Kickended by Silvio Lorusso is online database artwork archiving the Kickstarted campaigns that got not even a single penny. This competitive aesthetics of failure has been able to attract the attention of major national newspapers (from the British “The Guardian” to the Italian “Corriere della Sera”).
21.01.03 L’oading, genetically modified videogames.
On January 17th, at the Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea Montevergini in Syracuse, opens the exhibition ‘L’OADING, genetically modified videogames’, which gathers ten artists devoted to the creation, manipulation and reprogramming of videogames. Organized by Valentina Tanni, the exhibition offers a complete cross-section of the different approaches to the transformation of a videogame from its reductive role of simple amusement. The most common deconstruction is to use open softwares (Doom, Quake and so forth) as aesthetic engines for new journeys in the maze of the source code, which is fragmented and recomposed randomly. The graphical involutions of Retroyou can be interpreted in this way, just like the derailments caused by induced malfunctionings of Arcangel Costantini and the self-degenerations of Corby&Baily;. Another point of view, again aesthetic, is modifying the code in such a way as to preserve its iconographic system, only changing the usual rules of reality simulation, like the endless duplication of characters by Brody Condon or the innovative perspective simulation by Victor Liu See-le ‘Children of the Beureaucrats of the Revolution‘. Sound and abstract shapes are at the origin of the works by Delire, where the user can literally ‘play’ the ambients, while the italian Chiara Passa borrows only the aesthetic part of the videogames to illustrate a metaphor on love and media. Of different significance is the work of the albanian Gentian Shkurti, who, with his ‘Go West’, contributes to the definition of videogame as a medium, a conscious reflection of society which uses the game aesthetics and rules to communicate social and political contents, not forgetting a good dose of sarcasm. Within the opening is also scheduled am electronic music live set inspired to the videogames world by the italian musician e.g.¿.