<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><i>i<font size="2">’m a fugitive thats how i live<br>as i go along making up the narrative <br><br>forget what you heard forget what they said im just a hologram in your head <br><br></font></i>hey there shu lee thanks for the introduction!!!<br><br>I don’t want to leave here more / more / more to much to read just this :<br><br><br>1)the two poems fluid code and space cow-boi blue that you see at the end of this email were/are central to some of the inter -disciplinary art/research i have done in the past recent past, and yes the recent future :-). (i french poet recently told me that i managed package a huge part of what Deluze was saying in “ space blues cowboi”. ) <br><br><br>other links to videos/songs/digital poetry mutations and the melange of many elements: including an earlier paper on FAR (fugitive archetype of resistance) And a link to a recent one. <br><br>looking to blow up every part of this arts/research practice of mine and let the pieces fall where they may in a sort of digital cut up. .. any one already playing in that field or wants to play or parlay please holla when u can/are inspired. <br><br>happy empyre-ing to you all<br><br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">i haven't commented but have been reading through this exciting inspiring sharing across digital space/timelines ..<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br>Recent publication on FAR in this great book full of great writing:<br><a href="https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-4601-6/we-travel-the-space-ways/">https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-4601-6/we-travel-the-space-ways/</a><br><br>Older pub on FAR:<br><a href="https://www.academia.edu/s/07792b16e2/far-now_the-fugitive-archetype-of-resistance-and-her-ever-changing-now">https://www.academia.edu/s/07792b16e2/far-now_the-fugitive-archetype-of-resistance-and-her-ever-changing-now</a><br><br>other stuff (the last link to “runaway slave” is a song in progress for next album<br><a href="https://vimeo.com/149306465">https://vimeo.com/149306465</a> space blues cowboi<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkvuJ0-hNVY&t=6s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkvuJ0-hNVY&t=6s</a>. npoem<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fQaTxtdJ-c&t=118s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fQaTxtdJ-c&t=118s</a>. from anti lecture start from around 15;52 for relevent bits and/ 13;))<br><a href="https://soundcloud.com/nicklaus-rohrbach/runaway-jan19-1/s-luAVI?in=nicklaus-rohrbach/sets/jata-preprods-2019/s-ujMf5--">https://soundcloud.com/nicklaus-rohrbach/runaway-jan19-1/s-luAVI?in=nicklaus-rohrbach/sets/jata-preprods-2019/s-ujMf5--</a> runaway slave<br><br>Latest book<br><a href="https://www.facebook.com/takebackthenarrative/">https://www.facebook.com/takebackthenarrative/</a><br><br><br>Home</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">
Where ever I lay my hat<br>IS
where I belong<br>always
<br>Gone
<br>a rolling stone<br>beat in the bone<br>beat in the bone<br><br>She’s a space cowboi blue<br>Azonal
<br>Where she be, in between spaces<br>She move between places<br>Leaving traces<br>Investigating interzonal cases<br><br>Unheard unseen<br>In between<br>Breaking out stasis<br>Radio static oasis<br><br>watch she tighten up her laces<br>Rocket boots charged<br>She trip thru dimensions<br>Frequency sensation<br>disciple of creation<br><br>be patient<br><br>she move in all direction<br>with out detection<br>viral transmission<br>Breaking the cage<br>with all this rage fueling<br>her rocket boots flying<br>high high<br>swallow up the sky<br>singing bye bye<br><br>she defy
<br>Escher staircases
<br>while she lie
<br>in waiting
to see what the winds of change<br>will make she
<br>carry no flags
<br>just notebooks and rag tags<br>rewiring the matrix
<br>she exist in azonal spaces <br><br>Ajalon 2012/2016, Space Cowboi Blue <br><br>RECODE<br>We need to create a subversive lingo<br>which misses the detection<br><br>of the rei-ficating machine
<br>that which sucks the life out
<br>of creative protest
<br>movements toward positive change...
<br>and turns it into profit and propaganda of cool.
<br>a fluid code is needed.
