Uncanny Dream

Open workshop “Lets play. Experiencing art games”

Anastasia Koroleva (RU), Nikita Prudnikov (RU), Katya Galitskaya (RU), Xenia Obukhovskaya (RU), Alexander Vetushinskiy (RU), Margarita Skomorokh (RU)

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The workshop is organized as “Let’s play” sessions with artistic games creators, game studies scholars, theorists and philosophers. We will play video games presented in a context of the “Uncanny Dream” project and discuss the topics such as video game as artistic medium, art games mechanics etc. “In Between” by Katya Galitskaya – the game is based on a free artistic interpretation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The main idea is that after death a human soul does not depart immediately to find its next embodiment but passes through a stage between lives. During this trip, a soul sees various illusions reproduced by the subconscious, meets both bad and good gods. The soul of the deceased person does not realise at once that it has left the physical world already. “Aeternum illud” by Xenia Obukhovskaya –the player finds her/himself in the state of emergency, which is ruled by biocontrol and totalitarian power structures. In order to escape this state, she/he should break her/his relations with the demonic sovereignty and become the subject which cannot be controlled by its rules — the inhuman being. “Soundwalk” by Anastasia Koroleva – the practice of sound walk placed in the space of the game. Each of the scenes is a sound panorama of an impersonal area that changes as the player moves. Artifacts hinting at a connection with latent spaces, located in each of the scenes, interfere with the soundscape with their character sound and crumble as close as possible to them, moving the listener to the next place, keeping his sound walk on.

Katya Galitskaya (RU) (b.1986): Russian digital artist. Grew up on a military base in Poland. She has six degrees in design, marketing and illustration. In the last few years she has become interested in the possibilities of three-dimensional art. Currently, she is studying interactive media in the Rodchenko Art School. In the future, she plans to focus on developing computer games. She also has worked in the biggest Russian animation studio (Souzmultfilm) and collaborates with fashion brands.

Anastasia Koroleva (RU): Moscow-based interdisciplinary artist, performer (b.1997). Studies the relationship between human and technology, the influence of technology on sensoric perception, developments sound machines and installations. Group exhibitions (selected): “Future Lab. Kinetic Art in Russia”, The Tretyakov Gallery (2021), “Blind zone”, the Polytech (2021), CTM Festival (2020) etc. Personal exhibitions were presented at The SA)) gallery (2021), The Foundation of Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantine Sorokin (2020).

Xenia Obukhovskaya (RU): Born in 1994 in Moscow. Received her first education at Moscow State University, where did her graduation research on situationism. Currently studies at Rodchenko Art School at the departments of “Interactive New Media Art” and “Moving image”. Artist explores issues surrounding identity and corporeality as well as speculations in media and video games, media violence and the impact of digital technologies on mental health. Works with new media and transmedia installation.

Margarita Skomorokh (RU): Game studies scholar and a game developer (a member of the Russian art group IBORG). Studies art games as a medium defined by the intersection of interactivity and digitality and investigates the artistic language emerging from this set of conditions. Other research interests: notgames, zero-player games, masocore, gold farming, in-game cyberformances. As a game developer, participated in the A MAZE and IMPAKT festivals and several exhibitions.

Alexander Vetushinskiy (RU): Philosopher, member of the Moscow Research Center of Video games, specialist in the history and theory of video games, expert of the Sberbank Gamification Laboratory, author of the book “Igrodrom. What you need to know about video games, gaming culture and philosophy”, lecturer at the School of Design, National Research University Higher School of Economics.

Nikita Prudnikov (RU) (monekeer): Musician, software architecture expert and DSP enthusiast currently working in the field of applied machine learning in its connection with the sound art. Nikita is an author of the F L A K Y – a generative music framework which was used in games and live performances on various events including: Ars Electronica, Gamma, Prepared.

Credits

Curators: Helena Nikonole, Oxana Chvyakina Artists: Fedor Balashov aka wasdswag, Katya Galitskaya, Mitry Grankov, Gray cake, Anastasia Koroleva, Yuliya Kozhemyako aka supr, Ivan Netkachev, Xenia Obukhovskaya, Rona Peshekhonova, Alexey Ryabov, Eugene Kruglov, Pavel Seldemirov, Vladimir Sheshak, Anna Shustikova, Roman Solodkov.