MEETING THE MACHINE HALF-WAY
SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER, 2–8PM
To book your free place on this Study Day please visit our Eventbrite page, here.
Electricity flows from motherboards into muscle memory. Neurones fire into logic gates across silicon synapses. We must become a part of the system, in order to overcome it. Welcome to the arcade.
For their Study Day, Meeting the Machine Half-way, current artists-in-residence David Blandy, Larry Achiampong, and Gary Zhexi Zhang will be joined by curator Morgan Quaintance, gamer and artist Danielle Nelson (Zakuta/Izanami), researchers Carleigh Morgan and Nathaniel Zetter, alongside other invited contributors, to take part in a programme of talks, demonstrations and a live gaming tournament.
Image: David Blandy research image
The Study Day will draw on the experiences of professional game-players, researchers and artists in order to explore the history of video gaming culture and to think critically about our embodied relationship to technology, race and sexuality.
There will be a Super Smash Bros (Wii U version), 2014, tournament and a Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, 1992 'winner-stays-on' tournament.
Games will be available to play from 1pm and refreshments will be available from café abantu for early arrivals. Early registration for the Super Smash Bros tournament is advised.
2pm – Introduction from Lotte Juul Petersen, Artist and Programmes Curator, and John Bloomfield, Assistant Curator.
2.15pm – Morgan Quaintance on video game cultures.
2.45pm – "Cybernetic Communities": Nathaniel Zetter, Carleigh Morgan and Gary Zhexi Zhang in conversation.
3.30pm – Discussion and Q&A.
4pm – First rounds of Super Smash Bros tournament and Street Fightertournament. Refreshments available from café abantu.
5pm – "A Gamer's Life": Danielle Nelson, David Blandy and Larry Achiampong in conversation.
5.45pm – International gamers' chatroom, moderated by David Blandy and Larry Achiampong.
6.30pm – Discussion and Q&A.
7pm – Final rounds of Super Smash Bros and Street Fighter tournaments. Refreshments available from café abantu.
8pm – Ends.