<br>a poly speak not unlike that which was used during
<br>the times of the underground railroad.
<br>it can be hidden in plain view
<br>Foster change under the nose of the machine skewing
<br>the eye-line of its surveillance camera
<br>facilitating human social revolution
<br>through overt covert action
<br>But i digress, back to the code.
<br>Write a code. Create a code.
<br>Decode and recode.
<br>Until all systems of language erode
<br>into one continuous vibration
<br>One sound. (one sonic sensation)
<br>Random echoes would act as a splinter
<br>in white light revealing the prism.
<br>One sound splinters into many scales
<br>and chord combinations.
<br>Langue is (redefined in the meta molecular)
<br>undefined as communication
<br>is meta-molecular giving way to
<br>a mélange of atomic noise
<br>and (a)tonal phrasings.
<br>Ajalon, 2008, Decode Recode, Poemetrics</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 10:53 AM isabelle arvers <<a href="mailto:iarvers@gmail.com">iarvers@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Dear all,</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">I just landed in Mumb<font face="arial, sans-serif">ai as India is my 6th step in my art and games world tour, after Japan where I felt a lot of self censorship following the last events around Aichi Triennale where the statue of a comfort women presented as part of the exhibition "After Freedom of Expression" created a scandale and pushed the Nagoya governor to shut down the exhibition as well as all the fundings for the entire Triennale...</font></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/world/asia/japan-aichi-trienniale.html" target="_blank"><font face="arial, sans-serif">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/world/asia/japan-aichi-trienniale.html</font></a></div><div dir="ltr"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font face="arial, sans-serif">Almost impossible to find any political games or controversial or engaged artworks, but... I succeeded to find a game created by a non binary couple: No longer home <a href="https://humblegrove.com/" target="_blank">https://humblegrove.com/</a> as well as the games created by KC on npckc.Site about trangender women going to hotsprings... Both are working under nicknames and protect their identities, knowing that one of them has a Korean name which is quiet difficult now in Japan, regarding the hard relationships between Korea, China, and Japan.</font></div><div dir="ltr"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif">I am now in India for one month, I will visit Pune as well as <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar and Bangalore and Goa, if you know any artist working with game engines or around game culture, or game makers, or media activists, feminists, queer, hacktivists, please let me know, I am here to meet and interview them;)</span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">Also, Shu Lea asked me to give you an update of the next steps of this world tour as well as the dates of my visits if by any chance we can meet there or if you know people I should meet:</span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">India: 30 sept - 7 nov</span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">Colombia: Bogota 8 nov - 18 nov</span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">In Bogota I am curating a feminist and queer art and game exhibition with the artists: Mathilde Guerrero, Nora Renaud, Nadia Granados, Tatyana Zambrano, Esteban Betancur at the French Alliance</span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">Argentina : Buenos Aires 18 nov 5 december</span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">I will curate an indie game exhibition as part of Game On! El Arte de Juego in Buenos Aires with the following games: Replica by Somi (a game about surveillance) </span></font>from Korea<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify;font-family:arial,sans-serif">, Coffee Talk by Fahmi Hesni and She and the light Bearer by Brigitta Rena from Indonesia, Devotion by Red Candles Studio from Taïwan and Make it rain (about corruption) by Cloud Colour from Thailand. I will also be part of GAIA (Game Arts International Assembly)</span></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">I will also curate an exibition of games and VR experiences made by women I met during my world tour in Korea, TaIwan, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan and as soon as I will have close my program I will publish it.</span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">Brasil : 6 december - 3 january</span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">Mexico : 3 january - 29 january</span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify">Nigeria, </span></font><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Ivory Coast, Senegal, Egypt, Lebanon, Israël and Palestine: from february 11 to end of June, I am currently working on the exact schedule. </span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify;font-family:arial,sans-serif">For all these countries I am visiting, again, all the contacts you could have will be more than helpful: </span>artist working with game engines or around game culture, or game makers, or media activists, feminists, queer, hacktivists</div><div><br></div><div>Thank you so much in advance and really looking forward meeting more of you during my tour as well as your friends all around the world,</div><div><br></div><div>Again Shu Lea, thank you, it was a wonderful month, I learned a lot reading all the threads and discussions,</div><div>lets stay unfinished!!!