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Welcome! This is the research blog for MachinimaBits festival. On this blog I put all the interesting sources and works I found during the creation of the lineup of the festival.

Unfortunately the second festival (2009 issue) was cancelled because the venue decided (without consultation) to calculate a (quite high) entrance fee, which we only found out about on the website. We (the curators + artists) make nothing and want to keep this a free festival.
I decided to not follow through and keep the research for a later time

Thursday, January 8, 2009

VJ-ing

The VJ-s mentioned here either use videogame aesthetics or old videogame consoles for their vj-ing. Again, if I miss important vj's please! help me :)

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Circuit bent sega mega drive from Gijs on Vimeo.


Circuit Bent Sega Mega Drive 2 from Gijs on Vimeo.

Gijs is a Dutch circuitbend-wonder. He bends gameconsoles, synthesizers, social softwares, applets, HTML, the internet as a whole and sometimes not yet existing technologies. He vjs with his equipment and sometimes also plays music, mostly on the gameboy but sometimes on other instruments.

"Jakob Lodwick: Would you believe I felt bad for the game? Like you were exploiting it. Weird.
Gijs: well.. i guess I'm exploiting it.. but if you have played the game already, playing it on a circuitbent console will make it more difficult to play the game. so i thing the game will feel not to bad about that.."
Gijs Gieskes website
Gijs Myspace

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Entter
Raúl Berrueco and Raquel Meyers founded Entter as a collaborative platform focused on New Media art and design. Its current member is Raúl (Santander, 1977).
Entter mix old and new hardware and software technology using self-designed and -coded programsand often surprise audiences with special setups such as LED (light-emitting diode) wall.
Entter @ Vimeo

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Raquel Meyers
VJ, visual artist and more.
Mission: destroy the pixel.
"Raquel Meyers's vividly animated videos for chiptuners like Jellica, Bubblyfish, and Glomag mirror the music's retro-tech aesthetic with 8-bit visuals and narrative elements lifted from the era of 2-D videogames."
Source
Raquel @ blip

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The C-MEN (TCM)
"I have been making videoclips, art installations, tv commercials, organized music events, gave workshops and lectures, doing monthly radioshows and started my own classical music project called the c64 orchestra.
I'm still using unconventional computers, the same amiga 1200's that started the low-res adventure 9 years ago and heading for the 10th anniversary next year."
C-Men @ Vimeo

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OTRO
Julien Ducourthial aka o+ro / otromatic is a veejay graphician creating visuals with low-tech machines such as commodore amigas & gp2x handhelds. Influenced by demoscene (underground scene producing audio/video productions on computers in the eighties/nineties), comics and graphic design. His productions melt experimentations videos & graphic collages from various elements (icons, scans, freewares), renewing the aesthetic & reading from these formatted graphic codes. After the releases of fanzines & original covers for different artists (Bodenstandig 2000, Mesu Kasumai, Rico Zerone...) & labels (8Bit Peoples, Retinascan, Receptors), Otromatic now focuses on researches & new works on his website Ilbm (InterLeaved BitMap) exploring the frontiers between pixel-art, abstraction & design.
Otro


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Kissdub
With more than 200 dates since 2003, KISSDUB is present on different festivals, concerts or artistic events. His visual acts have gone along with numerous bands, djs, national and international live artists.
Constantly going through and being an artist with a flexible identity, VJkissdub gives visual acts essentially in reaction to sounds. Using his taste and his cultural experience for the needs of the sounds he means to illustrate, he interprets on a wide screen the throbs of music and the colours of the event. His sources of inspiration are diverse : from experimental cinema to architecture, from game art to graffiti art, from baroque to writing and from web culture to television.
Kissdub @ Vimeo

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Jeff Donaldson (noteNdo) produces sound + video works with self designed + modified 8 + 16bit home computer systems + the LSDJ software on DMG
Notendos website

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Paris graphics
This video shows a super alpha version of my pattern maker for the Gameboy Advance written in a hurry for Blipfestival 2007. Since then more features have been added.
It is similar to my gp2x applications - equations that are varied via the d-pad and buttons.
The GBA runs at about 16MHz so my usual tricks of writing pixels to the screen give less than optimum results but you get the idea...

using my own custom software to turn hand held game systems such as the gp2x and gameboy advance into visual performance instruments.
parisgraphics @ Vimeo

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Micro music


low-tech music for high-tech people - the ultimate digital sound community.
The Micromusic community consists of musicians, visualists and other members from all over the world. They strive to revive old hardware and use them as musical instruments or for the creation of lofi graphics.
Micromusic.net


Mazemod is a web radio dedicated to amiga & tracker music culture streaming various styles of computer electronic music from the demoscene & computer art subculture.
Mazemod radio

Music Archives

There are loads of archives with music, ofcourse. This are the ones I know of that are chiptune related though. There must be more... Any additives are appreciated!

