As part of Europe’s leading trade show for interactive entertainment, GC – Games Convention, four exhibitions—“Space Invaders: From Outer Space,” “History & Culture,” “Machinima” and “Digital Beauties”—will demonstrate from 21 to 24 August how art and digital worlds merge. Several workshops will give visitors the opportunity to design small works of art themselves.
GC ART Special: Space Invaders – From Outer Space
30 Years of Space Invaders – The Anniversary Show
Computerspielemuseum Berlin and GC – Games Convention are paying tribute to a classic of video-game history with a dedicated exhibition. “30 Years of Space Invaders” makes the historical and contemporary facets of a legend tangible across 120 square meters.
At the center of the exhibition is the large interactive installation “Invaders!” In the work by Franco-American artist Douglas Edric Stanley, players must now control and fire the virtual cannon from the historic game using their entire bodies. Stanley selected the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center as the thematic background. “With my work, I show how Space Invaders can be understood as a social narrative and related to historical narratives without losing its poetic power,” Stanley says. Alongside extensive documentation, the anniversary show will offer the original playing experience on a classic Space Invaders arcade machine from 1978.
Exactly 30 years ago, the computer game Space Invaders triggered a previously unknown boom. Shortly after the release of the blockbuster films Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, millions of players were able to save Earth from aliens with a joystick in hand. Space Invaders became a legend and a global icon.
Toshihiro Nishikado’s invention marked Japan’s entry into the worldwide video-game business. It was the first game with a dramatic story, and for the first time players could immortalize themselves with a saved high score. This was one of the principal reasons for the success of Space Invaders and revolutionary in itself.
GC ART: History & Culture
The Major Retro-Gaming Event
A trade show within the trade show: that is GC ART: History & Culture. The major retro-gaming event transports visitors into the past of digital gaming. Several retro clubs from across Germany will present themselves and their cherished exhibits in Hall 2 at GC – Games Convention. With historic computers, consoles and various accessories, History & Culture shows the roots of today’s high-resolution 3D games. Whether 8-bit technology from the 1970s and 1980s or blocky graphics, the exhibition gives visitors an outline of recent gaming history.
Fans of older consoles will find a visit to the Retro Forum worthwhile. Owners will present individual exhibits in greater detail there. Naturally, playing games will not be neglected at History & Culture. Every day, visitors will have an opportunity to put classics and evergreen titles from every hardware generation through their paces.
GC ART: Machinima
The Art of Filmmaking with Computer Games
Games are not only entertainment or educational tools, but also instruments of creative expression. The special exhibition GC ART: Machinima demonstrates this. It shows how computer games are used to produce 3D animated films, with familiar game worlds serving as film sets and the software of various 3D computer games functioning as animation programs.
The Machinima Cinema will screen selected outstanding machinima productions throughout the day. Presentations and workshops by well-known experts from the machinima scene will follow the screenings. Professionals will give GC visitors an overview of the variety of topics, introduce genres and forms of presentation, and demonstrate the most important tools live.
In the Machinima Lab, visitors can then experiment playfully with different forms of machinima filmmaking at several computers, receive tips from specialists and try out innovative input devices.
The term “machinima” is a portmanteau of “machine” and “animation.” In the simplest case, several people perform according to a script in a networked multiplayer game during live-action machinima. Players move their characters through the virtual world like actors. One player assumes the role of cinematographer by having the output from that player’s screen recorded. The resulting material is then edited and dubbed.
Since its beginnings in the mid-1990s, a community of several thousand members has developed, meeting primarily on the internet to exchange information. This form of filmmaking is also attracting increasing attention in the computer-games and film industries. Together with the “Animation in New Media” project, GC – Games Convention presents this creative repurposing of computer games.
GC ART: Digital Beauties
From Pencil Sketch to Computer Game
Computers and specialist software can be used to create images that are almost impossible to distinguish from real photographs. The special Digital Beauties exhibition shows what is possible today and repeatedly confronts viewers with the question: is the image real or was it created virtually? An image gallery presents more than 20 outstanding works by artists from around the world.
For everyone interested in trying 3D programming themselves, workshops will take place in the 3D Lab. An expert will explain how a character is developed through many small steps, with participants following each stage on a computer.
The first step in creating a computer-game character, landscape or building architecture will also be demonstrated: the handmade pencil sketch. A concept artist will clearly show the audience the various stages and techniques involved in developing a figure. The resulting work serves as the basis for digital realization.