</div><div><br></div><div>Isabelle</div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);text-align:justify"><br></span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif" src="http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif"></a><br>Isabelle Arvers<br>Curator, art critic and artist<br>Wattsap: +33 661 998 386<br><a href="http://www.isabellearvers.com" target="_blank">http://www.isabellearvers.com</a><br>Director of Kareron<a href="http://www.kareron.com" target="_blank"> www.kareron.com</a></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ArtGamesWorldTour" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/ArtGamesWorldTour</a><br>twitter: @zabarvers</div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://instagram.com/zabarvers" target="_blank">instagram.com/zabarvers</a><br><a href="http://youtube.com/zabarvers" target="_blank">youtube.com/zabarvers</a><br><a href="https://vimeo.com/isabellearvers" target="_blank">https://vimeo.com/isabellearvers</a><br>Skype ID: iarvers</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">Le jeu. 26 sept. 2019 à 13:53, isabelle arvers <<a href="mailto:iarvers@gmail.com" target="_blank">iarvers@gmail.com</a>> a écrit :<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto">Dear Ana<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I will read and discover all the texts and links you just sent me. Thank you so much for your answer and these insights. Hopefully things and mentalities have slightly evolved in terms of representation and diversity. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">About the otherness and identity issue in videogames I curated some years ago this machinima exhibition <a href="http://www.isabellearvers.com/2012/08/identity-otherness-games-machinima/" target="_blank">http://www.isabellearvers.com/2012/08/identity-otherness-games-machinima/</a> for which I directed my first machinima I is an other in which I am a black man talking about our multiple identities and also about the possibility to consider the other in videogames differently than only a villain a terrorist or an enemy. <a href="https://youtu.be/04l2tAgc7Hs" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/04l2tAgc7Hs</a></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I just interviewed today a non binary game maker who will soon publish the game No longer home à visual novel game that deals with gender identity as well as borders and migration in a very autobiographical style . It really made my day as I also like a lot the aesthetic of the game and the subtle way to adress those issues.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">In Korea I also met the Gamebridzy studio that works on the game The Wednesday which deals with comfort women and the Japanese colonization past of Korea. The heroin of this game is one of the survivor Kim Bok Dong who in the game has the power to go back in time in order to save themselves... <a href="http://immersion-revue.fr/isabellearvers-coree" target="_blank">http://immersion-revue.fr/isabellearvers-coree</a></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">These are just few exemples on games are attempting to give their own point of view on real facts as well being an attempt to change our perception and vision of the world... </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Best</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Isabelle </div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, 26 Sep 2019, 14:02 Ana Valdés, <<a href="mailto:agora158@gmail.com" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">agora158@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<div><div dir="auto">Hi Isabelle and others. Thank you for your interesting work about games and postcolonial narrative.</div></div><div dir="auto">I started to review computer games at the very start, when the computers were Commodore 64, Amiga and Atari, long before PC and consoles were used to play.</div><div dir="auto">I travelled to Palo Alto and interviewed Brenda Laurel one of the pioneers at computer games aimed to women. She was sponsored by Paul Allen and his Interval Research financed her projects.</div><div dir="auto">The games at that time were sexist with an old fashioned narrative. The women were princesses to be saved or villains.</div><div dir="auto">Lara Croft was the first heroine but she played a male game based on muscles and weapons.</div><div dir="auto">I travelled to Damascus and met the people behind Muslim games where the missions were aimed to destroy the old enemy Israel. But the games were not innovative they repeated only the structure of the traditional war games but changed only the flags and the villains to kill or maim.</div><div dir="auto">Ana </div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">tors 26 sep. 2019 kl. 00:09 skrev isabelle arvers <<a href="mailto:iarvers@gmail.com" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">iarvers@gmail.com</a>>:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<div dir="ltr">
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">Hi,</font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next"><br></font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">Thank you so much Shu Lea
for this introduction and also for this possibility to talk about my
art and games world tour, following these 4 amazing weeks of
discussion. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">To celebrate my 20 years as curator in the fields of art