Keygen Music Archive

ZX spectrum Archive

Atari music Archive

C64 Scene Database

Musicvideos

I am not watching a lot of MTV, so I might not be very up to date. Please add other videos you know of.


Zero 7 - In the Waiting Line.
Fountainhead Entertainment.
Made in Quake 3 engine.
The first Machinima music video to air on MTV.

<a href="http://www.joost.com/08200b4/t/Red-Hot-Chili-Peppers-Californication-(Video)">Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (Video)</a>
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication.
By: Jonathan Dayton en Valerie Faris

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Nothing compares to you!


Half-Life 2's FacePoser has clearly opened up some interesting possibilities for machinima, ranging from facial expression to lip synching. Here, Dxvid puts these capabilities to the text in a music video of "Nothing Compares to You" performed by Sinead O'Connor/Mossman.

"This is the song 'Nothing Compares to You' performed by Mossman from Half-Life 2.

"This machinima movie was made in February 2006 and features the song "Nothing Compares to You". It was filmed using FacePoser, Half Life 2, Fraps and Vegas. If you would like to see my other machinima movies please go to -
Please also notice the disco light effect.
Dxvid (David Jones)

Friday, January 2, 2009

Julian Olivier

http://julianoliver.com/ioq3apaint
http://www.vimeo.com/julianoliver

Feng Mengbo: Q4U, 2002

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/02/020109.q4u.shtml
http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/artists/name/fengmengbo

grey line between new game and mod.

Eddo Stern: Sheik Attack,

Eddo Stern: Sheik Attack
http://www.eddostern.com/

http://www.c-level.cc
Bottom Line
Dope Wars
Matthew Lee et.al

Walking on the Edge

challenge the illusion of freedom in videogames.

Waco Ressurection

Waco Ressurection is a cross between a first person shooter and an interactive documentairy. Assuming the role of Koresh, players must battle US agents, respond to skeptics, [...] cultivate followers and

C-Level games.

9/11 ressurection

Hilscher


History of Machinima

Speedruns
Diary of a Camper (1996)

Galloway

www.rgbproject.com


http://nullpointer.co.uk/qqq/

Cosplay

HT Gold

HTGold

Hardware vs software

http://chipflip.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/chipmusic-hardware-or-software/

Movies about fanculture etc

http://www.2playerproductions.com/
http://www.8bitmovie.com/
http://www.8-bitgeneration.com/
Reformat the planet
http://www.vimeo.com/665366


King of kong:
Diehard video game fans compete to break World Records on classic arcade games.8bit philosophy trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf7mwUVZzw0&e

Make chipmusic

http://goto80.blipp.com/c-64-how-to

http://dhs.nu/files_msx.php

Consoles

http://ultimateconsoledatabase.com/famiclones/vcd6065.htm

orchestras

ZX spectrum orchestra
http://www.myspace.com/zxspectrumorchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALP6lUN4GuM

http://www.vimeo.com/1109226?pg=embed&sec=1109226

C64 Orchestra
http://www.oninternet.nl/project.asp?projectId=12

Documentairies

http://www.gayeton.com/gayeton_molotov.html
Douglas Gayeton spent nearly a year inside an online world called Second Life.

Theory

Mediamatic reader
http://www.mediamatic.net/page/10526/en

Videogames and art:
Grethe mitchell and Andy clark
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/ppbooks.php?isbn=9781841501420

Books on demoscene:
Tjari..

