustrator with many years of experience in the creative management of design-related projects. She is a co-founder of the Milan studio We Are Müesli, awarded for, among others, interactive CAVE stories! CAVE! DEUS VIDET and Venti Mesi, the historical investigative card game Colpo di Stato and the escape room WER IST WER.
Isabelle Arvers | FR
Isabelle Arvers is a French artist and curator whose research focuses on the interaction between art and video games. For the past twenty years, she has been investigating the artistic, ethical, and critical implications of digital gaming. Her work explores the creative potential of hacking video games through the practice of machinima. As a curator, she focuses on video games as a new language and as an expressive medium for artists. She curated several shows and festivals around the world, including Machinima in Mash Up (Vancouver Art Gallery, 2016), UCLA Gamelab Festival (Hammer Museum, Los Angeles 2015, 2017), Evolution of Gaming (Vancouver, 2014). In 2019, she embarked on an art and games world tour in non western countries to promote the notion of diversity of gender, sexuality and geographic origin, focusing on queer, feminist, and decolonial practices.
Laura Palavecino | AR
Laura Palavecino (she/her) is an Argentinian visual artist, video game designer, teacher and researcher specialized in experimental games, game studies and electronics. She is currently finishing her thesis for a Master in Electronic Arts. She intertwines traditional art and technology with her research interest focused on nature, wonder, spirituality and environmental issues, through the development of artistic games, alternative controllers and immersive art.