and video games, I embarked in June 2019 on a world tour that takes
me to over 15 countries: South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand,
Japan, India, Colombia, Argentina, Brasil, Mexico, Nigeria, Ivory
Coast, Senegal, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">I am meeting digital
artists and independent game developers in order to come back with a
richer, non Western-centric and more nuanced overview of the
different ways gaming communities across the world are exploring the
issue of diversity, with an emphasis on female, feminist, queer and
decolonial practices.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">My expedition also
investigates how we can create new concepts of “working together”
and new connections within the worlds of game art, independent games,
games DIY art.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">In each country I am
visiting, I interview artists, game makers, curators, activists,
hackers and also give lectures and workshops about the relationship
between art and video games. During these workshops, I use
independent, experimental and artistic games to make movies or hybrid
artworks. I use some of the independent games I am finding on my
world tour as a way to promote these games made in Korea, Taiwan,
Indonesia, Thailand, which sometimes are still in the demo state. Here is a machinima made during a workshop in Thailand by a teenager : </font><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwlXtjTFXbw" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwlXtjTFXbw</a></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">The aims are to break
boundaries between the art and the game world and also to promote
alternative, independent and experimental games in order to enhance
diversity – gender, ethnicity and representation - in video games
and to promote the use of games as a pedagogic tool and as a tool of
expression to raise awareness about social, cultural, political and
environmental issues. Cf my interview on these issues with Audrey Tang,
Minister of Digital in Taiwan : <a href="https://youtu.be/sZ1WvVhzPgA" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/sZ1WvVhzPgA</a></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">By meeting media artists
and indie game developers and then writing articles about their games
or distributing podcasts of their interviews is also a way to better
understand a local culture, history and politics through the lens of
video games and artworks. In each country, I try to focus on projects that
deal with control and submission in South Korea, or environmental
issues or animism in Taiwan, mysticism in Indonesia,
crypto-colonialism in Thailand, extreme right shintoism in Japan,
etc. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">I monthly write articles in french for the online reviews Poptronics, Immersion and
Usbek & Rica
<a href="http://www.isabellearvers.com/category/art-and-games-world-tour/" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.isabellearvers.com/category/art-and-games-world-tour/</a>
but I would love to find an english spoken media interested to
publish my articles in english as all my interviews are in english. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">To better understand the
focus on women, feminist queer and decolonial practivces, here is an
extract of the interview given to Régine Debatty for
We-make-money-not-art : « Women are still underrepresented
in the industry and even if things changed a lot after the Gamergate
in the US, there is still a need to change the representation of
women in videogames and to give more attention to games created by
women or trans persons. In western countries, there is a quite new
consciousness about it, with conferences on diversity in events like
the Game Developers Conference or at Amaze, but I am really
interested to discover and meet other feminists in the non western
world as well as LGBTQI organizations around the world in order to
connect with other realities and create new paths and connections
between networks.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">I worked a lot abroad but
it was a “western” abroad: I mostly worked in the US, in Europe,
in Canada and in Australia. Western and white…</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">There is a strong network
for our practices in the western world, but diversity is a very
recent concept in these worlds. It is great to feel that recently it
even became a new “trend”, a “tendency”, people even
mentioned feminism or diversity as a new “fashion”… Interesting
but dangerous when you see the power of evangelism growing in
countries like Brasil, USA or South Korea as well as abortion bans
around the world. Our emancipation is still young and might be weak
so we need to defend it and to connect around the world.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">Trying to promote
decolonial practices is something very important when you think about
games as a globalized culture. When I traveled to Brazil or Egypt to
give machinima workshops, I was surprised to discover that youngsters
were all playing to the same games: GTA, FIFA, Call of Duty,
Fortnite, etc… even if the local culture was powerful. In my
workshops, I tried to push youngsters to play Indie Games or games
related to their local culture, but it appeared as less fascinating
to them… less “beautiful”. It made me realize that we almost
play the same games everywhere, which mean that the moral, ethics,
concepts of these games are globalized. So, are they universal?