Book on 8bit music
http://www.gamessound.com/books.htm

Homo Ludens
http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/5316



Cosign conference:
http://www.cosignconference.org/conference/2001/papers

http://switch.sjsu.edu/web/v5n2/index.html

http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journalissues.php?issn=14682753&v=7&i=1

http://www.gamescenes.org/

Rube goldberg devices

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8926325136071596338&q=
http://tomjantol.blogspot.com/

Dancing and machinima

Dance volde, Dance!
Dancing is easy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_oU31aPGWw

machinima movies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DonvQIg-PMM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRIS1A3AyyA
http://www.vimeo.com/609147

machinima production companies

Litfuse
http://litfusefilms.com/movies/balladofblackmesa/watch/
fountainhead entertainment

videogame crafting

http://www.spritestitch.com/

indie/art videogames

http://www.gaszappers.com/
http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/
http://pbfb.ca/pac-mondrian/
http://bookchin.net/intruder/

http://www.ljudmila.org/~vuk/ascii/unreal/

http://www.farbs.org/games.html
http://www.java4k.com/index.php?action=home
http://bobrost.com/nes/

Pong manipulations

Mondrian pong: http://www.andersvisti.com/arkiv_grafik/pongdrian.html

pong animation

pong pain device


Rom hacking

also rom hacking
http://www.mmonoplayer.com/mmmanip.html

byte molester

Archive of roms:
http://www.romnation.net/

44422435 to nowhere


Trip to Nowhere from Entter on Vimeo.

http://rhizome.org/object.php?o=47078&m=1008217
http://entter.com/trip

Velvet-Strike

http://www.opensorcery.net/velvet-strike/
Leande, Schleiner, ...

Code visualizations

Both up for sale

Seeing the operation of code in Atari 2600 games. This is a dual reprise of my dismap and mariosoup pieces that look at the code of cartridge games, and how the graphics are mixed in

Ben Fry website

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this was an early attempt to track bot movement and visualise it. The colour was added in a later process, this data was run through the system alot!

All artworks have been created using data from the game "Unreal Tournament". Each image represents about 30 mins of gameplay in which the computers AI plays against itself. There are 20-25 bots playing each game and they play custom maps which I create. Each map has been specially designed so that the AI bots have a rough idea of where to go in order to create the image I want. I log the position (X,Y,Z) of each bot, every second using a modification for the game, I also log the position of a death. I then run my own program written in Processing to create printable postscript files of that match.
Alisons Website

exhibitions

Bitmap
Dadamachinima
exhibition in secondlife
Cracking the maze (by Annemarie Schleiner)
http://www.re-load.org/index_flash.html
http://www.re-load.org/quake/rotterdam.html
Museum Meltdown
Virtual Museum - Role of the exhibition space is questioned. (white box?)
Homo Ludens Ludens
http://www.neural.it/art/2008/05/homo_ludens_ludens_exploring_v.phtml
http://flickr.com/photos/14412219@N04/sets/72157604709325031/
http://andorgallery.com/

0100101110101101.org


Reenactment of Marina Abramovic and Ulay's Imponderabilia
Other Synthetic Performance in Second Life, 2007
0100101110101101.org portfolio

Bending consoles


nOtbOt is an automated game-player which is controlled and deranged by reactions to it's own virtual environment, caught in a vicious force-feedback loop...

The installation consists of a hacked up human-computer interface in which the feedback system, originally intended to provide tangible interaction for a human player, is now used as input data to control a 'first-person' videogame. Human interaction with the game/controller becomes obsolete, resulting in a completely erratic form of [art]ificial intelligence.
The observer of the installation, however, can literally try to 'get a grip' on taking control of the system...
Walter Langelaar

demoscene



10 best demos Curated by...

Otro: http://otro.free.fr/
Spectrum: http://zxaaa.untergrund.net/
Archive: http://www.pouet.net/
PC: http://msg.sk/z/menu.php3

Jodi


Untitled Game (1996) is a CD (and web site) containing twelve modifications of Quake by artist ensemble JODI. The first modification, "Arena", is blinding white. All visible architecture has been eliminated. What remains is interface components and sound. The following mods range in interactivity and effect, from number stats flowing upscreen to ambient warm toned 3-D environments.
Source (and more)

Other videogame based works by Jodi:
Sod
Jet Set Willy info
Max Payne CHEATS ONLY
Composite Club 2.0++

Cory Arcangel: Super Mario Clouds, 2002/2003

->

Super Mario Clouds is based on the Super Mario game for Nintendo’s NES game console. Cory Arcangel hacked the game and modified it so that all that remains of the game are the white clouds on a blue sky. Gone is the main character, Super Mario, who the player had to guide through a labyrinth in the original jump and run game, just like the obstacles, landscapes and opponents that lend the game its narrative structure. Those people who are familiar with the game can imagine them on the empty background, everyone else will just see the cartoon-like display of a sky. The work was created on the basis of a manipulation of the hardware and software. Cory Arcangel had to open the cartridge, on which the game was stored, and replace the Nintendo graphics chip with a chip on which he had burned a program he had written himself. Cory Arcangel is a member of the Beige Programming Ensemble who have focused their artistic programme on the hacking ethic of manipulating existing technology, thereby taking the modification of legacy technology to absurd extremes: the group have published computer programs pressed on records and organise an annual competition for cassette disk jockeys.

