medi@terra
7th International Art & Technology Festival

4 – 8 October 06
Athens, Greece
@ Technopolis, Pireos 100

www.mediaterra.org

What role do videogames play in our lives today? As the boundaries between the virtual and the real blur more and more in the new gaming worlds we have come to inhabit, new conditions arise. Videogames encompass ideas, narratives, points of view and ideologies. They form images, they develop new aesthetics and offer new ways of understanding. Videogames express and reflect today’s world – they are a part of it. New identities appear, new roles are defined, new mentalities are being born. With the theme Gaming Realities Medi@terra 06 aims to explore the different dimensions and developments in the gaming fields and the impact they have on the different fields of society today. This year’s programme features the following activities and events

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Conference ‘Gaming Realities: the Challenge of Digital Culture’
A 3 day conference [6 – 8 October 06] with guest and participant speakers [game designers, artists, researchers, developers, journalists, writers, theorists] who are invited to adopt a stance and express their thoughts on the crucial issues and concerns about videogames today.

Key topics:
Gaming Identities * Gaming Worlds * Game politics * Gaming environments * Gaming Narratives * Gaming Technologies * Game as Art & Gaming Art

Keynote speakers:
Espen Aarseth - Matt Adams (Blast Theory) - Tom & Vicky Arundel (Introversion Software) - Adrian David Cheok - Julian Dibbell - Gonzalo Frasca - Margarete Jahrmann - Kristian Lukic - Frans Mayra - Micheal Mateas - Julian Oliver - Celia Pearce - Eric Zimmerman

[online registration available at www.mediaterra.org]

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Exhibition ‘Alter Gaming’
Game installations * Political games * Game mods * Text adventures * Game multiplayer environments * Machinimas * Sound based games

30 game projects by independent creators and artists from the international field that work on the new media and explore the possibilities given by the videogaming platforms. Different ‘unseen’ sides of today’s gaming realm are proposed with games characterised for their interdisciplinary character, the socio-political messages they convey, the technical and aesthetic innovations they introduce and the subversion of game standards imposed by the gaming industry.

Featuring games by:
Christoph Anthes - Blast Theory - Benjamin Chang - Dimi Christopoulos – Devart - Eastwood Group - Sylvia Eckermann - Gerald Nestler - Christof Cargnelli - Oliver Irschitz – Fiambrera - David Gauthier - Henri Marino - Laurie Prevot - Jean Batiste Spieser - Troy Innocent - Introversion Software - The Ludic Society - The mamayans - Michael Mateas & Andrew Stern - Panagiotis Koutlemanis - Dimitris Dinieas - Axel Stockburger - Persuasive Games – Molleindustria - Nick Montfort - Personal Cinema - Persuasive Games – ATI - Prof. Marie-Helene Tramus - Cedric Plessier - Orna Portugaly - Daphna Talithman - Sharon Younger - Serious Games Interactive - Axel Stockburger - Tale of Tales - Julian Oliver - Steven Pickles – sheismartha - Alexandros Plakidas Dasios - University of the Aegean

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Screenings/ La petite Anthologie de Machinimas
A compilation by Xavier Lardy (founder of machinima.fr) presenting some of the most interesting machinima works created in the last years. A collaboration of Paris Cinema, the Forum des Images and Machinima.fr that premiered in Paris last July.

Including projects by:
Ethan Vogt - Bernie Burns - Dave Lloyd and Matt Kelland - Pierce Portocarrero - Hugh Hancock - Ezra Ferguson and Terran Gregory - Katherine Anna Kang - Paul Marino - Friedrich Kirschner - G Hoffmann - Alex Chan

>> PLUS!
Special Sound performances & parties
by the Videogame Orchestra
Mathias Fuchs & Oliver Farshi
that mix old video game tunes with contemporary electronic sounds offering a different unique navigation in an audiovisual environment

More information & details
www.mediaterra.org
or contact us
info@mediaterra.org
tel +302106460748
fax +302106470069

Organised by
Fournos, Center for Digital Culture

With the collaboration and support of
Hellenic Ministry of Culture, General Secretariat of Youth, British Council, American Embassy, French Institute of Athens, Embassy of Switzerland, Embassy of Austria, Technopolis, AKTO