Universalization is a colonialist heritage. I want to decentralize my
point of view in order to tell an other story of videogames and art
and create new types and axes of collaborations. »
</font><a href="https://we-make-money-not-art.com/universalization-is-a-colonialist-heritage-an-interview-with-video-game-curator-isabelle-arvers/?fbclid=IwAR1O8T7L0-aCVbc1lQgf0vp3q1O6Jdei8NFWvM9geovZcuklh4FDHVi71Bc" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://we-make-money-not-art.com/universalization-is-a-colonialist-heritage-an-interview-with-video-game-curator-isabelle-arvers/?fbclid=IwAR1O8T7L0-aCVbc1lQgf0vp3q1O6Jdei8NFWvM9geovZcuklh4FDHVi71Bc</a></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">This project is giving
birth to art and games exhibitions in Bogota (French Alliance),
Buenos Aires (Game on!) and Enschede (Overkill Festival) in November
as well as in the Digital Museum of Cairo next year. An international
conference on post-colonial games studies will be held at la Sorbonne
in fall 2020. I am also currently working on the organisation of
other projects in the countries visited for the upcoming years. Any
help, feedbacks, advices, etc are more than welcome as it is a one
person project that entirely depends on other people collaborations,
meetings and contacts. I am currently in Japan and will fly to India
on sunday.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">Thank you,</font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next"><br></font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">Isabelle Arvers </font>
</p><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif" src="http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif"></a><br>Isabelle Arvers<br>Curator, art critic and artist<br>Wattsap: +33 661 998 386<br><a href="http://www.isabellearvers.com" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.isabellearvers.com</a><br>Director of Kareron<a href="http://www.kareron.com" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank"> www.kareron.com</a></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ArtGamesWorldTour" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/ArtGamesWorldTour</a><br>twitter: @zabarvers</div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://instagram.com/zabarvers" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">instagram.com/zabarvers</a><br><a href="http://youtube.com/zabarvers" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">youtube.com/zabarvers</a><br><a href="https://vimeo.com/isabellearvers" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://vimeo.com/isabellearvers</a><br>Skype ID: isabellearvers</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></blockquote></div></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><a href="https://anavaldes.wordpress.com/" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://anavaldes.wordpress.com/</a><br></div><div><a href="http://www.twitter.com/caravia158" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">www.twitter.com/caravia158</a><br><a href="http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/</a><br><a href="http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia</a><br><a href="http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0</a><br><br><br><br></div><br><div><a href="http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><br><br>cell Sweden +4670-3213370<br>cell Uruguay +598-99470758<br><br><br>"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. <br>— Leonardo da Vinci<div></div><div></div><div></div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div></div></div></div></div>
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empyre forum<br>
<a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br>
<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></blockquote></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, 26 Sep 2019, 14:02 Ana Valdés, <<a href="mailto:agora158@gmail.com" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">agora158@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<div><div dir="auto">Hi Isabelle and others. Thank you for your interesting work about games and postcolonial narrative.</div></div><div dir="auto">I started to review computer games at the very start, when the computers were Commodore 64, Amiga and Atari, long before PC and consoles were used to play.</div><div dir="auto">I travelled to Palo Alto and interviewed Brenda Laurel one of the pioneers at computer games aimed to women. She was sponsored by Paul Allen and his Interval Research financed her projects.</div><div dir="auto">The games at that time were sexist with an old fashioned narrative. The women were princesses to be saved or villains.</div><div dir="auto">Lara Croft was the first heroine but she played a male game based on muscles and weapons.</div><div dir="auto">I travelled to Damascus and met the people behind Muslim games where the missions were aimed to destroy the old enemy Israel. But the games were not innovative they repeated only the structure of the traditional war games but changed only the flags and the villains to kill or maim.</div><div dir="auto">Ana </div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">tors 26 sep. 2019 kl. 00:09 skrev isabelle arvers <<a href="mailto:iarvers@gmail.com" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">iarvers@gmail.com</a>>:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<div dir="ltr">
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">Hi,</font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next"><br></font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">Thank you so much Shu Lea
for this introduction and also for this possibility to talk about my