Fanculture: Speedrunning


Speedrunning could be described as the older brother of Machinima.
A speedrun is a recording of a play-through of a videogame performed, with the intent of completing it as quickly as possible, mainly for the purposes of entertainment and competition.

DeLappe, dead-in-iraq, 2006.


This work commenced in March of 2006, to roughly coincide with the 3rd anniversary of the start of the Iraq conflict. I enter the online US Army recruiting game, "America's Army", in order to manually type the name, age, service branch and date of death of each service person who has died to date in Iraq. The work is essentially a fleeting, online memorial to those military personnel who have been killed in this ongoing conflict. My actions are also intended as a cautionary gesture.

I enter the game using as my login name, "dead-in-iraq" and proceed to type the names using the game's text messaging system. As is my usual practice when creating such an intervention, I am a neutral visitor as I do not participate in the proscribed mayhem. Rather, I stand in position and type until I am killed. After death, I hover over my dead avatar's body and continue to type. Upon being re-incarnated in the next round, I continue the cycle.

As of 5/3/08, I have input 4002 names. I intend to keep doing so until the end of this war. As of this date there have been 4066 American service persons killed in Iraq.
More DeLappe
RetroYou (interactive software project)

Brody Condon, Adam Killer 1999-2001



(Original Game: Half-Life)
Brody Condon

Adam Killer is a modification of the commercial game Half Life. Condon exploits a bug in the Half Life engine to create harsh trailing effects, turning the screen into a chaotic mess of bloody, fractured textures. Players have no option other than to shoot at the benign central character, Adam, who appears in multiples.

Invading Invaders


Using iconography to invade public space.
Also see the original website.
My personal Flickrinvaded project (click on a photo to see my graffiti).

Trigger Happy - Thomson and Craighead 1998



A playable on-line re-creation of the ATARI classic, 'Space Invaders' where instead of fending off pixelly alien invaders, you must defend yourself against paragraphs of philosophical text taken from Michel Foucault's essay, 'What is an Author?' This game assumes the classic format of Space Invaders, but instead of shooting UFOs, the player must destroy a descending paragraph excerpted from Michel Foucault's essay, "What is an Author?" In destroying the passage word by word the player metaphorically deconstructs Foucalt's text which itself deconstructs the idea of the author. After shooting a few words, a "Yahoo!" search page appears on the screen with results defined by the eradicated words. This forces the player back into the Internet which is a platform for the death of the author on a daily basis.

Lan Party - January 17th

There will also be a 'game-day' (gaming on the big screen) on January 17th, from 9.00 - 17.00 (depending on the number of participants).
The game that will be played is Battlefield 2, but you can also bring your own favorite game and we will see if we can find an opportunity to play it.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Program

Will be here soon! ...

Friedrich Kirschner


the photographer from Friedrich Kirschner on Vimeo.

"We interrupt your program for a visual message and maybe we even get to the point where you wouldn't want to tune in again..."

Person 2184 is a three part visual poem running inside the game unreal tournament 2004 from epicgames. It shows queer happenings in an urban environment not very far from here and now.
Running inside the game means that you can download person2184 as a modification to your original game Unreal Tournament 2004 and play the movies in-engine in realtime on your computer.
The goal of the project is to give an idea of alternative art direction, content and story structure to interactive and non-interactive narrative.

Kirschner wrote the Moviesandbox Machinima tool. Moviesandbox is an Open-Source graphical filmmaking tool in progress, formerly developed for the Unreal Tournament engine and now based on C++ and OpenGL.
Kirschners other movies
Website

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

MachinimaBits - 29th January 2009



Machinima is a blend of machine, cinema and animation. It is the production of (short) films within a game-engine.

In 2006 we organized the first MachinimaBits festival. Since then, we find that focussing on videogames in such a confined way excludes a lot of the more interesting, arguably border-line practices. This year we would like to broaden our scope and focus on the use of videogame (technologies) in terms of appropriation.
To appropriate something involves taking possession of (parts of) it. The term appropriation often refers to the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work. The borrowed elements may include images, forms or styles.
For now we like to diverse between 4 forms of appropriation (Click on the categories to find some examples):

Form
Content
Technology
The Game as a Whole