2017A MAZE KHARKIV POP UP
A MAZE KHARKIV POP UP EXHIBITION
A MAZE. Independent Games and Playful Media Festival (Berlin, DE / Johannesburg, SA)
A MAZE. is a Berlin based international label in the field of independent and alternative games, playful media and games culture. Interdisciplinary, game-centered events and productions transcending media channels and cultures are the signature feature of A MAZE. Our portfolio includes the production of festivals, exhibitions, conferences, workshops, game showcases, game jams, artist in residence programmes and a magazine.
A MAZE. interacts with their events in different creative scenes including Johannesburg/ South Africa, Rijeka/ Croatia, Cluj/ Romania, Ramallah/ Palastine, Havana/ Cuba, Pristina/ Kosovo, Kharkiv/ Ukraine, Moscow/ Russia and Berlin/ Germany. A MAZE. / Berlin in April and A MAZE. / Johannesburg in September are the annual festivals that highlights and celebrates experimental games, authorship in playful media and virtual reality beyond the mainstream.
Thorsten S. Wiedemann, a friend and collaborator of PLAN B Festival, along with his team is curating A MAZE Pop Up Kharkiv that includes cool games exhibition, two workshops, and hyper talks from the most interesting international developers. The focus is alternative and experimental games development and their potential to challenge prejudices, subvert power structures and instigate dialogues on important social issues.
10 games will be showcased at PLAN B 2017, among them:
Window Washer (South Africa) — Thomas Mathew, Annika Morris and Dan Park.
This is a game about being a window washer in South Africa. It’s very relatableand has very unique gameplay.
VinylOS (Austria) — Jonas Bo! and Josef Who? / @agentwell and @josefwho
VinylOS is an alternative controller (alt.ctrl) game console and media art installation based on a DJ turntable. The turntable is transformed into a screen by projecting onto it from above.
A History of the Gaze (US) — Molleindustria / @molleindustria
A Short History of the Gaze is an experiential essay for Virtual Reality about the relationship between gaze and violence. From the evolution of sight in a pre-cambrian sea creature to the dominance display of a primate, from a landscape of billboards begging for attention to an infinite panopticon, the player traverses and affects the virtual scenes by simply looking (or not looking) at things.
WORKSHOPS
Learn the basics of (graphics-)programming and working with Processing, a programming language aimed especially at artists, designers and people without a technical background. We’ll learn how we can produce our own 2d drawing tools, use random processes to add variations to our designs and export graphics so we can use them for web, print or in Unity3D. As this is a beginners workshop no previous coding experience is required. Please bring your own laptop (Win/Mac/Linux). Please download the Processing IDE from processing.org/download before the workshop.
The workshop is run by Jonas Bohatsch, an artist and designer from Vienna, Austria. Besides working on the turntable console vinylOS or donut generators, he teaches generative design at University of Applied Arts and New Design University.
Personal games in Twine
Personal games tell the stories of their creators. They cover topics that mainstream games don’t touch and increase diversity in the industry, by adding more voices. Twine is an easy-to-use, open source tool to create non-linear story based games. In this workshop, participants will get an introduction to Twine and start working on their own personal games. The workshop is run by Franziska Zeiner, a game designer from Berlin, DE.
No coding knowledge required. Participants should bring a laptop. Alternatively, they can pair up. Participants should install the latest version of Twine before the workshop (http://twinery.org/)
A MAZE TEAM
Franziska is a game designer and print magazine editor, interested in creating meaningful, user-centered experiences. She is passionate about feminism, quirky games, observing mundane everyday interactions and turning them into digital experiences.
Website
Twitter: @herecomesfran
Jonas Bohatsch is a media artist and creative technologist who likes to tinker and experiment on the intersections of Art, Technology & Design.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jns_bo
Website
Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan moved to Berlin to make experimental games and experiences. In the past two years she has made Auscault; an experience which turns your feelings into music; Other Hands a VR game expressing the permanence of your virtual choices on your physical body; Closer a computer vision game that uses two people’s moving bodies as a shared single controller; and TexTiles, an award-winning game at the Wikimedia Free Knowledge Game Jam. Marie also founded Wyrd Arts Initiatives, a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging, documenting, and connecting creative expression across Canada.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/omarieclaire
Website
A MAZE Kharkiv POP UP 2016