For its tenth edition of the Expanded Animation Symposium, organized by the Hagenberg Campus of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria and Ars Electronica, invited Isabelle Arvers to give a talk on “Re Occupy the digital Space!” as part of a Games & Art panel with Margarete Jahrman, on the 10th of September as part of the Ars Electronica Festival 2022.

10/09/22 14:45 Games & Art – Isabelle Arvers: Re-occupy the Digital Space

We are currently experiencing a counter-attack of minorities that is paving the way to a reappropriation of the image, of representation and of identities. It can be seen as a counter to the “screen” globalization of the globalized imaginary. This decolonization of the imaginary invites a new generation of game designers and digital creators to play with multiple realities and to question other cosmologies and cosmogonies, resulting in a mixture of the supernatural and everyday life; a fantasy, a science fiction that is different from the one linked to a notion of utilitarian progression, efficiency, cleanliness, and artificial materials. This decolonized imaginary can be expressed through counter gaming by using games as a tool to criticize games themselves and to raise awareness on post-colonial, political and social issues. Thus, awareness can be raised on environmental issues along with the green gaming movement, with the development of technologies that are no longer based solely on power and energy consumption. Video games can also be used as a tool for disalienation, for the rehabilitation of history – not the history of the winner – but the stories of those who experienced the events and lived to tell them.

In its ten-year history, the Expanded Animation Symposium has continually examined the vast and constantly evolving field of animation and its myriad connections to other disciplines. Along this journey, the symposium has featured prominent and upcoming people, projects and perspectives that have significantly shaped the current animation landscape. In addition to becoming a regular part of the Ars Electronica Festival, the symposium itself has also continued to expand, developing from an initial one-day event to a three-day affair that includes multiple tracks, exhibitions, performances and even an additional symposium, Synaesthetic Syntax.

Sun Sep 11 2022 , 11:20 am – 12:20 pm, KEPLER’S GARDENS, Keplergebäude, Lecture Hall 1

Prix Forum: Computer Animation
Isabelle Avers (FR), Marc Hericher (FR), Rashaad Newsome (US), Yoriko Mizushiri (JP)

The Prix Forum Computer Animation is an open discussion between the top three winners of Prix Ars Electronica 2022 and a jury member. Rashaad Newsome (Golden Nica / Being), Marc Hericher (Award of Distinction / Absence), and Yoriko Mizushiri (Awards of Distincion/ Anxious Body) will be on the panel, while juror Isabelle Arvers will chair the session.

Chair:

Isabelle Arvers (FR)

Speakers:

Marc Hericher (FR)
Rashaad Newsome (US)
Yoriko Mizushiri (JP)

Biographies

Isabelle Arvers (FR) 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 games through machinima and games as a new medium for artists. In 2019, she embarked on an Art and Games World Tour in the Global South to engage with a decolonial geography of art and games.

Marc Hericher (FR) studied illustration and Fine Arts, and then animation at the Parisian ENSAD art school, with a marked taste for storytelling and video art. Since 2006, he works as an independent director or motion designer in the production of music videos, institutional films, documentaries, and personal films. Among his works, he directed the special effects of the feature film My Angel by Harry Cleven and an abstract video installation in a store in London. His films Corpus and Ollo have received many awards at festivals. Filmography: 25/75 (2006, 3′), La Théorie des ensembles (2007, 4′), Ollo (2008, 15′), Create Your Own World (2014, 1’12), Corpus (2015, 3’30), Automaphone (art vidéo, 2016, 1’37).

Yoriko Mizushiri (JP) (b. in 1984), is a freelance film director who graduated from the Joshibi University of Art and Design in Japan, where she created Shiri Play (2005), Kappo (2006), and Lena (2009). Then she worked on her trilogy that focuses on the sense of touch: Futon (2012), Snow Hut (2013), and Veil (2014). These films have been nominated and garnered awards at animation festivals like Berlinale Annecy and Zagreb.

Rashaad Newsome (US) lives and works in Oakland, CA. Their work blends several practices, including collage, sculpture, film, video, animation, photography, music, software engineering, community organizing, and performance, to create a divergent field that rejects classification. Using the diasporic traditions of improvisation, he pulls from the world of advertising, the internet, Art History, and Black and Queer culture to produce counter-hegemonic work that walks the tightrope between social practice, abstraction, and intersectionality. He has exhibited and performed in galleries, museums, institutions, and festivals throughout the world including The Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC, SFMOMA, CA, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Hayward Gallery, London, and MUSA, Vienna.