art and games world tour, following these 4 amazing weeks of
discussion. </font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">To celebrate my 20 years as curator in the fields of art
and video games, I embarked in June 2019 on a world tour that takes
me to over 15 countries: South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand,
Japan, India, Colombia, Argentina, Brasil, Mexico, Nigeria, Ivory
Coast, Senegal, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">I am meeting digital
artists and independent game developers in order to come back with a
richer, non Western-centric and more nuanced overview of the
different ways gaming communities across the world are exploring the
issue of diversity, with an emphasis on female, feminist, queer and
decolonial practices.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">My expedition also
investigates how we can create new concepts of “working together”
and new connections within the worlds of game art, independent games,
games DIY art.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">In each country I am
visiting, I interview artists, game makers, curators, activists,
hackers and also give lectures and workshops about the relationship
between art and video games. During these workshops, I use
independent, experimental and artistic games to make movies or hybrid
artworks. I use some of the independent games I am finding on my
world tour as a way to promote these games made in Korea, Taiwan,
Indonesia, Thailand, which sometimes are still in the demo state. Here is a machinima made during a workshop in Thailand by a teenager : </font><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwlXtjTFXbw" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwlXtjTFXbw</a></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">The aims are to break
boundaries between the art and the game world and also to promote
alternative, independent and experimental games in order to enhance
diversity – gender, ethnicity and representation - in video games
and to promote the use of games as a pedagogic tool and as a tool of
expression to raise awareness about social, cultural, political and
environmental issues. Cf my interview on these issues with Audrey Tang,
Minister of Digital in Taiwan : <a href="https://youtu.be/sZ1WvVhzPgA" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/sZ1WvVhzPgA</a></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">By meeting media artists
and indie game developers and then writing articles about their games
or distributing podcasts of their interviews is also a way to better
understand a local culture, history and politics through the lens of
video games and artworks. In each country, I try to focus on projects that
deal with control and submission in South Korea, or environmental
issues or animism in Taiwan, mysticism in Indonesia,
crypto-colonialism in Thailand, extreme right shintoism in Japan,
etc. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">I monthly write articles in french for the online reviews Poptronics, Immersion and
Usbek & Rica
<a href="http://www.isabellearvers.com/category/art-and-games-world-tour/" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.isabellearvers.com/category/art-and-games-world-tour/</a>
but I would love to find an english spoken media interested to
publish my articles in english as all my interviews are in english. </font>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">To better understand the
focus on women, feminist queer and decolonial practivces, here is an
extract of the interview given to Régine Debatty for
We-make-money-not-art : « Women are still underrepresented
in the industry and even if things changed a lot after the Gamergate
in the US, there is still a need to change the representation of
women in videogames and to give more attention to games created by
women or trans persons. In western countries, there is a quite new
consciousness about it, with conferences on diversity in events like
the Game Developers Conference or at Amaze, but I am really
interested to discover and meet other feminists in the non western
world as well as LGBTQI organizations around the world in order to
connect with other realities and create new paths and connections
between networks.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">I worked a lot abroad but
it was a “western” abroad: I mostly worked in the US, in Europe,
in Canada and in Australia. Western and white…</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">There is a strong network
for our practices in the western world, but diversity is a very
recent concept in these worlds. It is great to feel that recently it
even became a new “trend”, a “tendency”, people even
mentioned feminism or diversity as a new “fashion”… Interesting
but dangerous when you see the power of evangelism growing in
countries like Brasil, USA or South Korea as well as abortion bans
around the world. Our emancipation is still young and might be weak
so we need to defend it and to connect around the world.</font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">Trying to promote
decolonial practices is something very important when you think about
games as a globalized culture. When I traveled to Brazil or Egypt to
give machinima workshops, I was surprised to discover that youngsters
were all playing to the same games: GTA, FIFA, Call of Duty,
Fortnite, etc… even if the local culture was powerful. In my
workshops, I tried to push youngsters to play Indie Games or games
related to their local culture, but it appeared as less fascinating
to them… less “beautiful”. It made me realize that we almost
play the same games everywhere, which mean that the moral, ethics,
concepts of these games are globalized. So, are they universal?
