Mortal Kombat Dance Dance to the Death!

On Thursday Oct 29 at 6.30pm somewhere in the San Jose State Art building, it all went down. Fourteen brutal rounds of a no-holds-barred video-game up-mashing amazed and horrified onlookers. By 8pm the smoke had cleared. Only one mortal stood victorious.

This video is an attempt to re-cap that momentous night, in about 3.5 minutes. Our video and audio was mad glitchy from what I can only assume to be a lethal combination of smooth moves and toasty uppercuts, making editing an intense process. Although he doesn’t know it, once again Tettix saved my ass.

Music: Tettix – Dragon Punch
tettix.net/albums/tkoep.html

The Tournament event went fantastically. Thank you to everyone for coming out. I leave you now with a fun little clip of a friendly pre-game warm up match between Namphoung and I. You can see the fight on the monitor in the background.

I’d like to thank The Cadre Laboratory for New Media, The San Jose State Game Development Club, and James Morgan’s Furlough Days.

The San Jose State Game Development Club highlight reel

“We have traveled great distances.”

Shea, a CS student and I burnt the midnight oil putting together a highlight reel of games made in the last few semesters. The Game Development Club at SJSU puts together student game challenges with themes such as “pong”, “platformer”, “shmup”, “tower defense” and a few that are open to interpretation. We also have highlights from two of our guest speakers Jameson Hsu from Mochi Media and Shannon Posniewski of Cryptic Studios. A lot of our footage was a bit poor but we did what we could. I am a little proud of it so I thought I’d show it off. Enjoy.
Music: Tettix – Technology Crisis II

Also, here is a picture of Mega Man shooting Cultural Irrelevance by Marek

“hope, humanity and actual art”

Someone at the OC Weekly likes us.

There have been many articles about WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon, but few authors have delved down to specifically address individual work. However, Dave Barton at the Orange County Weekly recently wrote a critical review of the work at Laguna Art Museum but added there are “A few glimmers of hope”. The article closed with a very positive review of our piece, /hug.

“The piece that made the biggest impression on me was an installation that comes from a collective called /hug (slashhug), whose volunteers seek out and assist “noobs” (new players) who may otherwise get “ganked” (gang killed) by more experienced players. Hippy-dippy though it may be, the group’s preference for an anarchist spirit of cooperation and service over rape, pillage and competition seems such the antithesis of the stereotyped fanboy, I couldn’t help but have admiration for their insurgency. They offer a much-needed critique—and the lone voice of dissent—to the game, as well as much of the exhibition.”

Orange county Weekly: Arts – Boobs, Bloodshed and Some Actual Art at Laguna Art’s ‘World of Warcraft’ Show

hugs for WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon

/hug at Laguna’s WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon opens to much win! Many thanks to Grace Kook-Anderson who was incredibly helpful and absolutely wonderful to work with. We had a blast at the opening parties last weekend and are just now getting our heads together again. The week we spent installing rather than sleeping didn’t help much either. Tons people showed up, to see WoW concept art, WoW fan art, and WoW based art. It was a unique mix of museum patrons, press, and blizzard execs. The green grog was free flowing and I even ran into some old friends that are now associates of the blizz corporate machine. The press conference was hilarious, the highpoint for me being when one reporter asked the blizzard crew, “What will you do when the Internet is full?” The show itself was amazing. The juxtaposition of work from professional artists, cooperate artists, and skilled fans emphasizes the extent that this game has permeated our culture. From sketches to machinima funerals, patrons witness the ramifications of a shared experience that has reached a global level. I am currently organizing volunteers to walk visitors through some fundamental /hug missions such as our fishing for food drive. I am also working on getting myself back down to Laguna to do some live outreach during blizzcon. The Show has only just begun.

Mad Press:
Kotaku
Game Set Watch
The Escapist
The O.C. Register: article 1, article 2
Rhizome
The O.C. Artblog
INC Gamers
Digicult
The Mag LA

Me doing a speed run of the /hug exhibit right after we completed installation.

/hug Opens at Laguna!

My 3rd Faction friends and I are now in the midst of finishing up installation on our grand debut of /hug. For the past several months we have performing outreach events around the Silicone Valley and Demon Soul. All of these events have now culminated in our big unveiling at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach California. The exhibit, WoW: Emergent Media Phenomenon, opens this weekend and runs through October 4th. If you are in the SoCal region come check it out. Laguna will be hosting WoW related art events all month in conjunction with the show.
…And now, a message from /hug.