Universalization is a colonialist heritage. I want to decentralize my
point of view in order to tell an other story of videogames and art
and create new types and axes of collaborations. »
</font><a href="https://we-make-money-not-art.com/universalization-is-a-colonialist-heritage-an-interview-with-video-game-curator-isabelle-arvers/?fbclid=IwAR1O8T7L0-aCVbc1lQgf0vp3q1O6Jdei8NFWvM9geovZcuklh4FDHVi71Bc" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://we-make-money-not-art.com/universalization-is-a-colonialist-heritage-an-interview-with-video-game-curator-isabelle-arvers/?fbclid=IwAR1O8T7L0-aCVbc1lQgf0vp3q1O6Jdei8NFWvM9geovZcuklh4FDHVi71Bc</a></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">This project is giving
birth to art and games exhibitions in Bogota (French Alliance),
Buenos Aires (Game on!) and Enschede (Overkill Festival) in November
as well as in the Digital Museum of Cairo next year. An international
conference on post-colonial games studies will be held at la Sorbonne
in fall 2020. I am also currently working on the organisation of
other projects in the countries visited for the upcoming years. Any
help, feedbacks, advices, etc are more than welcome as it is a one
person project that entirely depends on other people collaborations,
meetings and contacts. I am currently in Japan and will fly to India
on sunday.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">Thank you,</font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next"><br></font></p><p style="margin-bottom:0.25cm;line-height:120%" align="justify"><font face="Avenir Next">Isabelle Arvers </font>
</p><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif" src="http://www.isabellearvers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/animLogo.gif"></a><br>Isabelle Arvers<br>Curator, art critic and artist<br>Wattsap: +33 661 998 386<br><a href="http://www.isabellearvers.com" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.isabellearvers.com</a><br>Director of Kareron<a href="http://www.kareron.com" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank"> www.kareron.com</a></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ArtGamesWorldTour" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/ArtGamesWorldTour</a><br>twitter: @zabarvers</div><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://instagram.com/zabarvers" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">instagram.com/zabarvers</a><br><a href="http://youtube.com/zabarvers" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">youtube.com/zabarvers</a><br><a href="https://vimeo.com/isabellearvers" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://vimeo.com/isabellearvers</a><br>Skype ID: isabellearvers</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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empyre forum<br>
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<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></blockquote></div></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><a href="https://anavaldes.wordpress.com/" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">https://anavaldes.wordpress.com/</a><br></div><div><a href="http://www.twitter.com/caravia158" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">www.twitter.com/caravia158</a><br><a href="http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/</a><br><a href="http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia</a><br><a href="http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0</a><br><br><br><br></div><br><div><a href="http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><br><br>cell Sweden +4670-3213370<br>cell Uruguay +598-99470758<br><br><br>"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. <br>— Leonardo da Vinci<div></div><div></div><div></div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div></div></div></div></div>
_______________________________________________<br>
empyre forum<br>
<a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br>
<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></blockquote></div></div>
</blockquote></div></div>
_______________________________________________<br>
empyre forum<br>
<a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" target="_blank">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br>
<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><a href="http://www.jamikaajalon.com" target="_blank">www.jamikaajalon.com</a><a href="http://www.zenzile.com" target="_blank"></a><br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/jamikaajalon.artistpage" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/jamikaajalon.artistpage</a><br></div><div><a href="http://www.itchysilk.com" target="_blank">www.itchysilk.com</a></div><div><a href="http://inter-zones.org/" rel="noreferrer" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://inter-zones.org</a> <br></div></div></div></div></div></div>